Flower Garden Birthday Cake

We just celebrated my sweet Tatum's 4th birthday.

This was the Flower Garden cake to top off her Fancy Four Affair.

Each birthday I try to make a special cake for my kids.  Though I love baking, cake decorating is not  my forte!

I found this fun idea in one of my favorite books, What's New, Cupcake? by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson.  I love this book because the ideas are fairly simple and the results are so impressive.  Here is how I made it, following the instruction from the book.

Supplies:
Yeah, this one had TONS of items on ingredient list.  However, that is mostly due to the fact that I chose to make a variety of flowers for my flower garden.  Here is basically what you'd need...
- Cupcakes (I'd go with homemade for a firmer cake to stick the flowers into, though not necessary.)
- Green Cupcake Liners (though again, not necessary)
- Tray, for your Flower Garden to sit in
- Pretzels, sticks
- Cookies (sturdy, flat and round work best), one for each flower
- White Chocolate Chips, about 1 cup
- Frosting
- Green Food Coloring
- Assorted Candies for Flowers, I used M&Ms, Mike & Ikes, Jelly Bellies, Gummy Lifesavers
- Assorted Green Candies for Leaves
- Assorted Green Candies to fill in around the cupcakes (optional)
- Marshmallows (for flower petals), I used mini and a medium-sized variety in mine
- Sugar Sprinkles (assorted colors), for the marshmallow flowers

... I added some cute butterfly picks that I found at Hobby Lobby, that I thought were a nice touch.

Directions:
1) Make your marshmallow petals.
Do this by cutting them on the diagonal as shown below.  Set them aside so they can regain their shape.

Choose some colored sugar sprinkles, and place them in a small dish.

Take each of your cut marshmallow petals, and press the cut side into the colored sprinkles until it is nicely coated.  I used two different sizes of marshmallows, and opted to use colored sprinkles to match the color of the marshmallow.  I really liked how the medium-sized marshmallows looked on the finished flowers.

2)  Create your flowers!

Line your cookies up on a try.  I had 20 cupcakes to decorate, so I chose 20 cookies.  I also found it helpful to pre-sort my candies by color so I could quickly grab what I needed before my chocolate had set.  Once I had everything ready....

... I put 1/2 cup of white chocolate chips in a ziplock bag.  Place THE OPEN BAG in the microwave for 10 second intervals, mushing the chocolate in between each, until it is completely melted (may take about a minute).  Remove the air from the bag, and seal it.

Snip about 1/4" from the corner of your bag, and you are ready to pipe your chocolate!

See what I'm doing here?  Not a good idea.  I thought the chocolate would take longer to set than it did.  My recommendation would be to work on 2 or 3 AT THE MOST at a time.  One at a time might be a little too runny to easily decorate without your candies slipping out of place.

Pipe chocolate onto your cookie, and decorate it to your liking with your assorted candies and prepared marshmallow petals.  After a bit my chocolate was getting too "cool" and hard to work with.  I just popped it back in the microwave for 10 seconds, and we were back in business.

Here are my finished flowers.  Perhaps you can select some favorites from mine and copy them rather than experiment until you find one you like.

Note: I made the flowers the night before the party.  Cover them and hide them from the kids... :)

4) Prepare your cupcakes.
I know... I cheated.  I used store-bought frosting and added green food coloring to make it a nice, grassy green.

I frosted each cupcake, added some green sugar sprinkles to the top, and placed them on the tray.

Next, I filled in the gaps with all of the green candies I had stolen from my flower candy supply.

5)  Add your stems to the flowers.
The original instructions didn't call for this, but I happened to have some green candy melts on hand.  I chose to dip my pretzel sticks in the green candy melts.  I did this for two reasons.... 1, because I thought they would look nicer... and 2, because sticking a pretzel in a moist cupcake will cause the pretzel to get all soggy. Ick!

I melted my candy melts as directed on the package, rolled each pretzel stick in each, and let them set on a piece of wax paper.

Next, I melted another 1/2 cup of white chocolate chips in a small glass dish, as directed on the package (in the microwave for 30 second intervals).  I found that it worked best to lay the flowers upside-down, roll the end of the pretzel in the white chocolate, and rest it in place on the back of the flowers.  I then added white chocolate over top of that to make sure it was nice and "glued" into place.  You may have to hold the pretzel in place for a bit to allow it to set... or find a crafty way to rest it in place while you work on the next.

I transferred these to the fridge to allow them to completely set, about 5 minutes.  Set these aside, and add to your cupcakes right before you are ready to display your cake.

6) Arrange your flower garden.
I used green fruit slice candies for the leaves.  They were a little thick, so I cut them in half.  They were a perfect shape, I thought.

Place a flower into each cupcake.  Add a leaf or two to the base.  I rested my leaves in the frosting at an angle on most.  I also added some cute little butterfly picks.  Isn't it pretty?

We added flowers directly onto our extra cupcakes.  Charlotte had fun designing some of these.

And the finished display...

I thought it looked so pretty on the table!

A couple of thoughts...

*   The candy flowers were very heavy.  Little, if any, of the pretzel stem was left showing, as I had to insert them fairly deep to support the weight of the flowers.  I am not sure if there would be a better option.... perhaps a thicker pretzel?

*   Next time I may use green food coloring in the cake as well....

Happy Birthday Tater-Bug!!

Bite Into Summer Vacation!

Ok.. this is it.  Seriously!

You make this... your kids will think that you are the absolute

COOLEST!

Other moms will be talking about you...

and it is certain you will be asked to bring this along to the next get-together.

  

Are you ready for it?

And the best part is, it is SO SIMPLE to make!

Seriously!

My Inspiration...

From the National Watermelon Promotion Board

Shark Snack Attack

Ingredients:
-  1 Watermelon (try to find one with more of an oval shape if you can)
-  Blue Jell-O (2 large, 8-serving pkgs)
-  Fish-Shaped Candies
-  Blueberries (x2 for the eyes)
-  Toothpicks (3 or 4)

Other Supplies I used, though all optional:

-  Tray (I used a pizza pan)

-  Foil

-  Saran Wrap

-  Blue & Green Markers

-  Melon Ball Tool

Directions:

1)  Prepare Your Ocean Water

I followed the recipe for Jell-O Jigglers, found HERE, ahead of time.  I thought that having blue, Jell-O Jigglers would not only make a fun snack, but looks much more like water than the watermelon used in the original photo.  Don't you think?

2)  Prepare Your Tray
I covered a pizza pan with aluminum foil and had my children color the foil with blue and green markers.  We then covered the colored foil tray with Saran Wrap so that the color would be protected.  Remember that your shark will cover a good portion of your tray, so you don't have to completely color it.

And here is the finished tray...

3)  Cut the Watermelon
Wait... first, let me recommend you wash your watermelon.
Now, lay your watermelon as shown in the first image and decide which end would make a better shark head.  I opted for the left side with the less rounded curve to it.  Slice off the other end at a slight angle (not too much).

Next, rest your watermelon on it's cut side, and decided where you would like the shark mouth.  Make sure here that you are adding about an inch or so for the teeth you will be cutting out of the rind.  Here, I have cut my shark mouth wedge.  (Make sure to save your wedge for the shark fin!)

Next, with a small knife, carefully score around your shark mouth, only about 2-3 millimeters deep.  This will help you to peal off the rind down to your cut so you can begin to form the teeth.

Can you see my score lines above?

Again, with a small knife, carefully cut away the green rind down to your score lines around the mouth.

4)  Remove the Good Stuff
... and SET IT ASIDE!  We'll be using that in a bit.
I chose to use a melon baller here, but you may choose to take a knife and cut away all of the watermelon.  The melon baller obviously takes more time, but the little balls look so nice I think.

And here we are, with a pile of watermelon, quite a mess I have to say, but a clean shark.  I used a spoon to help scrap the extra melon from around the mouth opening.  It worked nicely.

5)  Cut the Teeth
But before you do that... I rinsed my shark once to get all the sticky off, and set it on some paper towels to help absorb the extra moisture.

Ok... Now this is where it starts to get fun!  Grab a small, sharp knife and cut your jaws as you see me doing below, on the top and bottom of your shark mouth.

6)  Add Gills & Eyes

I used a small knife to cut into the rind (careful not to cut all the way through) to make an eye and the lines for the gills behind the mouth.

Who's mouth is bigger?  Wesley's or the sharks?

I broke a toothpick in half and used that to attach a blueberry to the center of each eye.

And we have an eye!

7)  Add a Fin
Take the wedge you cut to form the shark mouth to make your fin.  Below you will see how I cut my wedge to get a nice triangle fin.

Then I removed the watermelon from the other side.  I placed the fin up to the shark and realized I needed to cut a bit of a curve on the bottom side to have it fit nicely.  You may need to do the same.

To attach the fin, I placed a couple of toothpicks into the shark and pushed the fin into place.

8)  Finishing Your Shark Attack Snack

Transfer your shark to your tray, if you haven't already.

Fill your shark mouth with your reserved watermelon chunks or melon balls.

Next, cut your Jell-O Jigglers into bit-sized pieces, and arrange them around your shark on the tray.

Finish it off by adding some candy fish to the shark's mouth and the ocean water around him.  I didn't do this, but thought some whip cream would even be a fun touch.  Messy, but fun.  :)

And here's your finished snack.

Sure you get a scream at social gatherings this summer!

Watch out for the teeth!

Notebook Paper Bag

I am in LOVE with this little bag!

My children and I made these as part of our teacher gifts this year.  Inside, we will include the Summer Checklists they created and a little package of goodies.  I am thrilled with how these turned out!

I'm sharing the tutorial for these cute bags here...

Stop by this awesome blog and be sure to check out the other great things Laura is sharing!