Category Archives: cake

Easter Is Over… Now What?

Easter is over, but if you are like me, you have tons of candy left over. What do you do with all of it?
The chocolate candy will last for a little while, so I just left mine out in little bowls to grab at throughout the next few weeks. But you can cut use yours in a lot of different ways. You can add it to pan cakes, melt the chocolate eggs and peeps to make s’mores. Or you can make some yummy brownies and use the chocolate eggs for an added chocolate oomph.
Peeps also make great art projects. You can see some of the contests herefor inspiration. This is a great activity to do with the kids.
Now there are the jelly beans. Those are harder to dispose of, but still very yummy. If you like sweet wine, drop a few jelly beans into your glass of white wine, and enjoy. You can also use them as decorations for other sweet treats. As you all know, I love making cup cakes, and now is a perfect time to make some and use the jelly beans as toppers instead of frosting. Just pile them on, and voila! Easy, fun and not to mention colorful, cupcakes. Delicious too! That is another adjective I meant to get in there.
Aside from decorations, you can use them inside a cake as well. Bake a white cake with jelly beans inside. It will make a beautiful and yummy cake to welcome spring.
You can also take a few and go out side with the kids and plant jelly beans for next Easter. It is a fun activity for the kids, and it is a few more pieces of candy they won’t eat.
Has anyone tried freezing jelly beans for later use? How did that turn out?

Birthday Fun

Yesterday we had our first kid’s birthday party. Not the kind of party you have for a kid’s first birthday where you invite all of your friends and family and everyone celebrates that you have managed to keep the kid alive for a whole year. No, this was a kid’s birthday party where everyone invited has kids. A lot of kids. At one point we had almost two dozen kids in our house, with the majority averaging about 3 years old and under.
It was pure, unadulterated chaos, and it was absolutely wonderful! I loved that we could host this many people, and everyone could have a good time. Babies were being passed back and forth. Little boys and girls were running rampant through the back yard. The toy/play room looked like an atomic bomb hit, and I reveled in all the giggles, and laughs.
Even the prep was fun. I made this four tier cup cake cake with all the trim. We handed out goody bags and included a bunch of fun stuff (which was super fun shopping for). I got to spend hours in the toy aisles picking out the little toys, stuff that I even wanted to play with. Then I got to look through all the cool activities they had and pick my favorites and watch the kids play with them (even though we never got past the first game of pin the tail on the donkey).
Munchie was absolutely gorgeous in her little party dress, that we eventually got her to wear. Now if I could just get her to let me put pretty ribbons in her hair we will be all set! She was the perfect little hostess playing with all the kids, and running around greeting people. Even though she usually gets very shy around a lot of people, she was able to shed the shyness yesterday and have loads of fun.
I got to see friends and family we have not seen in a long time, and oh my God, did I mention all the cute babies! I wanted to keep them all. The next time we go to a kid’s party I am bringing a giant purse and stealing all the cute babies. I am kidding! Sort of.
Yesterday I realized how truly blessed we are to have such awesome friends and for Munchie to have so many little ones to play with. And the best part, having multiple kids means we get to do this twice a year! Until we have another, and then we can do this every few months. The Dugger mom was on to something there. Hubby, if you are reading this, I am joking. Sort of.
What is your favorite part about kids’ parties? Do you do themes?