birthday

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Minnie Mouse Dress

To know me is to know I love to cook, decorate, and design. Throughout my life, my mother was always decorating something. We especially love holidays and birthdays. I am sure this is why I enjoy creating pretty palettes of fantasy and beauty, especially during these special times.

Maddie turned three and she asked for a Minnie Mouse party. You ask and you shall receive. As we planned for the day we hit up a few vendors for our go-to products: Party City (they are not affiliated with LTK.it, but many of their products can be found on Amazon etc.), Target, Amazon, and ABC Party on Davis Street in Bishop Arts District of Dallas. We found the cutest costumes, decor, and games to ring in another year.

(prepping the house for the party – paint, trash, goodies, and all)

We kept things relatively simple from our point of view. Hard to believe right?! Haha! The kitchen and patio were the main attractions. On the breakfast table, we covered it with a darling wrapping paper featuring…you guessed it, Minnie Mouse. We blended her signature pink and red outfits to complete the vibe. Around the edge, we added a ruffled tablecloth. Party City carried a lot of the decor if you don’t see it linked above.

The table hosted the food for the party with cute table tents to share the details. We added a sweet figurine of Minnie from ABC Party that was handmade. This created such a cute space and I was really pleased with the setup. On the wall behind the table, we had a huge scene setter of Minnie and Daisy spelling out, Happy Birthday. A 3D Minnie balloon was inflated and taped to the wall to add color and a pop of fun. On the other side of the scene, we placed a dozen foiled heart balloons in pink. So sweet and girly!

On the window, we had another Happy Birthday banner with a beautiful handmade cut out three. It was adorned with faux flowers in many pastel colors. It was dainty and the texture was fun and full of a happy vibe.

Outside, we setup flag banners around the perimeter of the outside table and placed a pink foil tablecloth on top of it. I placed more Minnie figurines on the table along with red popcorn boxes full of crayons and Minnie activity sheets. To complete the whimsical effect we had a bubble machine while a Mickey playlist on Pandora played!

Again, this was a simple party that is easily replicated and festive enough for the whole family. Maddie had a wonderful time and loved every detail that was put in place.

I love to bake and have made every cake for all my children’s birthdays. This year the cake came out better than expected and I was so pleased. I did not make the batter from scratch and instead used a Pillsbury mix. I did make the buttercream icing and fondant from scratch. Out of all of my taste testing and making, I really like the recipes from Wilton for fondant. They are easy to achieve and the taste is delicious. Here is the recipe for the buttercream icing and the rolled marshmallow fondant here. You don’t have to make these from scratch and can always purchase store bought. A tip if you are using the icing from the store. You can add a little bit of powdered sugar to help create a more stiff icing to hold the design you wish to achieve =)

Candle

I baked four layers of two flavors (chocolate and strawberry). You can always add extra flavor by using a liquid additive or fresh fruit or morsels depending on the flavor. This gives it a Sandra Lee feel with the semi-homemade 😉 I was very generous with the layers of icing and did a modest crumb coat and placed it in the fridge for keeping. By the way, I usually bake the cake anywhere from 3-7 days ahead of the party. For longer keeping you can wrap a completely cooled cake in Saran wrap and leave in a room temp area or in the fridge. Or you can prep the cake with a crumb coat and place in the fridge.

I stuck with two colors – white and pink for both the icing and fondant. After icing the cake I placed it on my sterling silver cake display. Note to the wise, add a dollop of icing in the center of the cake plate to keep the cake from slipping right off. I rolled out the fondant (I made this ahead of time too and stored in the fridge – you will need to let it sit at room temp a bit before handling otherwise you will be kneading for a while) and added a white layer to the four-tier cake.

Oh, I almost forgot – I used nine inch round pans. After placing and adjusting the fondant I added a pink skirt in buttercream to the base of the cake. I did three layers and went over all of them two times. I used the number 59 tip in Wilton to achieve the design. I then rolled out the pink fondant (I made all of my colors with the Wilton gels) and used a round cookie cutter to create the medium and small dots for the circumference. I then rolled out more pink fondant to create the bow. You can accomplish this by rolling out a long piece of fondant. I use either the fondant roller or the pizza roller to trim the piece into a rectangle. You fold the edges in to meet in the middle. For the bow, you add a rolled ball to “open” the bow. You will also cut a small piece of the same color fondant in a rectangle. Use this as the center and to cover the edge of the bow. Place the bow on top of the cake and add detail. Fondant can be secured with a white brush, shortening, or icing. In this instance, I did not use anything.

For the Minnie silhouette, I used a large round cookie cutter and the medium one too. I made two small circles and used the large cutter to cut the edges where I would like the ears to align. This created a perfect match for the silhouette. I topped the cake with a sweet Minnie candle and three individual pink candles. Once the cake was complete it was kept in the fridge. I pulled it out 15 minutes before serving to allow the cake to start acclimating to room temp. To finish off dessert, I bought a tub of Neapolitan ice cream for everyone to have the flavor of their choice. Birthday cake and ice cream, I mean what’s better than that!