the birthday cake

I made Alice's cake entirely from scratch. Dude. 

I used the Pioneer Woman's chocolate cake recipe. It's a sheet cake recipe made into a 4 layer cake. Except for this one. On this one, I accidentally destroyed one of the layers when I was making it flat. Whoops. But I like the 3 layer height for my 2 year old's party. And it's delicious and that is the most important thing anyways. 

The frosting is my Mother-in-law's recipe. YUM!

I made it a white cake with ruffles because it looked so sweet {and scrumptious!}.

I really liked how well the ruffles held up with this frosting.

And the white looked great with the decor, that was a plus. :) And it was delicious. Have I told you how tasty it was, yet?

Looking at the pictures of this yummy cake was too much, so now I'm munching on one of the last few slices. Delish!

Alice's 2nd Birthday Party

Alice had her 2nd birthday party Saturday and I had so much fun decorating and getting ready for it. We had family come into town and great friends at her party. It was such a fun time!

birthday fun

Josh surprised me by coming home early from work yesterday and taking us all out to ice cream.

We had such a great time. And who doesn't like dessert before dinner?

We even got to hang out with friends that just happened to be getting ice cream at the same time. Fun!

We stopped at Chick fila for a quick dinner and then went home for a color powder fight. Alice was tired so we put her down to bed which ended up being perfect because I don't think that she would have handled our powder fight very well.

We had SO MUCH FUN running around and bombing each other with colors.

Josh said that it looked like we had gotten into a fight with a rainbow. 

I love how everybody looked!

And yes, it CAN stain. Mostly our clothes are fine, but the white parts are stained, but I think mainly because Josh washed the load and so the color catcher sheet did not make it into the wash. And random body parts were stained, such as the inside of my elbow, Josh's wrist, and mine & Kate's hair.

Fun birthday times!

Kate's party favors

Since Kate was having a painting party what better to send home as a party favor than a watercolor set?!

I found them for a $1 at Target. Then I wrapped them with ribbon {adding a thank you tag} and curled the ends.

They were such a hit and so simple.

I had started to make my own party hats but didn't have time to finish them. My sister saved me by picking up cute party hat tiaras. Thanks sis! I plan on using the hats for my birthday party. {Oh yes. I'm going to throw myself a party.}

big chocolate cake reveal

Remember The Pioneer Woman's Big Chocolate Cake that I said I was going to attempt? Well, it turned out great. I am thrilled for my first cake made without a cake mix. Actually, I think it turned out a lot better than my cake mix cakes.

Here's a photo of me stacking my four layers.

Kate was very eager to start eating her big chocolate cake.

I even attempted The Pioneer Woman's chocolate curls and I think they turned out pretty great for my first time. I couldn't find her recipe printed anywhere online but copied it down while watching the Ladd's Birthday episode.

*update* 

I found the chocolate curls recipe!

My frosting was not as creamy as Ree Drummond's {The Pioneer Woman}. I should have made sure that all of the chocolate pieces were melted by the cream before I put it in the fridge to chill. Plus I should have made the frosting first thing in the morning, too, that way it would have had enough time to fully chill before I whipped it into delicious submission.

I found these pretty magic wand candles at the store and had her help me put them on. She put them exactly where she wanted them even though each time after she put a candle on I turned the cake for her to put the next one in a different spot. She just reached over the whole cake to get the next one right next to the one before. 

She must have wanted them in the optimal wish-blowing position.

Thanks Ree for a delicious chocolate cake! 

Seriously. It was delicious.

p.s. That's my friend Amy cutting the cake for me. Thanks Amy!