Hi, friends!
What a whirlwind week it has been! My little angel turned 5 on the 18th, so it’s been a week of celebrations! We just finished the last birthday event – the official birthday party! It was tons of fun with lots of beautiful little girls {and my two rambunctious, yet irresistibly handsome little boys}.
This was the first year that we chose to have a party at a children’s play place {we went to Monkey Bizness}. While many unused, fun party-planning ideas swirling around in my head did torture me a bit, there was definitely something to be said for NOT having to clean the house, decorate, or cook. And having their staff hand out the food to all the children, scoop ice cream, serve dessert and clean up afterward was just unbeatable. Oh… that and coming home to a clean house and nothing to do but relax. Ahhh.
Since there wasn’t much party planning for me to do this birthday, I managed to make the two things that I was responsible for providing as detailed as possible… favors and dessert.
I had so much fun making and decorating these princess cookies for favors!
The sugar cookie recipe I found recently turned out to be flawless, as did the icing recipe I discovered, and they have both now officially been permanently added to my bag of tricks.
This was my very first attempt at icing cookies in what seems to be the “professional” way, by outlining and flooding. As you can see, my experience left a bit to be desired. Luckily, I was able to disguise quite a bit of the imperfections with the detail work and some sugar sprinkles, and I learned a ton! The next batch promises to be better!
I am now officially scoping my calendar for any event that might possibly be cookie-worthy. 
I wrapped each cookie individually to be given as favors, and tied them with ribbon.
I don’t know about all you moms, but I am always thrilled with a single, edible party favor, as opposed to a bag full of junky toys…
I also decided to do a cupcake birthday for my Emily this year. I haven’t braved up enough to try a cake yet and certainly wasn’t going to do one for a party this size.
I stuck to some fabulous chocolate and vanilla recipes I found, and a classic buttercream frosting recipe with extra cream cheese added. I have struggled so much with every buttercream frosting recipe I have tried because they always taste like solid powdered sugar to me, so I’ve recently been adding cream cheese. I’ve found that it changes the taste to a delicious, rich frosting taste instead of a mouth full of powdered sugar.
They turned out beautiful! I did struggle with my frosting being too soft on the pink ones, so I added extra powdered sugar on the white ones to avoid the same problem. It didn’t seem to affect the taste much, and definitely stiffened it up a bit. On my next go-around, I may play with it to find out just how much powdered sugar I can add without changing the taste too much, since the white could still have been a bit more firm.
I did the classic swirl on some but when I was dealing with frosting that was too soft, the swirls became blobby. I took this opportunity to try out the rose technique. Although a pro would probably not be so thrilled, I think they turned out beautifully! It will take some practice for me to get the end tucked in nicely, but I was pretty thrilled with my first attempt!
I decorated with the Disney princess cupcake papers and tiara picks, which you can pretty much find anywhere. I purchased mine at Party City.
I also added some pearls and sugar sprinkles, pink on pink and white on white.
My favorite touch was the edible pink diamonds that I ordered from The Party Shop. They were a bit pricey {for someone who has never ordered such detailed cake decorations}, but add a beautiful touch to our pretty princess cupcakes!
All in all, I would say my baking excursions were a success this time around! I won’t go into detail about the failed batches of cupcakes from other recipes that turned out to be very disappointing…
My little princess had a wonderful time at her first “friend” birthday. I’m so proud of her!
{I hope you weren’t completely blinded by the hideous, unpictureworthy orange tablecloth… I should leave them some feedback about that.}
What was your favorite cupcake experience? If you blogged about it, leave me a link so I can check it out!
I would be happy to share my newfound recipes, if there is any interest.
Cassie
@TwoInDiapers
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These are so pretty! Love the cookies and the cuppies, complete with tiaras. They look really good. I’d have never known you had trouble with the frosting. I’m sure Emily was smitten!
As you can see, I’m a little behind on… well… everything these days.
Thank you so much for this sweet comment, Jelli! It’s always a special day when you stop by!
these are so cute. i loooove cupcakes and cookies. (: emily is one lucky girl.
love, x
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Thanks so much, sweet friend! I’m so happy you came by!
those are super pretty! job well done cassie!
“As you can see, my experience left a bit to be desired.” Um, nope can’t see that. All I see is ridiculously beautiful cookies. I’m no pro but to me they look fantastic. Looks like a great party.
Oh, thank you so much for the vote of confidence, sweet friend! So happy you stopped by!