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Friday, March 11, 2011

My Baby Turns 1 - Part 2

One of the things I had the most difficult time deciding was a party theme for Reid.  Unlike his older brother at this age, he really didn't have any interests.  He paid no attention to the TV, with the small exception of the opening and singing numbers of Yo Gabba Gabba.  He didn't have a toy or a book that he played with a lot. Nothing... so after much internal deliberation, I decided to go with a fairly generic first birthday theme.

So next up was deciding on the cake... well this was going to be easy... stars and circles in the colors of the plate!  The particulars of the design would be decided as I was decorating.  As for the inside of the cake, I get to make that decision.  Since Reid and I were sharing the party as my husband and older son have done for the past few years, it is law in our house that the cake is decorated to fit the child's theme, but with the cake flavors the adult wants because our kids don't like cake ... GASP!

Anyway, because I still had other work to do for the week, I decided to try to combine things as much as possible. The top tier was banana because we had a bunch of bananas that were past their prime and I hate throwing them out.  The top tier was decided for me since I had special requests for tastings and just used the left over batter to make the top tier.  For the first time, I put two different flavors in the same tier... not that this is something new or exciting, just never tried it.  So the top tier ended up being cinnamon bun and blueberry muffin.  For the icing, I decided on Swiss Meringue Buttercream.  It's something that I just started to make and had yet to cover a cake in it.... what better time to experiment!

Covering the cake went fairly well... it's definitely not as perfect as using an American Buttercream, but still not bad.  I don't want to think about covering an evil square cake in it, but I am sure it will happen at some point.  The biggest difference, besides the taste and preparation, is the work time.  Swiss Meringue doesn't crust like many American buttercreams do, so you can spend a lot more time trying to screw up... I mean fix things.  Overall I would give the cake "smoothness" a 6 out of 10.

As for the design, I just cut out a ton of stars and circles... I was planning on just randomly throwing them on the cake, but after putting the first few on I changed my mind.  Instead I grouped them in a series of hills and valleys.  So here's the cake in all it's glory... I did learn a lesson though... putting that many stars on wires causes them to be heavy and not do what you wanted them too :)

As usual I over prepared and made some cupcakes too...








These were just chocolate and vanilla... I know some folks are opposed to the outrageous flavors in the cake so I had these for the kids and those adults with very specific palates.

As for the rest of the food, we had way too much but I don't like the thought of anyone going home hungry.  We actually had so much leftover pizza that we gave away a 1.5 pizzas and still ate it for 5 days afterward (I don't want to look at pizza for at least a month).  We had a ton of leftover cake too and well unfortunately I think it will end up in the garbage (it pains me to do this, so the leftovers are still in the fridge).

Overall I think folks had a good time... and I am happy the "big" 1st birthday party is over... the next one or two will be low-key family affairs... and then onto the parties with all the school kids.... YEAH (please see the sarcasm in there).  Speaking of... I need to decide what we are doing for Aaron's (the older son) birthday...

3 comments:

  1. It was an amazing cake, I am still dreaming about the cinnamon bun cake flavor! yum-o!!

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  2. I love his cake! Great job!!!

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  3. That looks awesome! I wish I knew what I was doing so I could have made E's cake pretty - or even interesting! I love banana! Good choice for sure!

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