Creative Father's Day desserts from Familyfun.com

Aren't these dessert ideas cute?? Go to this link to the Family fun father's day creative dessert ideas for all the details. I am thinking about the basketball cookies and cupcake combo. In Utah Jazz colors of course!

Happy Father's Day planning everyone.

Dinosaur 5 year old birthday party!

My daughter and I attended this Dinosaur Party. It was pretty cool!The basement decorated in streamers. They had dinosaur sounds playing which created a great ambiance.

Here we are looking down to the streamer volcano that covered up their TV unit.

It's a dark photo but you get the idea of the erupting volcano!Check out the neat dinosaur and erupting volcano cake. The 5 candles are on the table below.

The dinosaur cake plates, mask, and safari hats. Each child had their picture taken with a dinosaur too.

A great tip-Write the party guests names on their cups to prevent germ spreading and wasting cups!

An Erupting Volcano Activity

Every child gets a cup on a plate with sand surrounding it (each child did that part out of the sand box). A parent pours baking soda into the cup. Then another adult pours white vinegar colored with red food coloring and the "volcano" erupts. You can do it over and over again. Fun!

Marshmallow flower cupcakes

My daughter wanted a pink party for her 3rd birthday. Not a princess party but a pink party. So I made these easy and cute flower petal cupcakes. **You could make these for a spring party at a preschool, Easter, a birthday party, a bridal shower, or an after school treat.You will need: a box cake mix, tub of frosting, paper cupcake cups, pink and white marshmallows from the Mexican aisle (at Walmart),and lemon heads for the centers.My girls enjoyed helping me put the marshmallow petals on. I used kitchen shears to cut the large marshmallows in thirds. Aren't they cute? (and oh so easy!)

A doll cake made with love by Mom (Staci)!

I made this Barbie doll cake for my daughter's 7 th birthday. Harmon's grocery store in Utah wanted $20 to make the cake and I had to provide the doll. Nah, I'll attempt it at home. Check out my other homemade cakes made with love HERE

First, make a box cake according to directions (I followed the high altitude directions for my area in Utah). Fill a Pryex bowl 3/4 the way full (you won't use the full amount but save it). I put a cookie sheet in the oven just in case it spilled over but it didn't-thank goodness.

Then, occupy the kiddos with a bowl of flour and a spoon. She actually wasn't that messy. Check out that poked out belly in the leotard....Cute.

Let the bowl cake cool completely before removing from the bowl. I then made another cake mix and the used the remainder from the bowl cake to make an 8" and a 9" round cakes. Cool and assemble like this.

I did this the day before and froze the cakes overnight. I like to freeze my cakes because it locks in the MOISTURE and they are easier to FROST. You need the extra height with the 8" and 9" cakes for the doll dress height. NOTE: You could freeze each cake individually and frost in between each layer but I didn't this time.

Next, make the frosting while the cakes are still in the freezer. I made my butter cream frosting and tinted it in two shades of pink---Light pink for the dress and dark pink for the bodice and number 7.

Pull the cakes out of the freezer and put on a tin foil linked pizza pan. I put wax paper around the cake bottom in case I got messy with the frosting and clean up was faster. Then I cut out a hole for the doll body in the frozen cakes. I decided it was easier to remove her legs and put her torso in the cake. I used a plastic sandwich baggie to cover her torso. My daughter wanted so bad to help me with the dress decorating so I got these heart shaped cookies and she stuck them on. My plan changed when she wanted to help but oh well it's mommy/daughter togetherness that matters. "Each day of our lives we make deposits in the memory banks of our children."-- Charles R. Swindolle

Store bought cakes--Santa!

I bought this cake as an impulse buy on the reduced bakery rack for $5.XX. I took it to our family Christmas party last weekend. I was craving store bought butter cream icing! It's good once a year. Cute decorating huh?

Store bought cakes--Bring a napkin to the bakery!

If you don't have time to make a cake to match your theme....take a napkin (or an invitation) to your bakery and have them create something for you. This is my nephews farm party napkin purchased at Zurchers Party & wedding store in Utah. Here is the napkin and the HUGE CAKE that Harmon's grocery store bakery created in Utah. They did a great job!

Wow huh? The cake has edible rocks on it. That's a lot of frosting but really cute.

A doughnut cake??!!

My sister said her 5 year daughter wanted a doughnut cake for her birthday!! Huh? So this is what she came up with and it cracks me up. Well, my niece got what she wanted. She said it was easy to serve to the guests. Funny huh?

Ariel Mermaid Cake

An end of summer Ariel 5th birthday party cake. It was a pool party!
My creative mom made this cake for my niece. Check out the crumbled graham cracker on top for sand, sea shells, flounder, and Swedish fish in the sea.

My daughter's dog party Part 2-THE FOOD!

The Menu:

Hot Dogs (some in crock pot and some on the grill)

Chips

Puppy chow

Kibbles and Bits

Pasta salad

Dog bone rice crispy treats

Paw print cup cakes

soft drinks & lemonade

Adopt a puppy food table

Tablecloth: I used what I had on hand, A Little Pet shop tablecloth

Napkins: From my party stash box they were clearanced packs for $.75 at Walmart

Plates: White Chinet plates from a coupon deal this spring

Cups: Free Solo cups from a coupon deal this spring **Always think ahead when shopping!!**

Cutlery in a Mason jar: A clear & white cutlery purchased on clearance from after Super Bowl sales in February

Drinks: Watch for sales on 2 liters as low as .69 **Watch expiration dates too.

Decorations: Stuffed dogs for table decorations from our toy box

Birthday Girl Photos: I like to show some current and baby photos of the b-day child.

**We ate outside under the trampoline and in lawn chairs.**

My puppy themed party foods!

Yummy "Puppy chow"

Puppy Chow Ingredients:

1/2 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup butter
1 cup chocolate chips
1/2 tsp. vanilla
9 cups Crispix cereal (any flavor)
1-1/2 cups powdered sugar

Instructions:

1. Combine peanut butter, butter and chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl.
2. Microwave for one minute then stir to blend all ingredients thoroughly. Add 1/2 tsp. vanilla. Stir well.
3. Place the 9 cups of Crispix cereal in a very large bowl.
4. Pour the peanut butter-chocolate mixture over the cereal and toss evenly, making sure all the cereal gets a good covering.
5. Coat with powdered sugar, sprinkling evenly over the cereal and tossing as you sprinkle to cover each piece well.
from HERE

The table shown with Kibbles and Bits- Pretzel sticks (from Dollar store) and shredded carrots

Puppy paw print cupcakes

I used Rasinetes and Junior mints The paw print birthday cake (shown before frosting it).

A frosting the cake tip- I bake my cakes the day before and freeze them. I pull out the cakes and frost them when they are still frozen (about 3 hours before serving). Frosting is so much easier this way. When it's party time the cakes aren't frozen but really MOIST!

Puppy bone rice crispy treats

I used a caramel flavored marshmallow which gave them a darker brown appearance.

I wrapped them in a sandwich bag with some curly ribbon I had in my wrapping box. I put one in each take home doggie bag. The "Doggie bags"

The bags included ball (Dollar store pack of 4), a wrapped doggie bone, play dough, and some candy.

First B-day traditions-

Smith's Grocery store in Utah (for Fresh Value Card holders) offer a voucher for a free 8" 1st year b-day cake (as of a year ago). I recommend calling the Fresh Value Card member number on the back of you card a month or two in advance to see if they are still offering this promotion. Then they can mail you the voucher for your child's big day.

We have a tradition on the first b-day (like our Latino friends). We push our 1 year olds face into the cake. It's fun not mean. Plus, her cake was free!

My pool birthday cake

I made this for my daughter when she turned 2 years old. She liked Barney, Baby Bop, and swimming. So wah-la- A Barney swimming pool cake (and gummy bears).

I used:

Vanilla sugar wafers-The decking

Fruit tape for chairs held up with toothpicks

Gummy bears

Blue M & M's for the water perimeter

A candy bracelet for the pool rope

blue frosting for water

An expression of love to my little princess daughter.

Here's my latest work of mommy "art". It’s a castle cake with Disney princesses for my daughter. This was my first attempt at castle cake making. I made this cake with love and she loved it! In her exact words, "Mom this is the best birthday ever." Ahhh how sweet. Not bad for a first attempt. I would love to take a Wilton cake-decorating class sometime at Michael's Craft Store. Some day!

Here's the details: The bottom layer is just your normal 9x13 size pan and the top is a round cake pan. The remaining batter was used to make 9 cupcakes. The towers are cupcakes and ice cream cones placed on top of the 9X13 cake.

To make frosting easier I froze the cakes and cupcakes overnight and then took them out of the freeze right before frosting. I used store bought frosting (2 tubs of white) and added food coloring to make it pink. The decorations are a Hershey bar for the front door, Smarties, Skittles, brown cake decorating gel (store bought) used on the windows, and I piped pink frosting around the perimeter and tops of cones in the last photo. I placed all the Disney Princesses figurines around the castle at the party.

This Disney princess castle cake took about an hour and a half to frost and decorate after pulling it out of the freezer. The party was a few hours later and it was completely thawed and not cold. The cake was very moist and yummy for store bought cake mixes.

"Each day of our lives we make deposits in the memory banks of our children."-- Charles R. Swindoll

Speaking of memory banks, My mom made me a Barbie dress cake (you know the ones baked in a glass bowl) when I was a girl. I remember how special I felt blowing out the candles. I hope my daughter remembers this one made with love from her mommy.