Avengers Birthday Treats

Today we did part 2 of birthday celebration with grandparents. I spent several days making the little man’s birthday treats.

Of course, we had to have a cake. I was inspired by 2 different sites. For the inside of the cake: Crafting with Freckles. And for the outside of the cake: Big Fat Cook. However, the little man (and I) like chocolate. So, I decided that red velvet, blue velvet and white chocolate cake would be oh, so much better than plain white with food coloring. I got my velvet recipe from Divas Can Cook. For blue velvet, you just use blue food coloring instead of red. The white chocolate cake recipe came from Oleander+Palm. The velvet cakes were supremely moist and truly the best velvet I have had. The white chocolate cake was denser but a nice compliment to the velvet cakes. I used a chocolate buttercream for the outside and a stabilized whipped frosting for the middle. Buttercream in the middle may have been too overpowering.

Here is my creation:

Outside of the cake:

 

Inside of the cake:

 

So, normally this would be the extent of birthday dessert. However, I really wanted to learn how to “flood” a cookie. This was a good opportunity, as the Avengers theme was a good inspiration for sugar cookies. I learned how to flood cookies from Sweetopia's video. She has a very nice tutorial and recipe for royal icing. The sugar cookie recipe came from Foodfolio. I freehand cut the cookies (not having Avenger cookie cutters), but the inspiration came from mommyGAGA.

Here is my creation:

The little man insisted he had to have the Captain America cookie. J

Superhero Birthday

Tomorrow is the little man’s birthday. We are not doing a big birthday party, but I wanted to do something really special for him. Right now, he is in love with anything "superhero." Searching Pinterest for superhero themed ideas, I came across Emily's Little World blog. I fell in love with her capes and masks. So, I called my mom and asked if it was feasible to make them for the kids in his daycare. I asked my daycare lady if she could get the kids’ favorite colors and first initials. Now, we just switched daycares, and I assumed there were about 10 kids. Turns out, there are 16, including my son. Oh, well. I really wanted to do the project. My mom made one extra cape to experiment with, so I made one for a special friend at church.

Here is our creation:
Little Man's Mask

 

His cape

Daycare Kids' Capes + 1 Special Friend

Daycare Kids' Mask

 

My mom made all of the capes, and I did all of the logos and masks. I appliqued the logos, so they would be sturdier.

I got the free mask template from Grosgrain. I used the Wolverine mask for my little man’s special mask and the Hulk mask for the other kids.

If you do an internet search, there are many free patterns for basic capes. We searched for one that was one whole piece, but choose the one that works best for you. I designed the logos, using Microsoft Word.
 

I am planning a special Captain America cake for our family celebration. Pictures to come. J

Disney Fun

My husband and I went to Disneyland without the little man. He is still too little to go on a lot of the rides, and we didn’t want him to be disappointed, especially with the new Radiator Springs Racer ride. We did bring back some great gifts. If you go, check out RideMakerz in Downtown Disney. They have awesome create-your-own cars and are the only existing store, according to the employees.

I love Disneyland and Disney World for so many reasons. This time we treated ourselves to things I don’t normally try. One was a Mickey Mouse chocolate chip cookie. Simple yes, but very good. So big that it took me 2 days to eat. I wanted to share a little Disney with the little man, so I searched for a similar cookie recipe. Love to Be in the Kitchen has a recipe which is not completely like the original but pretty satisfying. I didn’t take my time with the decorating. If I wanted it to look more professional, I would have used a bag or condiment bottle to stripe the cookie. The best part of making something like this, the little man helped me. He loves making cookies.

Here is our creation:

 

And of course, the little man loved it!

Next project: I didn’t try the caramel covered apples because the one store didn’t have them, but I plan to recreate the recipe in the future. This YouTube video from the Disney Parks actually shows how to make one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZB35Cbs_kt4