birthday invites

Owen's birthday invites are in the mail now. This year the party's theme is, big surprise here...

Yo Gabba Gabba!

We are planning two parties again this year. First is the one for the kids, then a second immediately after for our family and close friends.  What we learned from last years experience was to host our party a week after we return from Florida. That way we aren't scrambling to put a party together hours after walking off a plane. I'm really looking forward to the big day!

first birthday cake eye candy!

We've had two back to back weekends of first birthday parties. 

We were asked to make a cake for Owen's friend Alejandro's fire truck themed birthday party yesterday. 

My friend requested vanilla cake so I used this recipe. Since making sculpted cakes we've discovered that denser, pound cake-like cakes work best for sculpting and keeping the structural integrity of layered cakes.

4 stacked layers and six cakes went into the fire truck cake.

 Butter cream crumb coat.

Bright fire engine red fondant. Red dye looks great, but tastes like ass.

Again, everything was edible on the cake. All the details sculpted with gum paste and the lights were all gummies. The wheels were moulded chocolate with black fondant on top.

Nuno even worked in flashing red lights underneath two pieces of fruit leather to look like a siren. Worked like a charm!

:::

The other amazing birthday party we attended was an outdoor picnic for our friends Karissa & Kevin's daughter Pepper. 

Here is the adorable cupcake spread all home baked by Karissa herself! The birthday party theme was strawberries so we were all treated to a side of vanilla ice cream with strawberry topping.

Along with the cupcake tower, Pepper had a gigantic pink cupcake all to herself.

These cupcakes were so light and delicious and the frosting was amazing! Owen loved his chocolate cupcake!!

 HAPPY BIRTHDAY FRIENDS!!!

beauty weekend

This weekend Nuno and I got away to Toronto. Owen stayed with Grandma & Grandpa so that we could go to Hot Docs to see the documentary Beauty Day.

This documentary was directed by a friend of ours, Jay Cheel. Beauty Day is about local Niagara legend Ralph Zavadil aka. Cap'n Video, an early 90's cable TV personality who filmed himself attempting extreme stunts in and around his home.

This documentary is hilarious, touching and a total blast to watch. We had a screener copy for the past few months in which time I've probably seen it 10 times. It was perfect for putting in time on those days when Owen was mid-day napping on at-home sick days. Upon repeated viewings of this documentary I found myself tearing up at key scenes which involved the relationship with is ex Nancy Dewar and the discovery of his daughter. Jay captured so many genuine moments that this documentary has a way of drawing you right into Ralph's life. I guess this is why I felt so compelled to see it at Hot Docs because this would be the very first time Ralph would be watching it. Not only that, we would get to see the final cut on 35mm, which is very cool as well.

On our way to Toronto our route to get on the highway took us to the Cap'ns neighbourhood. We peeked down the street to find a white stretch limo parked outside ready to whisk the Cap'n onto his movie premier.

While waiting in line to enter the theatre the Cap'n skateboarded up Charles Street with a pink hairy bag of popcorn.

As a filmmaker Jay has a perfectly executed artistic direction, story pacing and delivery. I really hope this documentary gets maximum exposure because there is no doubt in my mind that it will be successful.

Saturday was my sister Katie's birthday party. She decided to have it at the Duke for karaoke. The karaoke host is legendary 60's wrestler Sweet Daddy Siki. It was awesome and tons of fun especially when the birthday girl got up and belted out 'My Ding a Ling'.

And what's a birthday without one of Nuno's cakes these days? Katie is a huge fan of Gumby so this cake was perfectly suited.

Over the past 2 days we've seen so many friends and family, some we go months without keeping in touch with! It was incredible to just hang out at places like the Duke, Hot Docs, Burger Bar & Tequila Lounge and be surrounded by so many people we love. Seems like everyone is in Toronto now while we live in Niagara. Hopefully we will have a few more Toronto weekends this summer.

Thomas the Tank Engine birthday cake

Nuno really wanted to make a special birthday cake for our nephew Ronan's 4th birthday party. Ronan and his parents decided the theme was going to be Thomas the Tank Engine.  

To start Nuno did research on Thomas and devised a blueprint as to how he'd make this cake work out. He first had an acrylic skeleton built and a platform for the cake to stand on. Then Thomas' shape was 8 chocolate cakes I baked.

This is when the cake really started coming together.

Here is Nuno's work space but only really shows half of all the tools he used.

The final assembly happened at the party. 

Here are some detail shots of the finished cake.

Thomas' face is moulded Rice Krispie Treats with the top layer gum paste. Totally edible. Actually it was important that all the details could be edible including the chimney, lights, bumpers and details are candy and moulded gum paste. 

Ronan is a huge fan of Thomas and has even visited a real Thomas the Tank Engine, so the details on this cake were really important. 

Like these two gold whistles. Ronan noticed them and felt like it was really Thomas.

Thomas has coal in his tender. They sell chocolate rocks at Bulk Barn that worked perfectly here. 

Ronan LOVED his cake. It really was super cute to see his reaction to it. We have some film footage of it and I think I'll try and upload it.

Oh man, the first cut is the deepest. I don't know how Nuno could make this and then slice it, but it didn't seem to pain him. If it's any consolation it tasted great! The cake is a vegan chocolate cake with white frosting and fondant. It tasted like Jos Louis which is perfect for a child's birthday party.

Owen Turns 1 - part two

We were so lucky to be able to throw Owen's First Birthday Party exactly the way we envisioned it. It was a lot of time and effort, but *so* worth it. We put a lot of love into it. It was such a fun day and is a day we'll always look back on as one of the best days we've ever had.

Nuno and I had lots of ideas on how to custom make decorations for Owen's party. Most of what we used was purchased from the dollar store or made by us, so it really wasn't a huge investment - by our party throwing standards.

Here is the upstairs party spread. I made a Cherry Bomb Punch, a bowl full of red and blue salt water taffy from our trip to Florida, homemade Chex Mix and had a few of the Everyday Food appetizers and cupcakes I blogged about in the last entry.

The salt water taffy didn't go over too well at the party so I brought the rest with me to work and everyone at the office loved it. It was blue raspberry and red licorice flavoured.

We had a monthly time line of Owen photos.

Since there were a few older kids attending we decided to give magnetic colouring sheets with crayons as favours. Adults took home robot magnets.

There was a ton of food, more than enough to feed our 50 guests. It included broasted chicken, potatoes, penne & meatballs, cabbage rolls, salads and dinner rolls.

Owen wasn't in the best birthday spirits during his baby party, but a quick nap did the trick and he was in a tip-top shape when it came time to eat. 

 He ate Aunt Maggie's couscous salad and potatoes. 

 Then it came time for the cake.

Nuno and I ordered a sheet cake and carved into the shape of the knitted robot. I have to give all the credit to Nuno on accomplishing this and his commitment to fondant (when I thought it was beyond our skills). He nailed it.

He even molded Owen's first birthday candle.

Once the candle was lit Owen knew something special was about to happen.

He loved the birthday song.

And when it came to the cake...

well his face says it all.

"Nom-Nom"

We made sure his first birthday cake was his first taste of chocolate.

If chocolate cake, vanilla cupcakes and sugar cookies weren't enough, I also made a couple batches of David Lebovitz's Malted Milk Ice Cream. You need ice cream with cake and this flavour is a really nice accompaniment to chocolate cake. It had bits of crushed Whoppers in it. Everyone loved it and, surprisingly, malt is a flavour that is quite unfamiliar to people. I think most people thought it was milkshake flavoured ice cream.

 

The gifts Owen received were quite staggering. We are very humbled by our family and friend's generosity.

Owen loves his toys and is very stylish for day care.

Every evening Owen plays and reads until bed time. 

I'd say he's a lucky little one year old.