Monday, October 31, 2016

Bird Themed Birthday Cake Recipes

As promised I am back with the two most amazing cake recipes EVER.


In my last post I shared the details of my daughter's bird themed first birthday party and a lot of freebies. In case you missed it, click here.

I baked two cakes for the event since I didn't want to get in to the hassle of making a tiered one. I knew how I wanted them to look, I just needed a cake recipe. 

I decided to use different recipes for both the cakes. For the fondant cake I followed Robyn Stone's "The Best Chocolate Cake Recipe {Ever}". I came across it on Facebook ( I don't remember who posted it, perhaps one of the food pages that I follow). Robyn shared this recipe a few years back on her blog and she is still receiving a lot of positive comments! 


I am SO GLAD I followed it. It is definitely my go to cake recipe from now. The cake turned out soft, moist and simply DELICIOUS. I LOVED it and so did all my guests who got to taste this cake.The compliments just kept on coming 😄😄😄 And so did requests for the recipes!


Since this was my first time working with a fondant, I decided to go with ready-to-roll fondant icing. I used it to cover the cake, for birds, lettering and bunting. As easy as it was to make the birds and rest of the decorations covering the cake with fondant was a pain. They make it seem so easy in tutorials. I covered the "faults" with fondant decorations :p 




For my Bird Nest cake, I followed Maham Alavi's Chocolate Malt Cake recipe. It tastes amazing once refrigerated and cold. I used Kellogg's all-bran original to create the nest. Simply melt some dark chocolate and add it to a cup and a half of cereal. Then working quickly form the chocolate cereal mixture into a nest. Keep it in fridge for a couple of hours to set. Once set fill the nest with Cadbury mini eggs :)


CLICK HERE for the Best Chocolate Cake recipe.
CLICK HERE for the Malt Cake recipe.

 xx

Friday, October 28, 2016

Little Birdie Themed Birthday Party With Free Printables

YOU GUYS
I have been dying to share this with you!


You know how much I love diys.
And how much I love to do party decor on a budget.
Like this one here.
And here.

So when Inaya was turning one, I wanted her first birthday to not only be special but also memorable - involving lots of home made decorations and home baked goodness. Why go store-bought when you can go all-out diy, right? I decided to keep "Little Birdie" as the main theme (after all she is called chirya (birdie) by her beloved Aunt. I also wanted the colours to be soft, so I picked soft blues and pink and designed her birthday card.


I got chart papers and some lovely patterened papers from the craft store and used them to create the decor. I started out by designing the "Happy Birthday" banner.


Followed by "I am 1".


I used a styrofoam to create "1" sign


And used random boxes, toilet paper cardboard rolls and plastic cups to support some of the decor on the table. I found a really nice template for small bird house here and created my own for the bigger ones.


I made cute little buntings and tied them to skewers.


I designed toppers for the cupcakes on Photoshop, printed them out on normal printer paper and taped each to a toothpick. 


Some of the props for photo booth I designed on photoshop myself and the rest I found online.


Once I was done with the decor I got working on the desserts. Since we had invited a lot of people for the event, and having never baked for so many people before I decided to do two cakes instead of a tiered one. Besides, assembling a tiered cake seemed too complicated. I already knew how I wanted  the cakes to look so I just needed an awesome recipe for both.


Luckily the recipes I followed turned out amazing. Both the cakes were soft, moist, luxurious and simply DELICIOUS. I kept receiving compliments on how amazing they tasted! (Will share recipes in my next post)



It was a great party. We all had fun especially the little one.

If you are planning to throw a bird themed party for your little one or for someone you love, then you have come to the right place. Get clicking below for awesome freebies and don't forget to link back :)

 xx











click here to download "photobooth"

Monday, October 17, 2016

Hello!

I have been busy this weekend giving the blog a fresh little makeover. I have added some cute buttons on the right so that you can easily follow me on Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest and added a direct link to my Etsy shop in case you feel like purchasing original watercolor paintings for your home or as a gift for your loved ones this Christmas. 

I took a break from the blog for a while to look after my little baby. Being a first time mum is crazzzy! Especially when you are living in a foreign country far away from your family. This past one year and a half has been one hell of a roller coaster ride but so worth it all. 

And during this time I rediscovered my love for watercolors. I don't know why I have been shying away from it. If you have never worked with watercolors before then do try them out, trust me you'll love it! 

I also finally managed to set up my online store. When you are a stay-at-home mother to a tiny, super active toddler, and are trying to keep it all together - the mayhem of what we call the parenting or family life - you need an outlet that help define you as a person; a person outside the realm of a mother. Painting for me is that outlet, something that keeps me sane amidst the whirlwind of raising a toddler and keeping the family life running smoothly. And my little online shop is an icing on cake :)

Landscape painting, that got me started on watercolors again

That's all for now. Thanks for reading. Have a fabulous week you all! <3