Rowan's Third Birthday!!!

(Cross-posted to Little Red Rowan)

Rowan is 3 years old. Can we just take a moment to marvel at that?

We couldn't celebrate his birthday on the 11th (more on that later), so we did a party with the grandparents the weekend before. We decided to have a Pigeon Party, since he totally love the Pigeon Books, and so do I.

It was very cute and laid back. I realized (today) that I had ideas for games, but I didn't actually do anything for them. We had only invited one other kiddo, and she and her parents couldn't come because SOMEONE decided to show up in their family a few weeks early. So it was only adults, so I guess we didn't need games.

I made pigeon cake pops ...

Beth gave me a cake-pop pan to try. This makes the balls with just cake, not cake mixed with frosting. So it makes them healthy, right?!

The only problem(s) with this method is:
1) when the balls get stuck in the pan. After a few batches, I found that COPIOUS amounts of Pam/cooking spray does the trick. I mean COPIOUS amounts, on both pans. Crisco/grease didn't work.
2) I only had one pan, so I could only do 12 at a time. It took about 4 batches to get through all the batter I had, which was about an hour of baking, plus about 10 minutes in between each for cooling. It took A LONG time.
3) the wrong amount of batter means to balls are not quite round. Too much leaves a little seam around the ball, and too little leaves the ball a little flat on top.

But in the end, they were pretty good.

Beaks. The cake pop book called for candy-covered sunflower seeds. You can buy these online or at baking supply stores, but only in big huge bags. I needed approximately 20. So I just took some of my candy melts, made them yellow, and covered a few seeds from my tin of trail mix.

It was ok, Probably needed to thin out the candy more (as I noticed later while dipping the pops), but not too bad.

Cake. I used this recipe, and it was AMAZING. Cut it in half, and it was STILL a lot of cake.

Dipping. Colored the candy melts blue, and thinned it out with vegetable oil. I needed to thin it A LOT more than I remember doing in the past, but it was so thick. I had just enough for 24 pops.

Eyes. Wilton makes candy eyes, but again, I didn't need 100 of them. And I was trying to do this a inexpensively as possible. I colored the eyes with gel color, white/sparking and black. It worked pretty well, though some of them "dropped" a little.

But they were yummy!!!

Decorations. God, I love Pinterest. So many Free ideas for Free decorations.

I chose the pigeon balloons ...

and pigeon toilet paper rolls (printable template here) ...

... and the classic streamers and balloons and my mom's birthday banner.

Food. Well, it was a Hot Dog party, right!!!

Hot dogs and mac & cheese (with french fried onions like at Eatery). 

And then presents. We decided on a play Coffee Maker and a balance bike. However, he's still too short for the bike. With the seat ALL the way down, he can JUST touch the ground with his toes. So I guess we'll stick with the tricycle for a few months.

Happy Birthday, kiddo!!!

Birthday Planning ... Cake!

Rowan's First Birthday Party!!!

(a.k.a., "showing up every other mom")

Today's Theme: CAKE!!!

His cake is going to be a Xylophone Rainbow cake, with rainbow layers and xylophone keys on top.

Of course I did a dry run of R's First birthday cake 2 months before the actual party. Here is how it went.

6 jelly roll pans
1 box cake mix + mix ingredients (eggs, oil)
2 cans frosting
Duff brand gel food coloring (DUFF!)
Red, Blue, Yellow Fondant



Spray Jelly Roll pans with cooking spray (I like the Baking Pam, because it smells like butter and flour!)

Mix Cake Mix

Separate about 3/4 cup into a smaller mixing bowl.



Mix in food coloring until you get the color you want and pour into one jelly roll pan.





Repeat until you have mixed and poured all your colors (I would have made purple, but ran out of batter).

Bake as directed on box, though it will take less time because the layers are thin.



Let cool and remove from pans. Shake the pans up and down to loosen the cake.

Let cool on wire racks.



When cool, cut the rounded tops off each layer.



Starting with the bottom color, spread a layer of frosting. Place the next color cake on top and spread a layer of frosting. Repeat until you've layered all the cakes.



Spread frosting over the entire cake.




For the Xylophone Keys, roll each color fondant out and cut a rectangle, Red the biggest, and the other colors progressivly smaller. Dab a small blob of frosting or food coloring pen on each end of the keys for the bolts.



Add a marshmallow on a stick for the hammer!!!



Cut and enjoy!