A Winter ONEderland
Earlier this month we had the pleasure of celebrating our sweet son's first birthday! It was definitely a surreal moment; a whole year has passed and the little surprise we were waiting for last year is now a stumbling little eating machine!
I knew that at least for Elias' first birthday we would do something wintery themed but I'm sure it'll be the last of that for a long while now (enter: Star Wars & superheroes!) so I took full advantage of it knowing full well I'll have zero creative control in the years to come.
A December birthday naturally inspires ideas of snowflakes and barren trees while gingerbread and fluffy marshmallows swirled in my head as I pieced together the dessert table for the big day. The venue was adorned in snowflakes and the backdrop for the dessert table had images of Elias growing up each month. We were even lucky to have a snowy day on the day of his birthday party so the landscape was perfect. Kids brought snow suits to play in the snow and it was an all around good time!
Soft and chewy gingerbread cookies (recipe) were made to enjoy and the kids at the party got to decorate their own to take home too!
The cake was a delicious vanilla cake filled with luscious layers of vanilla buttercream and homemade caramel sauce. I can't believe how many rave reviews it got! To save on time, I purchased a gingerbread village and used the faces of the houses to decorate the cake. Such a fun and easy way to dress up a cake for the holidays too!
Adding little sugar snowflakes to the cake was the perfect touch. For the kids (although I'm pretty sure they all ended up with a slice of cake too) I whipped up some vanilla cupcakes topped with snow-dusted trees! I used mini ice cream ones and green dyed icing with tip number 352 to achieve the look.
Marshmallows are super popular in our house and its not rare to find our kids with a bowl full of minis for a snack. I thought I'd try my hand at making a homemade version of my absolute favourite flavour: coconut! The recipe was super easy to follow and they turned out exactly as expected. If you followed my insta-story when I created them, you'll know that you DEFINITELY need a stand mixer to make them. My Kitchen-Aid whisk was unfortunately out of commission when I decided I'd make these, so you can imagine my stress when I learned I'd have to hold a hand mixer for 15 minutes and feel it get to a questionably hot temperature. LOL. In the end, it was worth it. When the guests got free reign over the dessert table, they did NOT last long!
Finally, a classic Cake Mama party can't end without guests going home with custom sugar cookies. For years we have moved away from the traditional goody bag and replaced it with a cookie to take home. So far, none of the guests have ever complained about it, so I think we won't fix a good thing. 😉
The birthday boy NEVER shies away from food so it was no surprise that he devoured his little smash cupcake in no time! It was a wonderful party and he was spoiled to bits. Happy Birthday Elias!
xo, Jzabela