{Event Recap} Happy Picnic!

I'm really excited to share this birthday party with all of you because it's the one I threw for my daughters! I decided to combine both of their birthdays this year. After all, they share all of the same friends and with their birthdays just two months apart I was able to pick the month in the middle as the celebration.


My oldest, Taline, had one request for the party. She insisted on a peanut butter and jelly birthday cake. I decided to run with this and designed the entire party around a summer picnic theme. I focused on lots of gingham, watermelons and picnic ants. They covered the invitation, cake, outfits and the food itself!

I was also very excited to work with a new photographer, Sarah of Sarah Vinson Photography. She was so much fun and did an amazing job of capturing the bright and sunny picnic vibe.

For the food I focused on traditional picnic fare, an array of sandwiches, corn on the cob, fruit salad, pasta salad and sun chips. I dressed it all up with cute little watermelon and ant food pics and served them all in brightly covered trays. The napkin wraps were brown paper bags cut down to size and stuffed with gingham napkins and bright red utensils. My favorite touch was the single serving bags of chips. These worked perfectly for the kids to pick up and snack on as they ran around the park.


The dessert table featured a picnic table cake stand which was surrounded by "Fire Ants" with cookie pop heads and cake pop bodies, watermelon cookie pops, apple pies adorned with marzipan bees, mixed berry pies, watermelon sugar cookies, strawberry macarons, lollipops and sugar free cupcakes. I then attempted a homemade peanut butter and jelly cake. I opted to do just the top tier in the PB&J (in case it didn't turn out) and the bottom tier was a simple chocolate. I was shocked how yummy it was and wish I made more! I made a white cake with a guava jelly and peanut butter frosting filling. I then added some fondant decor from one of my favorite Etsy shops, Parker's Flour Patch, and piped on some butter cream grass. I'm very happy with the end result.


The party was hosted at a local park. So there was a playground for the kids to enjoy during the party and lots of grass to run around on. In addition, the guests were invited to decorate the disposable cloth tablecloths with pictures and messages to the birthday girls; assemble "ants on a log" snacks (celery, peanut butter and raisins); and play croquet, disc golf, Frisbee, football, horse shoes and participate in a potato sack race!


At the end of the party each kid got to take home a mini picnic basket of their own stuffed with toys, treats and even some personalize sunscreen.


Vendors
Event Design: Enchanted Events & Design
Printables: Enchanted Events & Design
Photography: Sarah Vinson Photography
Watermelon Cookies: Denise's Creations
Fondant Cake Décor: Parker’s Flour Patch
Pies, Ant pops, Watermelon pops, Cupcakes, Macarons: Pop Culture Desserts

{Tutorial} Golden Egg Cake Pop

As promised, here's the tutorial on how to make golden egg cake pops!

First you'll need to make two batches of cake, one white and one yellow cake. I then added a small amount of yellow food dye to the yellow cake to enhance the yellow coloring.


Once the cakes are baked and cooled, break up the cake with your fingers and add about 3/4 to 4/5 of a canister of frosting to it to and mix well. I typically remove the harder, crusty edges of the cake before mixing it with the frosting so the cake pop is an even mushy consistency. This is especially important with the white cake. I removed all of the darker colored cake (top, bottom, sides) to keep the cake pop a clean white color. I used a white cream cheese frosting for both my white and yellow cakes. Next, form a small ball with the yellow cake pop mix, slightly larger than a dime in shape. Then grab a small amount of the white cake mix and place the yellow ball on top of it.


Slowly work the white cake pop mix over and around the yellow ball until it's completely covered and mold it into an egg shape. Repeat until you've used up all of one of the cakes (white or yellow). Place the cake pops onto a baking sheet and put them in the fridge to cool. This will make them easier to dip in the candy coating later.


The next step is to attach the lollipop stick to the cake pop. Take a lollipop stick (I use a 4" stick but you can use any size you'd like) and push it into the bottom of the cake pop to create a hole. Then pull it out and dip the end of the lollipop stick into some prepared yellow candy melt (melted per the instructions on the bag). Then reinsert the stick into the cake pop. You can then place it back into the fridge to keep cool while you assemble the rest of the cake pops.


Once all the cake pops have been attached to the sticks. You can then, working in batches, remove them from the fridge and slowly dip each egg into the yellow candy melt. Make sure to cover the entire cake pop, tapping it gently on the edge of the glass to remove any excess candy melt.



Stand each of the cake pops up in some Styrofoam to dry.


Next, take some yellow pearl dust and mix it into a small dish with some lemon juice, water or vodka. You can then paint this onto each of the cake pops to give it a glittery shine. Place the cake pop back into the Styrofoam to dry. Try and put the cake pops as close together as you can to make the next step a little easier.


The final step is to get a small strainer and place some of the dry pearl dust into it. You can then gently sift some of the dust over the top of your drying cake pops. This adds just a bit more glitter to the cake pops. The closer they are together on the Styrofoam the less dust that will be wasted. Make sure to start dusting the cake pops before they've finished drying so that the dust will have something to affix itself to when you sprinkle it over them.



You now have a shiny golden egg cake pop, complete with a yolk center. Enjoy!

{Tutorial} Bumble Bee Cake Pops

One of my friends sent me a wonderful video tutorial by Mayen of Way Beyond Cakes to make adorable fondant bumble bees. This video inspired me to attempt something similar with cake pops. Cake pops weren't quite as easy to work with but in the end I was very happy with the final product.

#1) Gather all of your ingredients.
- 1 batch of basic cake balls in an oval shape
- 4" lollipop sticks
- Yellow candy melts
- 1 Styrofoam sheet


#2) Melt your candy. I fill my glass up with candy melts and microwave it at 50% power for about 1 minute and 30 seconds. I then stir the mixture thoroughly. If your candy doesn't fully melt after stirring it for about 30 seconds, return it to the microwave for another 30 seconds again at 50% power.

#3) Put a stick in it. Next I take one of the lollipop sticks and stick it into the bottom of one of the cake ovals. I then pull the stick out and dip it into the candy and reinsert it back into the hole I just made in the cake oval. I repeat this for all of the cake ovals and then put them back into the fridge.




#5) Cake pop. The next step I do in batches of about 10 cake pops, while I keep the rest in the fridge so they don't get too warm while I work. I dip each cake pop into the candy so that it is completely covered. I then gently tap the cake pop on the edge of the glass, slowly turning it, to remove any excess candy coating. Then stick your cake pop into some Styrofoam until it dries.

#6) Gather your decorating supplies.
- Black and white fondant
- Rolling pin
- Decorating brush and small dish with water
- Roller to make parallel lines or a long knife
- Icing tip 5


#7) Prep your bee parts. Roll out your black fondant to about 1/16"-1/8" thickness. Using the smaller hole of your icing tip, punch out two small circles for each cake pop you prepared. You may need to use a toothpick to pop the circles out from the icing tip if they get stuck. Next cut the remainder of the fondant into strips about 4" long (or whatever length will wrap around the cake pop that you created). Again you will need two strips for each cake pop. You might want to do this step in batches as well since your fondant will start to dry out and get brittle if it sits out for too long.


#8) Stripes and eyes. Next, dip your decorating brush in your water and brush one side of a stripe.


Then pick up the fondant strip and place it around the cake pop, removing any excess length. Repeat this step to adhere the small circles in the place of the eyes as well.


#9) Wings. Next roll out the white fondant to about 1/8" thickness. Using the larger opening of the icing tip, punch circles out of the white fondant (two per cake pop). You can then use a fondant shaper or your finger to make a small indent in the center of the circle. Squeeze each circle slightly on one end so that it has a slight point on one side. Brush the bottom side (side without the indent) of two of the white circles with water and place them side by side on top of the cake pop in the wing position. This completes your bee pop!

Finally here is the original video tutorial by Mayen. She does an amazing job showing you how to execute all the steps.


I actually used some fondant bees on wires (created by Fenella Higgins) to decorate my topiaries!


As an alternative to fondant, you could also pipe on the stripes,eyes and even a cute little smiley face using royal icing.