ONE!

Happy Birthday to my sweet, baby boy!  I can't believe a whole year has already gone by.  It has been the most wonderful, exhilarating, and exhausting year of my life.  I wouldn't change one thing about it.  In honor of my baby's birthday we celebrated with a Peanuts themed dessert table. 

 Happy Birthday Charlie!

 Candy jars filled with  lemon drops, Hershey Kisses - Cookies n' Cream , and licorice.

Cake Push Pops  These push pops are simple to make and were a hit at the party.  Simply bake a cake, cut into small cubes, and alternate with layers of cool whip or frosting.  Top with a garnish.  I ordered my push pops from Sweet Lulu.  Sweet Lulu is a great place to order party supplies. 

Charlie Brown inspired sugar cookies.

 Lucy football truffles.  Remember in the Peanuts comics how Lucy always "holds" the ball for Charlie to kick?  These are so de-lish and easy to make.  You can find the "How To" from Bakerella. 

Beverages in the theme colors; red, blue, and yellow.  In addition, paper drinking straws from Sweet Lulu.

 And last, but not least the Snoopy Cake!  This took me hours to make but I was very happy with how it turned out.  The cake was alternating layers of white and chocolate cake filled with buttercream frosting.  Unfortunately, my little guy was not a fan of cake this year!

Another view of the cake.

Snoopy and Woodstock.

I love you Charlie!  Here's to another year of amazing memories.

4-0

Happy 40th birthday to my cousins Amy & Ryan! 

Here are some pics of the cake I made for their birthday celebration. 

I started by making two 6" and two 8" round cakes and leveling them with a knife.

Then I filled the cakes with a homemade chocolate ganache and buttercream icing.

Next I iced the cakes.

I recruited my husband to help roll out the fondant.

Once the fondant was rolled, I covered both of the cakes.

I then cut off the extra fondant and smoothed out the bumps.

For the decorations I used these black Wilton Sugar Sheets.  I found these at Michaels and they come in a variety of colors. 

It was super easy to use and looks really nice on the cake.  To start I peeled the sugar sheet off the plastic.

I then used a cutting board (a clean one, of course) to cut black strips for the cake.

Once the strips were cut, I used a paint brush to brush each strip with water so it would stick to the cake.

After brushing the strips with water, I placed them one by one onto the bottom layer of the cake.

After the bottom layer of the cake was decorated, I stacked the smaller layer on top.

I rolled white balls of fondant to use as the border around the top layer of the cake.  I used a little bit of frosting to hold them in place. 

For the top layer of the cake, I used a knife to cut 4s and 0s from the black sugar sheets.  I added rolled white fondant balls to the top of the cake and added the fun, twirly wires with hanging jewels to the top of the cake.  You can find the wires and jewels at Michaels also.  I think they make a fun addition to any cake.