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

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"

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

Painting - Bread and Fruit Dish on a Table

I love to recreate paintings by famous artists.
Like this one here.
Taking on such projects is challenging.  You have to work on getting the colors right (if not exactly then as close to the original as much as possible). And since I work with acrylics, getting the colors to match does sometime get difficult. However, when I look at the finished piece, the exhilarating sense of accomplishment and feeling of immense satisfaction seems worth the time and effort.

I replicated Pablo Picasso's "Bread and Fruit Dish on a Table". The artist is famous for co-founding the Cubist movement. And I am a big fan of cubism. Besides impressionism, this is another favourite technique that I like to work with.

I love the vibrant colors. And though I had to struggle a bit with the shades and the painting itself might not be a perfect replica, all in all I am happy with my finished piece! 

Painting - Cherry Blossoms

A while back, actually make it a really long while back, I shared a glimpse of a painting I had been working on on my facebook page. I somehow never got around to sharing the finished piece. So let's have a look at it.

Inspired by Starry Night that I replicated for my sister, I decided to do another one in Vincent Van Gogh's style using bold, dramatic and circular brush strokes. Below are a few close up shots of the painting done in acrylics. 

xx

FREE Valentine's Day Printables for kids

When you have some great Photoshop brushes on the internet for free..like here and here..it means it's time for you to get creative and make some FUN (did i mention free!) Valentine's Day printables.

So simply print them out on 8.5 x 11 card stock paper and share with friends and family. xx

Watercolor Valentine Heart Tutorial

Yes, it's almost that time of the year again...

So how about something quick and easy?

That involves paper and paints..

And is also HANDMADE.

And let's paint them in three different ways: wet-on-wet, ombre and striped.

To check out V-day projects we have done in the past, click on an image below:

For this project you will need:

Scrap papers for your heart stencil/ heart template

1 x  5.5" by 5" piece of watercolor paper

2 x 4" by 4" piece of watercolor paper

Watercolor paints

Brushes

Scissors/ Craft knife

Pencil 

Ruler

Masking tape

Wet-on-wet

Start off by drawing a half heart on your scrap piece of paper. Make sure the paper is thicker than the normal printing paper so that the paint doesn't seep through it.

Fold the paper in half lengthwise and cut the heart out. This will be you heart stencil! 

Place your stencil on a 5.5" x 5" piece of watercolor paper and adhere it with masking tape.

Mix alizarin crimson with water and paint the heart. Let it dry.

Now working really fast, load your brush with alizarin crimson and paint the heart leaving some areas as you go along so that the first wash shows through.

While the paint is still wet drop in lemon yellow, cadmium orange and cadmium red in the middle, ultramarine blue and purple lake along one of the edges.

Then remove the stencil and let your heart painting dry.

Ombre

Begin by drawing an asymmetrical heart on a scrap piece of paper. Using a craft knife cut out your heart and adhere the stencil on a 4"x 4" piece of watercolor paper.

Load your brush with alizarin crimson and paint the top portion of the heart.

Next add cadmium red in the middle while the paint is still wet so that there's no distinct line separating the two washes. And finally add in purple lake to complete the heart.

Remove the stencil and let dry.

Striped

Make a symmetrical heart on a scrap piece of paper (like we did for wet-on-wet). Cut it out. This time we will use the cut out heart instead of  the stencil.

Place your heart cut-out on a 4"x4" piece of watercolor paper and lightly trace around it with a pencil.

Using a ruler, lightly draw horizontal lines at half inch intervals.

Now comes the fun part...painting the stripes!

You can go with whatever color scheme you like. If you want distinct lines, wait for each color to dry before moving on to next.

You can use these as it is with a personal message on the front/back, adhere it to a card or frame it up.

Get creative and have fun painting!