WEEK 07: Birthday Time

Well, the boys birthday was Friday, and yes, I can hardly believe it. Time has absolutely flown. This week, I was concerned with the birthday party, and yes...the cake. We sent out invitations with the boys' hand and foot prints, so I decided to make that our theme. I thought it was appropriate for the first year and set out to figure out what to do. Since the theme doesn't really have any set colors, I chose blue, orange and green. We are just having regular vanilla cake, but I'm making handprint cookies to share with everyone at the party. We are just inviting family and will be celebrating for lunch on Saturday.

FOOD DESCRIPTION
I decided to make my own cake and started to research what's best for baby's first year. I found some options in my favorite books and on my favorite website, but decided I would just keep it simple and go for the box cake mix. Yes, I know, this isn't adventurous or "healthy," but it's a birthday party and boxed cake mixes are just yummy to me. I have made each of the boys their own oversized cupcake and a 9x12 rectangle cake for the rest of us. I decorated around the edges with the handprint cookies and was pleased with the final result.

PROCESS

• Birthday Cake & Cupcakes I used a single french vanilla cake mix and make 6 jumbo cupcakes. I used the exact same type of mix to make a single 9x12 cake. I let everything cool overnight and decorated them the next day during nap time. I'm having trouble posting pictures and will try to get some up tomorrow.

• Handprint Cookies This was super fun as I made the dough after dinner and brought the boys in one at a time to put their hand print on 3 cookies each. These were large 4-5" cookies. As the recipe notes, I dusted the handprint indentions with sugar, but I also added a touch of food coloring to the sugar to give them each their own color.

WHAT I LEARNED
Remember the party hats and put them on gently. I messed up and remembered the party hats after the cake event had begun. I was successful getting it on, but accidentally snapped one of my boy's ears with the strap and it was all over after that. So, he got up from the table early and we watched his brother finish mashing his cake. Oh well.

REACTION
The boys enjoyed making the handprint cookies (as much as a one year old can), and both dug into their cakes. I'm not sure how much made in the mouths, but lots of pictures and video were taken and everyone else enjoyed a piece of cake following.

SUMMARY
This was the best birthday event ever! I truly had fun preparing, making and decorating the cakes and cookies and sharing in this special day with family.

Please share your thoughts or ideas.
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