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Noelle’s 8th Jewelry Birthday

Posted on February 14, 2011 by Erica OBrien in birthday cake, birthday cake long beach, birthday cupcakes, childrens party cake, jewelry themed party, kids party cake, wedding cake long beach | 2 Comments

My daughter Noelle is the girliest of girls (her ancient-Egyptian themed party of 2009 being a fluke), and for her 8th birthday she wanted a jewelry-themed party. Colors? Pink and purple, of course. Her birthday is in December, so the stores were selling lots of Christmas decorations which doubled easily as jewelry. We decorated the door with ribbon and some Christmas ornaments…I mean earrings.

I decorated the table and backdrop using more jewelry, like the pearl garland (I mean necklace) on the front of the table which I picked up at the 99 Cents Store in the Christmas section. I also filled jewelry boxes with candy bracelets and necklaces, and purchased some pink and purple votive holders.

I’ve been experimenting with sugar recently with moderate success, and I made some edible sugar gems for the cupcake toppers which were made out of fondant and outlined with fondant beading that I made using a small bead mold.

The cake was white fondant with bows outlined with fondant beading.

When we were kids growing up in Queens, NY, my mom always made treasure hunts for our birthday parties in the park across the street. (Remind me to tell you about the time Alan Schlanger, the neighborhood bully, looted the treasure box.) We always loved the treasure hunts, and now I make one for almost every party. I typed out the clues and hid them all over the house and yard.
Instead of giving out goody bags, I made a bag for each guest and put them in the treasure box.

The kids always take the rules very seriously.

It’s fun watching them run around finding the clues.

Of course finding the treasure is the best part.

No party of mine is complete without some crafts, so I bought a bunch of jewelry boxes and had the kids decorate them with stickers and craft paint (fun but messy), and bought a variety of beads for making necklaces and bracelets.

Some questions you might have are:

1. Who took those incredible photographs?
and
2. Was the party a lot of work?
The answers are:
1. The incredible photographs were taken by Shannon Lee of Shannon Lee Images. I am eternally grateful to her.
2. Yes, I worked my ass off, but it was worth it.

 

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Zoo Animal Cupcakes

Posted on April 19, 2010 by Erica OBrien in birthday cupcakes, CA, first birthday, fondant, for the baker, Long Beach, Papyrus, wedding cake connecticut, wedding cake connecticut (CT), wedding cake farfield county ct, wedding cake new york, wedding cake ny, zoo animal cupcakes | 2 Comments

This is a lengthy introduction to the zoo animal cupcakes I recently made, but here goes. My daughter Mia was born with hip dysplasia. For the first several months of her life, she had to wear a brace that kept her legs splayed out like a frog. So, we called her The Frog. The name took on a life of its own: She became Froggie, then Frogalina, and even had her own Froggie theme song. The nickname sounds callous, I know, but the best nicknames usually are. (Take for instance, my 6’8″ brother-in-law, “Stubby”, who earned his nickname as a teenager after blowing off three fingers with a homemade bomb.)

Cute frogs are hard to come by, but when Mia was about six months, I found this card at the Papyrus store on 2nd Street in Long Beach and bought it thinking I might use the design for Mia’s first birthday. We ended up going with a very different theme, but I kept the card in my inspiration file. So, when a client called and asked for zoo-themed cupcakes for her son Dante’s 2nd birthday, I knew exactly what design I would use. Here’s the card:

And here are the cupcakes:

PS: Mia no longer wears the brace, and has earned a new nickname: The Maniac.

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