Reese’s Birthday

We had a pirate party for Reese today. He’s five years old, I cannot believe it!

I had so much fun putting together his pirate party! I just don’t have it in me to go totally all out for a kids party, but we had some cool things! When the kids arrived we marched them upstairs and had them ‘fish’ through this vent we have (essentially a hole in the floor) for a bandana, eye patch, tattoo and mustache. (The birthday boy got a Captain’s hat too.) Then we came down and tried to get their pictures in front of the flag. Being as we had 7 kids between ages 8-2, well, that didn’t go over real well.

I just have to show you this again. I’m just so please with how it turned out :) P.S. It really is centered in the middle of the fabric, it’s just scrunched over to the left in this picture.

I made the flag from a 2 yard long piece of black twill. I went online and found a picture of a skull and crossbones and just blew it up on my printer. Then I traced it onto freezer paper, cut out the stencil and ironed it onto the fabric. Then I used regular acrylic craft paint and filled in the stencil. (I did two coats because I wanted it really bright.) The freezer paper just pulled right off afterward and left me with a perfect skull and crossbones! I’ve seen people all over Blogland do cool projects with freezer paper and was a little skittish about trying it, but MAN! It was a piece of cake! It probably took me about 2 hours start to finish, including the time it took to hem it and make it into a curtain. (It’s destined for the window in Reese’s room.)

After the kids were all pirated up, we played a really clever version of ‘Pin the Tail on the Donkey’. I found the directions online somewhere, I’ve already forgotten where, sorry! Anyhow, you draw a treasure map. . .

Disclaimer: I did not draw this. I can draw stick figures. . . poorly. It’s awesome having an artist in residence!! Thank you, Jay!

On the back of the picture you affix a large X. Then you make little Xs for the kids with their names on them.

You can blindfold them or not, doesn’t matter. They put their Xs on the map and then you take it off the wall and hold it up to a window or a light. The X on the back shows through and the kid with the closest X wins! Isn’t that super clever? I wish I HAD thought of that on my own :) This game was a HUGE hit with the kiddos!

 

Then we played a version of Musical Chairs. We just slapped some construction paper squares on a board as a plank and put down a blue towel as the ocean. Then when the music started they had to Walk the Plank and run around and walk the plank again until the music stopped. The kid in the ‘water’ was out and we went again and again. Once they got the hang of it they had a great time!

 

This is the kids hunting in Tick-Tock Croc. I especially liked this game. It was quiet!!! I made a little croc out of felt and left an opening in his tummy. Then we put a kitchen timer in it and hid it in the living room. (So it’s like the croc in Peter Pan, get it?) The kids had to come in and listen for the tick-tock and find the croc! They really liked this game, more than I expected. And I liked the brief hiatus from all the noise!

That blurry thing is the croc ;)

 

But I think the best game was the treasure hunt. I’d given Reese a couple of riddle clues earlier in the week and he just looked at me blankly like I was some kind of idiot. So I dropped the riddle idea (I’m not great at coming up with that kind of thing anyway) and took close ups of the places I intended to hide the loot. There were 7 kids playing and I took pictures of 10 spots, so three of the spots had little, hmmm, I don’t know, neiner neiner cards that said to keep on looking.

I printed all the pictures out onto cardstock and then burned the edges. (with my creme brulee torch, haha!) They actually ended up looking pretty cool and the clues were just the right toughness for the kids.

I went online and found a site with pirate lingo and borrowed heavily from that for these cards!

I had so much fun with their treasure boxes. I loved things like this when I was a kid, little treasure chests and jewels and things! These had pirate coins, chocolate coins, plastic jewels, a pirate pouch, a skull ring, extra moustaches and tattoos, and beads for the girls. I sprung for some really yummy chocolate coins from Honest Foods, but I probably could have gotten away with the cheaper more cost efficient ones. Most of this stuff came from Oriental Trading.

 

This is Reese’s cake. It’s chocolate on the inside and and my favorite frosting on the outside. I used some really wonderful cocoa powder from King Arthur’s Flour that my sister-in-law’s mother-in-law gave me (you follow? Good!) and it was to die for. The cake was almost black with chocolate! My kind of cake!!! I had grand plans of forming a pirate ship out of rice crispie treats and covering it in fondant for a cake topper. But when we went to my friend April’s son’s birthday (you follow? Good.) he had a cake with a real Lightning McQueen and Mater toys on it and all the kids thought it was SO COOL. “You get to keep the Lightning McQueen!!!!” So I decided to just slap on the pirate I had bought Reese as a gift so he could keep the pirate!!!!

Then I stumbled across a set of pirates at a local shop. $6 for 12. Sold. They look like cupcake toppers to me!

 

Super cool cupcake toppers!!!

 

The birthday boy was thrilled with his cake! And he got to keep the pirate!!!

 

So I’ll leave you with the cake and icing recipe. This icing is really wonderful. It’s got cream cheese in it and it really cuts the sweetness and gives it a nice tang. The cake is my go-to chocolate cake recipe. I’ve used it for years. I think it’s originally from Martha.

Chocolate Cake

1 1/2 cups unsweetened cocoa powder, plus more for pans

3 cups all-purpose flour

3 cups sugar

1 tablespoon baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

3 large eggs

1 1/2 cups buttermilk

1 1/2 cups hot water

3/4 cup vegetable oil

1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

 

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Prepare two 8” round cake pans (or two 6” round pans and 24 cupcakes) with Baker’s Joy and parchment paper.

Sift cocoa, flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into mixer bowl.

On low, stir in eggs, buttermilk, hot water, oil, and vanilla; beat until smooth, about 2 minutes, scraping bowl as necessary.

Pour into prepared pans and bake, rotating the pans once, 35-45 minutes. (Less for the cupcakes)

Remove cakes to a cooling rack and let cool in the pans for 15 minutes before unmolding.

When the cakes (and cupcakes) are completely cool, frost with icing.

 

Best Frosting Ever

1 pound unsalted butter, at room temperature

2 bricks (16 oz) cream cheese, at room temperature

2 pounds confectioner’s sugar

1 TABLEspoon vanilla

food coloring of your choice

 

In your mixer, beat the butter and cream cheese until smooth.

With a mesh sieve, sift the powdered sugar into butter mixture and mix on low to incorporate.

Add vanilla and food coloring.

Enjoy!

(This makes plenty of frosting. Enough for my 6 inch cakes and cupcakes with a little leftover. Leftovers are yummy smeared on graham crackers. Just sayin’.)

Happy Birthday, Little Baby!

I love that scrunchy little face!

My little Jilly-Bean turned one year old last Saturday. *sniff sniff* She’s my last baby and I had a really hard time letting her turn one, but she went ahead and did it anyway! She has been such a joy in our lives. She’s beautiful, happy, mellow, playful, and just as sweet as can be! She’s had the typical run-ins with new teeth and separation anxiety, but we’ve come through it into the lovely state of toddlerhood. (Even thought she’s not quite toddling yet.)

Somehow, when she was still a tiny baby, she acquired her own personal style. Or at least, her own personal color scheme! When I see pink and brown together I immediately think of Jilly-Bean. So, the color scheme for her birthday party was easy enough! I couldn’t think of anything (besides jelly beans) that reminded me of her enough to use for a theme, so we just went with those colors.

So, the thing about the jelly beans. . . . when Jillian was born, my dear friend, Claudia, brought the CUTEST thing to the hospital. She’d glued (with royal icing) jelly beans to a cake board in the shape of a baby’s face and spelled out Jillian’s name and birth date with more jelly beans. SO CUTE! And I don’t have a picture of it, I could just kick myself! Also, the wonderful woman brought me all the extra jelly beans to munch on. Just one more reason why I love Claudia so very much! Ever since then, Club Soda and Cotton Candy Jelly Bellies have been my favorite. So, when planning Jilly’s party I knew I had to order some Jelly Bellies! I popped online and started browsing their website. I picked out the kinds I wanted, Club Soda, Cotton Candy, and Rootbeer. (because it was brown and matched the theme.) Turns out that with shipping my total was going to be $36. They run a continuous special that if you order $50 they’ll ship it for free. That’s only $14 more than I was going to be spending and I would end up with twice as many beans. That sounds like a good deal, right? It must have been a good deal because I ran it past Jay and he gave me the go ahead! (And he dislikes spending money.) So I picked out three more flavors. All from Cold Stone Creamery, YUM! Apple Pie, Strawberry Blonde, and Birthday Cake Remix. They arrived in no time and of course we had to make sure they tasted just right!

What patient little hands!

I kept the decor very simple, since I'm completely capable of stressing myself out enough before a party without adding complex decorations to the mix! I like to cover the table with mailing paper (it’s fun for kids to color on while they’re waiting for cake!) and I made easy and inexpensive pom poms and hung them from the ceiling. (I did string a few pretty glass beads on the fishing line I used to make them a little more special.) I wrapped ribbon around small canning jars (4 oz. size) and affixed it with double stick tape, (since I’d like to use the jars for actual food again and I might be able to salvage the ribbon ;)  and distributed the jelly beans. (Turns out, the Cotton Candy was the most popular! I was really surprised, I would have guessed the Strawberry Blonde!)

Jillian’s cake was just delicious. An almond cake, made from the best cake recipe ever (I just swapped a really nice almond extract for some of the vanilla), brushed with raspberry puree, filled with almond pastry cream and coated with an absolutely DIVINE raspberry buttercream.  To be very honest, I’m not as pleased with the fondant I made for it as I’d like to be. I had to make the pastry cream three times before I got it right, which kept me up pretty late and depleted my drive for decorating the cake. Jay came through like a champ and helped me finish up with the fondant. He made that rose for the top of her cake and did some cool things on the top of some of the cupcakes! I just loved his curly-cues!

   

So, before I go snuggle up with Jillian and cry like a baby (seriously. Someone make her STOP GROWING UP!), I’ll leave you with the frosting. It’s simple enough, but just so unbelievably scrumptious. It was incredibly difficult not to just eat the whole batch with a spoon! Really. No, really.

Raspberry Buttercream

2 sticks butter, room temperature

1/2 cup SEEDLESS raspberry jam

LOTS of powdered sugar. At least 2 pounds. (Sorry about the inaccurate amount, I keep mine in a LARGE container and I just kept adding until I got the right consistency.) 

2-3 tablespoons cream

In a mixer, beat the butter for a minute until it’s all fluffy.

Add the jam and mix until incorporated.

Stop the mixer and sift (you know, through a mesh sieve)  a few cups of the powdered sugar into the bowl.

Mix in little bursts on the lowest setting, until the sugar starts to get incorporated. 

Add the cream.

Sift more powdered sugar into the bowl until you reach the consistency you desire.

Frost something. Frost something quite large, like a cake. Or lots of cupcakes. Or sugar cookies. Or graham crackers. Or white bread. Or a waffle. Or a stack of bills. Or a cardboard box. Or . . . .

 

Just a couple of pictures for my mom! Isn’t Jilly-Bean just a little doll? I just love her Who-hair! (You know, like those ‘Whos down in Whoville’?)

Her Daddy picked out this dress while he was out birthday shopping with the kidlets. Isn’t it darling??? And look what he did. . . .

He bought a matching one for Amelia!!! How sweet is that????

She’s holding the little fairy princess that came with her new dollhouse. I think it was her favorite present, she just kept coming back to it over and over!

The Carrie Cupcake

I can't believe Jillian is six months old already!!! Last night I was going through all our videos since before Christmas and found all the footage from her birth. I hadn't seen it before and it feels like it all happened last week! I was a little surprised at how upsetting my c-section was to watch, because I didn't feel that way at the time! Did you know some guy poked me with a freaking needle? Just to poke? 'Cause I didn't know that! I did think it was pretty dang funny that my mom and I were discussing cupcakes while they were working on me! I loved seeing all the footage of Jilly now that I know her better. Seeing her reactions to everything was just so . . . her! She's such a calm, sweet baby!

Devil's Food Cupcake with Salted Caramel Buttercream

I made these cupcakes for my friend's birthday. Very, very belated birthday. (Sorry, Carrie!!!) They were scrumptious!!! The cupcake is from Martha Stewart (Thank you, Sarah, for the recipe!) and I filled it with a salted caramel buttercream, dipped it in dark chocolate and piped more buttercream on top. I had to give them away so I wouldn't eat them all myself!

The Carrie Cupcake
Adapted from Martha Stewart's Cupcake Book

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
3/4 cup hot water
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon coarse salt
3 sticks unsalted butter
2 1/4 cups sugar
4 large eggs, room temperature
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup sour cream, room temperature

Preheat over to 350 degrees. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners.
Whisk together cocoa and hot water until smooth.
In another bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.

Melt butter with sugar in saucepan over medium-low heat, stirring to combine.
Remove from heat and pour into your mixer's bowl.
On medium-low speed, beat until mixture is cooled, 4 to 5 minutes.
Add eggs, one at a time, beating until each is incorporated, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Add vanilla, then cocoa mixture, and beat until combined.
Reduce speed to low and add flour mixture in two batches, alternating with the sour cream, and beating until just combined after each.
Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each three-quarters full.
Bake, rotating tins halfway through, about 20 minutes.
Transfer tins to wire racks to cool 15 minutes; turn out cupcakes onto racks and let cool completely.
Cupcakes can be stored overnight at room temperature, or frozen up to 2 months, in airtight containers.

Salted Caramel Buttercream

3/4 cup salted caramel
2 sticks of butter, softened
2 lbs. of powdered sugar
3-4 tablespoons cream

In your mixer, beat the butter until smooth.
Sift in about half the powdered sugar and mix on low until combined.
Add the caramel and mix well.
Sift in remaining powdered sugar and mix.
Add in cream and mix well.
Sift in more powdered sugar as necessary to achieve desired consistency.

Buttercream: The Birth of an Obsession (and a Baby)

I've been obsessed with buttercream lately. It started with the cupcakes we bought here to celebrate the birth of our new baby. We bought a couple dozen to share with visitors, nurses, etc. at the hospital during our stay. There were a mix of chocolate and vanilla cupcakes that were glazed with chocolate and topped with the absolute BEST buttercream frosting I've ever had.

I had a c-section and they gave me some medication to help with some nausea I was dealing with. I hadn't eaten since 6pm the night before and even with the nausea and dizziness, the scent of those cupcakes was overwhelmingly tempting. After a few hours one of the nurses suggested I try eating something. My eyes went straight to the cupcakes. "I was thinking more along the lines of some crackers," was her response. "Don't even think about having one of those cupcakes!" She warned as she left the room. (Easy for her to say, she'd already had one!) Sweet, caring, knowing woman that she is, my mom stood up and brought me a cupcake.

I've never had a confection so absolutely satisfying. I did my best not to shove it down my throat. I savored it. Perfect.

It was even nice in reverse. Yup. I went there, in my first post even! The nurse came in and saw the evidence of my crime. She shook her head and took my basin of chocolate colored nastiness. She tsked and clucked and refilled my water for me. As she was getting ready to leave the room she said, in that tone (you know the tone, that superior nursey tone), "bet you wish you'd listened to me!" Nope. "It was totally worth it."

And it was. So, since then I've been trying to recapture that buttercream wonderfullness. My first attempt was a Swiss Meringue. It was nice. Buttery and silky beyond belief. But not was I was looking for. So the search continues. In the meantime, this is the lovely recipe I used.