Party of One

Last Saturday we hosted a little get-together at our place in honor of two very special guys: our baby Graham was turning the big 1 and his cousin Colt was turning 11. Needless to say, we had to commemorate these very auspicious occasions with three big number 1 balloons and personal cakes for each birthday boy. As promised, I thought I'd share some of the photos I took before the party was in full swing, i.e. before my beautiful cakes were demolished by little fingers. 

This was the garland I was most proud of. I loooved the icy blue, turquoise, and gray strung up together on baker's twine. Maybe we'll keep it up all year?

And the snowflakes! I had never made six-pointed snowflakes before, so the party was a great excuse to cut it up. I trimmed them from a bunch of coffee filters and pale blue tissue paper. The blue streamers were twisted from a simple tutorial I found here. 

Mini cakes! Such a cute and easy way to make a special occasion even special-er!

I followed the recipe on the back of the chocolate cake mix box and baked them in three (empty and clean) 28-oz tin cans according to the time and temperature I found here. P.S. Maybe it was our oven, but the cakes took about 10-15 minutes longer to cook than they said. Oh! And you'll need more than one can of icing to make these look nice and frosty. 

For Graham's first birthday cake, I wanted to go light on the sugar, so I followed the recipe for a homemade banana apple cake I found here. The icing was a little runny and the cake itself turned out a bit gummy, but he ate almost half of it! The chocolate chip cookies were from a recipe I found here. (Which I later discovered is the very same famous NYTimes recipe.) I've made them for a couple of parties now, and while they are a bit more labor intensive than the ol' dependable Tollhouse, everyone raves over them. 

The number 1 balloons were a big hit with the little guy. I think mostly because he can see his own reflection in them and loves to kiss himself in the mirror these days. Seriously, those two really need to get a room. 

All in all, I think the party was super fun! And even though he won't remember any of it, I think Graham did too. Happy birthday, buddy! 

- Cathleen 

The Revenge of Tricky Treats!

This past weekend we hosted our Fifth Annual Halloween Horrorfest so I decided to throw down on the tricky treats spread again, but this time actually TAKE PHOTOS of the gross-looking/good-tasting food we made before our guests completely decimated the blood-curdling buffet. I used the original line-up from a couple of years ago as my guide, but added a few new gruesome characters to liven things up a bit. I left the naming rights to Micky this year, and some of the place cards definitely got a chuckle out of our friends. Feast your eyeballs!

Braaaaains!

(cheese ball "brain" with Triscuits and Wheat Thins)

[Cheese ball was made from a combination of this recipe and this recipe from Martha.]

Chips & Barf

(little jack-o-lantern spewing forth guacamole with tortilla chips)

Human Vegetables

(the usual suspects: carrots, celery, broccoli, ranch dip and hummus)

Disembodied Mouths 

(apple slices, caramel spread, and mini marshmallow "teeth") 

Kitty Litter Cake

(yellow cake, chocolate frosting, crumbled Golden Oreos and Tootsie Roll "cat turds") 

[Inspired by this recipe.]

Baby Fingers

(Lit'l Smokies wrapped up in crescent roll dough with sliced almond "fingernails" plus ketchup and mustard)

Crapple Sin-amon Muffins

(Apple Cinnamon Muffins whipped up by our gracious co-host Neal Block) 

Breaky Bones

(expertly decorated skeleton cookies made by the beautiful and talented Shannon McKeon) 

Wishing you all a devilishly delicious Halloween this year! 

- Cathleen 

Edible Art

Just added to the list of things I want to do/eat before I move away from New York (one day): 

order some edible art from KUROIWA patisserie of Brooklyn, NY. 

Aren't these confections absolutely stunning? Created by owner/chef/pastry sculptress Ayako Kurokawa, her website also features some really gorgeous minimalist cakes, but the 'one of a kind' section is what truly took my breath away. As far as I can tell there is not a brick-and-mortar space that I can visit, unfortunately, but she does have a bigcartel shop where you can buy various tea cakes and commission portrait cookies. You have to go to www.ayakokurokawa.com to see more of what I'm talking about. You must! 

- Cathleen 

[Images found on Pinterest, courtesy of the artist, I think.]

He Looked Like a Philip

Banjo Beetle, $85

We gave one of these little guys to my husband Micky’s awesome sister Shannon (who makes these amazing cookies, btw) for her birthday this year. With a name that pretty much says it all, Bug Under Glass is a shop on Etsy that specializes in handcrafted, museum-quality displays featuring some very cool creepy crawlers. And flyers. And shredders! It was tough deciding, but ultimately we picked the weevil riding the red tricycle and we called him Philip. The only Green Certified insect display business in the whole COUNTRY, they’ve got some lovely beetles and butterflies too.

Tricycle Beetle, $80

Yellow Migrant Framed Butterfly, $30

- Cathleen

[All images via Bugs Under Glass]