Sunday, June 15, 2014

Birthday Monster Bash

Dusting off the ol' blog here.  It has been a LONG while since I posted mostly due to the little munchkin who's birthday celebration got me thinking I should write something again.  I hope to write another post about colic, because that has made this past year memorable - and not in the best sense.
Anyway, our littlest guy turned one this past week and so we had a big party for him - since, after all, it is our last first birthday party.  My older boys call him "monster" because he crawls and wrecks all their stuff, and the aforementioned many months of colic, so we decided to have a monster-themed party.  I did a lot of research on pinterest to get ideas and then I gave it my own interpretation.  I knew I wanted to made a "furry" orange monster smash cake.  I knew I wanted a monster-watermelon fruit salad.  We had to serve Odwalla C-monster drinks because he is our little C-Monster.  The rest just sort of evolved as I was preparing for the party.  It was great fun and I think it might be my favorite party theme of all the parties I've thrown for my kids. 
I tried out marshmallow fondant for the first time.  It was fairly easy to create and work with.  Pretty easy stuff.  I halfed the recipe I found online and had more than enough to create noses, horns, eye brows, etc.  It is simply half a bag of marshmallows microwaved with 1 tbsp. of water, then you stir in 2-3 cups of powdered sugar and the color of your choice.  Then stir and knead until you get a workable consistency.  You have to keep it covered constantly or else it begins to dry out instantly.  I also tried out a new frosting tip to create the fur.  I like how it turned out but that particular tip (usually used for grass) requires a lot of strength.  The whites of the eyes are two halves of a big marshmallow.  And that is a small cake-sized paper plate - so it's not a huge cake.
The cupcakes were a lot easier.  I used halves of small oreos for the eyes, with a mini chocolate chip for the eye.
The full spread.  We chose to serve foods that are favorites of our birthday boy.  He loved dinner.
I thought the fruit salad was really the crowning achievement.  I love how it turned out.  Secret to creating fun watermelon creations: use one of those cheap little pumpkin-carving knives.  It worked SO WELL.  Then I scooped out the insides and filled it with the salad.
Our birthday boy with his party hat.  I bought cheap party hats at the party store and embellished them with monster eyes.  He wore it for exactly long enough for me to snap a single picture, so absolutely no need to spend a bunch of money on one of those custom-made first birthday hats.  I feel lucky to have the picture.
A happy birthday to our littlest one and hopefully I will think of more things to blog about soon.


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