Remember our last monster themed party post? Well here's the sequel.
Jessica decided to throw a monster themed birthday party for her son's first birthday and sent us in her results. Here you go:
The Original Post
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| http://www.bakerella.com/pop-star-jennifer/ |
That cake really is just a piece of art. Definitely more patience than I possess goes into making this, but I love it all the same. Jessica tried it and...well, it didn't go so smooth.
The Pinstrosity
"I thought I was sooooo smart by tinting the cake green. When it came time for icing I used icing sugar, water and food colouring. I kept adding icing sugar to try to make it thicker but it didn't work. The "hair" just glombed on and looked disgusting. I was so ashamed at my failure I didn't take a picture until after the party. I even tried putting it in the freezer to harden the icing. It did nothing!"
Luckily kids aren't too worried about how cake looks as long as it's cake and ends up in their stomachs (and on their faces of course).
On to the snacks. Jessica wanted to have these adorable little monster pudding cups.
The Original Post
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| http://blog.zui.com/2011/10/monster-pudding-cup/ |
Cute, no? At first I thought, "Wow! That's a lot of pudding!" but then I noticed the size of the sprinkles in the picture and realized that they are the little mini plastic cups.
The Pinstrosity
"3 packs of tinted pudding later. We have 1/3 filled 10 cups. I didn't use the chocolate on the inside, just sharpied the outside of the cup. Also it didn't say how much pudding to use. I guessed. Bad idea! These are not large cups but normal 6 oz cups. I even diluted the pudding by adding more milk. It was cute just not as cute as the picture."
The trick to these is definitely the mini cups and plenty of pudding, as Jessica found out.
On to her door. Jessica decided to get everyone in a Monster Mash mood from the moment they arrived by decorating her door. Here's her inspiration:
The Original Post
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| http://blog.passion-for-parties.com/2011/10/halloween-door-decor.html Which came from this idea: |
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| http://www.livinglocurto.com/2010/10/easy-diy-halloween-door-decor-ideas/ |
"I wanted to make sure ours wasn't "scary" because a bunch of babies and little kids were coming so ours turned out like:"
The Pinstrosity
"It looked super cheesey. Good thing the birthday boy won't remember this! Maybe I can photoshop him into a better first birthday."
Can I just say props for using duct tape. You're awesome. Seriously, I love it.
So the party didn't turn out as a Pinterest clone...but I love it. I think often we feel pressure to put on the perfectly cute party because isn't that what everyone else is doing? That's what it appears like from any time spent on Pinterest at least. But you do have to realize that Pinterest highlights the exceptions to life...most people pin their dreams and ideas...not reality.
This is more like reality:
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| http://awkwardfamilyphotos.com/2011/09/12/behind-the-awkwardness-make-a-wish/ |
So Jessica, don't worry about shopping in a better 1st birthday. I think you did fantastic, even if it didn't turn out quite as you hoped. It's not how beautiful and perfect things were that matter. Honestly, my favorite birthday that I remember from growing up was when my mom made me a dirt cake, but we didn't have birthday candles in the house so my dad lit a small stick on fire and stuck it in the cake. We thought it was hilarious and loved it. It was just my parents and siblings...no party hats, decorations, or anything...but it's memorable to me and I love it. I don't think anyone remembers their first birthday, but in his little head I'm sure he's thinking, "My mom is the coolest. Look at what she put together for me. She sure loves me." So laugh, chalk it up to experiences and fun memories and put it in the scrapbook. It's a fun memory.
for the icing next time use powder sugar and crisco.. I know gross but thats how you make royal icing for decorating! we do it every year for christmas cookies and it holds perfectly!
ReplyDeletemy son is 3, he is looking at the pictures and said mommy look at that pretty cake. I went to the first picture and he said not that one the green one. it looks good to my kiddo.. :-)
ReplyDeleteAww thanks!
DeleteI was going to say: I use the sugar/milk icing for gingerbread houses and I know it won't hold a hair shape. You needed fat. Sorry. Gross, but true.
ReplyDeleteAlso, don't sweat it. 1) Kids don't remember first birthdays, anyway, and 2) It's the thought that counts. Years from now, you and your kids will laugh uproariously at the results, but also affectionately at the effort you put into this.
My brother wanted a chocolate-chip cake for the groom's cake at his wedding. The rest of the food and the cake were professionally-made and gorgeous. Mom made a homemade cake in a Texas-shaped (we're from Texas) pan and decorated it by hand, which was no mean feat as she has pretty serious arthritis and those icing tubes are tough to squeeze. She was so embarrassed by the results that she called my brother, sobbing hysterically, and told him she was desperately sorry but she couldn't possibly bring the monstrosity to the wedding and park it next to the magazine-worthy bride's cake. My brother came over to the hotel, took one look at it, and told her it was perfect. He wanted a homemade cake. He got a homemade cake. He loved it.
Furthermore, it was the only chocolate in the wedding. People practically clawed each others' eyes out to get to it.
We're not all Martha Stewart and her army of assistants. Have fun, do what you can, and don't worry about it.
Thay was the best comment Ive read in a long time.
DeleteSometimes we get so caught up in the perfection we see online and in magazines that we forget how amazing homemade looks (and tastes!) This story warms my heart :)
DeleteMy story doesn't involve a cake, but still involves a handmade version of something I saw online: I set my husband to work helping me make some cute wooden frames for our family photos (similar to these frames here: http://tinyurl.com/prettyframes). When all was said and done, none of them were perfectly symmetrical and there were irregularities aplenty. It made them so beautiful, though, and it means so much more to me that the pictures of my family are now housed in frames made by my hubby :)
Jessica,
ReplyDeleteMy son (who is almost 17) had the two ugliest cakes in the history of the world for his first two birthdays. Take it from me, they neither care nor remember!!! With all the effort you put into his birthday, it is evident that you love him very much. That's what they need, not perfect parties :-)
My kids are now teenagers and we had plenty of homemade and bought cakes. They ALWAYS preferred the homemade, not perfect, cakes because they were fun inventions.
ReplyDeleteNow, having written that I do find your cake monstrosities here the funniest postings! These mags like Womans Day, Better Homes, Martha Stewart etc... are doing a real number on women's minds with their "perfect" parties.
Thanks everyone! He had a good time. Well as much as a 1 y/o is aware anways. Everyone else said it was fun too. At the time it was horrible but now it's funny.
ReplyDeleteI'd like to thank Jessica for sharing this story. The thing that really puts me off Pinterest and glossy mommy blogging is the pretense that these perfect parties and lifestyles are effortless. There's a teen mag where every fashion photo states the number of hours the model spent in hair and makeup - I'd like to see the same happen on blogs. "This gorgeous cake that looks so effortless took four hours, plus I've been decorating cakes for eighteen years and I've invested $300 in specialised cake decorating equipment."
ReplyDeleteMy mom has stories of her failed cake for my first birthday. She somehow set the oven to broil instead of bake. when she smelled the smoke, she yanked it out of the oven, melting part of the counter top, and tried to salvage it by scraping off the burned top. Since she was in a hurry (and a panic), she frosted it right away and threw the plastic decoration on top, then went to get me ready. When she came back to the kitchen, the frosting AND the plastic decoration had melted.
ReplyDeleteShe called her neighbor in tears who ran to the store and bought a generic cake. I never got a home made birthday cake after that. :(
My son's Baptism cake was a disaster too! The store forgot to make it so I had to pick one off the shelf - colorful squiggle perimeter on white frosting. It was late the day before the event and so I just asked the guy behind the counter to write "May God Bless Howie" on it...he did.May, God and Bless were on one line and ran off the side of the cake and Howie was written in GIANT letters as a second line. The "w" in particular took up more than it's fair share of space. If it wasn't so funny I would have cried. The guy really was trying. So, we took the cake home and I carefully scraped off the lettering and then with some left over BROWN frosting I had I rewrote the words. I wish I could show you the pictures. It is one of my favorite funny stories to share...now.
ReplyDeleteOMG! I'm laughing so hard over here. I found a link to your site and my eyes caught the words "pintrosity" and "funny". I love to laugh. I've laughed myself into a frenzy! Pinterest didn't catch on with me either. I'm sorta of in the Modern Age- I use it to inspire thing's for myself. If I ever have a pintrosity I swear! I'm going to make sure I send you the pictures. And I think one of the pinterest pixie's is Martha Stewart. Thanks for making my day!
ReplyDeleteAnd a little note to all of those women who have tried to make someone's day a little brighter by using a PIN. There is no fail in try :) Love & Light to you all.
ReplyDeleteI love this story. I am a cake decorator and make perfectly beautiful cakes. For other people. My own children get the same homemade cakes most kids do. Sure I make a beautiful cake every few years for the big ones (1,5,10,13 16....) but for the most part it's cake mix in a baking dish with canned frosting, sprinkles and candles. Birthdays are about family and being together. Picture perfect parties are for magazines and impressing other mothers. Kids, especially the little ones just want to have a fun time with the people they love.
ReplyDeleteIn the future if you want to decorate a cake like the one you pinned try the Wilton icing recipe. Or try googling decorators icing. I like one that uses half butter, half crisco and milk. Also, looking for and having all the tools you need (icing bags, tips etc) will help a ton.
I just have to ask... did the tape take any of the door paint with it when you removed it?
ReplyDeleteYa just a few flakes. The door has old paint on it though. It flakes off at the smallest things. was expecting it to peel it all off but you can barely notice.
Deletehaha I love this story the monster door is just great make sure you save that to show him when hes older. I remember what I think was my 16th birthday at my dads we didn't have a cake or candles and his girlfriend panicked. So she brought me out a very stale waffle cone with a tealight in it so I could hold it while they sang happy birthday to me and then make a wish.
ReplyDeleteI feel like I've made it, LOL! Super surprised to see my orange monster cake on Pintrosity. Honestyly the orange monster was one of these easier cakes to frost, not nearly as tiring on the hands as piping all the stars on a traditional Wilton decorated pan.
ReplyDeletejenadkinsdesigns.blogspot.com