Garden Party

Here's another "catch up"post. Jane's birthday was back in May, but I had promised a few people I would post about the cupcakes & cookies - so here goes.

For Jane's 1st birthday party I decided to do a garden party - because she loves being outside, but also because my other 3 kids are colder weather birthdays, and I haven't had the opportunity yet. I tried to think of what would make a cute birthday cake, and thought that really cupcakes would be perfect for a 1 year old & her friends. I have been wanting to get better at making cupcakes, and especially wanting to try filled one's, so decided to go with that. I made 3 different types. Coconut with a lime curd filling, chocolate with a chocolate hazelnut filling, and white cake with a strawberry filling. They actually were way easier than I had thought, and very good. Here's Jane after enjoying one of the cupcakes.

For the coconut I used the Ina Garten recipe, for the chocolate I used a recipe I found online, and for the white cake I just used a mix. Then for the fillings -

I made lime curd with this recipe.

4 limes at room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/4 pound unsalted butter at room temperature
4 extra-large eggs at room temperature
1/8 teaspoon salt

Remove the zest of 1 lime with a zester, being careful to avoid the white pith. Squeeze the limes to make 1/2 cup of juice and set the juice aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream the butter with the sugar and lime zest. Add-- the eggs, 1 at a time, and then add the lime juice and salt. Mix until combined. Pour the mixture into a 2-quart saucepan and cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until thickened, about 10 minutes. The lime curd will thicken at about 175 degrees F, or just below a simmer. Remove from the heat and set aside.

I doubled the recipe & had TONS left over, so made some little tarts & then one bigger one that I took to a friend who'd just had a baby. One batch of this recipe will be enough to fill about 24 cupcakes.

For the white cake I used Sarabeth's Preserves, and cooked it adding pectin & more sugar (probably unnecessary) to make it very thick.

For the chocolate one's I just used Nutella - which was totally cheating, but super easy and tasted really, really good. Then I just used my biggest piping nozzle, and stuck it in the top of each one to fill them. I think I could have filled the coconut one's more - those cupcakes were more dense, so I think the same amount of squeezing my piping bag filled them less. When I do this again, I'll cut one or two open to see how they look before filling them all.
Then I made buttercream frosting in white (vanilla strawberry), pale pink (chocolate hazelnut) and pale green (coconut lime) and used another big icing tip to swirl the frosting on the top of each one. I scraped of any excess filling that was poking out of the top of the cupcake before frosting them, but this covered any that was still there.
Then served them in this cute stand I found at Michael's. Because I wanted to have 3 different kinds I had many cupcakes left over, so I put 2 of each flavor in cute bakery boxes (also from Michael's) and took them to friends.
I LOVE sugar cookies. I love making them, I love decorating them, and I love eating them! I also wanted them to be just right for the 1 year old set - so made mini one's. I used some fondant cutters in 2 flowers and a butterfly. Then I piped on the frosting to bring out the detail in each one. I was pleased with the results - yummy AND cute.

Because they were so small, one batch of cookie dough made a lot of mini cookies. (There are more to the right of this picture.) We had them at the party, and I also made little cellophane bags of a few to put in the take home bags. The thing that surprised me, was that they took almost as long in the oven as a regular sized cookie, maybe only a minute or two less.
They looked really cute all together on a platter.
Jane really enjoyed her day.
We had bubbles, and played "toss the ladybugs." Each guest had a ladybug with their name pinned to it, then the babies shook (with help) the blanket until only one ladybug was left - that person was the winner. Then everyone took their ladybug home with them.
I made flower chocolate lollipops and put them in pots for during the party
& also one in each treat bag..
If anyone needs green bags, I bought a pack of 100 to get the color I wanted. My kids will be taking lunch on field trips in green bags until they go to college! I ran them through my printer to add the message, and then after putting in garden themed goodies, I closed them with flower shaped brads.
It was really fun to plan this & make the treats, and no stress (probably because my super husband is REALLY helpful, and acts as my personal slave for things like this.) We also served pasta salad, and giant sandwiches from Stew's. A fun little way to celebrate Jane's first birthday. I'll definitely be doing mini cookies and filled cupcakes again!