Party Planning

When the end of October rolls around, I start to kick into birthday planning mode.

Savannah's birthday is not until the end of December. Obviously, I like to get a head start.

We don't really have a big bash for her, just something here at the house with a few friends. That's the problem with having a winter birthday; you can't go to a park, which is the perfect - and free - summer party place. So our choices are limited to having it here at the house or forking out big bucks for a Chuck E Cheese-style place. Thus far we've always opted to stay home in the interest of keeping our pocketbook happy. And since our house is small, our guest list is small.

So it's not like I need two months to plan it, since we keep it simple and there is not a lot to it. But I do like to make her cake myself, and so I start searching the internet for the perfect cake that is easy enough that I can pull it off.

And in case you are wondering, I have zero cake making experience. I don't know how to do things the right away, but that doesn't stop me from having some fun with it anyway. I would love to learn, and one of my goals in life is to take cake-decorating classes, but for now I just muddle through on my own.

For her first birthday party, we did a Baby Einstein theme. I had seen a cute caterpillar cake online somewhere, and thought I might be able to pull it off.
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I was happy with how it turned out, but let me tell you how much cake is in this two-foot long monster. Each of those balls represents an entire cake mix, so yeah...we had the equivalent of 5 whole cakes. For a small party. And believe it or not, we didn't have much left over. I think it was because each cake was a different flavor with different fillings in the middle, so everyone was going around sampling them all. Which was fine by me...I didn't need all that leftover cake hanging around the house. Danger.

For her second birthday, Savannah was completely obsessed with Diego. Not Dora. Just Diego. I realize he is a little boy character, but I didn't think it mattered that much, so I made her a Diego cake, and jaguar and monkey cupcakes. She was in love. Or maybe I am just imagining and hoping that she was because of all the work that we put into it...after all, how much of this stuff does a 2 year old really understand ?

Oh, but this year? She understands. She KNOWS about this birthday business. She's been to many, many parties this past year, and she realizes that there is a cake. There are presents. There are friends. They sing Happy Birthday. She is beside herself with excitement and she literally talks about it every day, how she will be FREE pretty soon (otherwise known as three) and she will have a BIRFDAY PARTY.

And her allegiance has now switched from Diego to Dora, and, probably just like every other 3 year old girl in this country, she wants a Dora cake.

So my search for a cute but still doable Dora cake has begun. Look at this one - way over the top, not to mention far beyond my skill level, but still amazing. I showed it to Ricardo and he said, "Huh. A little extreme, don't ya think?"




I'll probably end up doing something simpler like this, only smaller, and just add a plastic Dora topper. I found a recipe for marshmallow fondant that I want to try my hand at.





If it turns out, you know I'll be posting pictures. If it doesn't, well, I'll remind myself that the main purpose for the birthday cake is to be eaten. At least according to my hubby.

UPDATED:

Finished product - just don't look to closely at the cracks in the buttercream! But the marshmallow fondant was super easy to work with....so much fun.

Thanks to Kelly at Kelly's Korner for hosting!