Thursday, September 27, 2012

Sweet Sixteen



My baby is turning Sixteen...and much to her disapproval...I get to plan a party...I eventually pried the color scheme out of her all I had to do was threaten her with baby pink and yellow...she chose aqua and orange...Perfect because after rounding up stuff I already had...I really didn't have much to purchase...I had aqua ribbon, white tissue paper pom, orange balloons and party picks from the last party....Free items Snapple bottle, Classico bottle, orange ribbon, and paint chip card stock (Walmart).  The Items I purchased were white party favor boxes, foil shreds, orange flowers from the Dollar Store...Orange Plates and Martha Stewart garland from TJmaxx...tissue paper from Target (I purchased the tablecloth from there also but ended up returning)...Crystals and the numbers 1 and 6 from Hobby Lobby...Glitz ribbon from Amazon and Aqua straws from Etsy...All told spent a little over budget but still pretty reasonable around $25.00. 

The silver shreds became the table runner instead of a tablecloth...I found aqua paint and painted the inside of the Classico and Snapple bottle...the Snapple bottle has a beautiful S already engraved on it so I glitzed it up by spelling Sixteen around the bottle, tied a ribbon around and put the leftover flowers in vase...The Classico bottle held the too cute aqua straws... and a perfect addition to the bottle was an orange flower with a crystal hot glued to the center...I used that same design orange flower with crystal center for the white favor bags filled with candy and the Martha Stewart garland...




 

 On to the cake...I planned to do a two tier cake using a 12 in cake pan for the bottom cake and an eight inch pan for the top tier...I needed a custom cake plate due to the 12 in size...just take any cardboard cut a little bit larger than the cake pan...cover with aluminum foil...cut small circles out of free paint chips in the color of the party (I ended up using the wrapping paper for a better pop of colors)...use double sided tape to adhere...you end up with a beautiful scalloped edge...Don't have a circle cutter just fan paint chips overlapping them and adhere...




 
 
 Cake topper...with your hot glue gun glue sticks to the back for support...spray paint the numbers silver...then use a glue stick to glue crystals to the front and back...cut the sticks to an appropriate length to go through both layers of your cake...(mine were cut to about 5 inches)...cut small slits with a knife in a cardboard cake circle for the sticks to go through...I labeled the underside of the cake circle front, back and 1 and 6 to make placement of topper simple...Cover the cake circle with foil...now it is ready for the cake...I used two boxes of  any cake mix for the 12 in and 8 in cakes...Prepared as per the package instructions...
Once cooled I transferred the cakes to the cake circles...Placed the cakes in the freezer for a minimum of 15 minutes...Iced the cakes with icing (I used regular Betty Crocker white icing)...Back into the freezer they went for a minimum of 15 minutes...once out I smoothed out any icing high marks and readied the fondant...I buy Wilton's Fondant from Michaels using the 40% off coupon I only paid $11.00... this was enough fondant for both cakes plus with half left over for next party...Prior to using I knead the fondant to get it pliable...spread powdered sugar out on very clean counter and roll out...for the 8 in cake I rolled it out at least to 12 inches and for the 12 in cake I rolled it out to at least 18 in...once you place it over the cake...press gently then go around edges to cut off the excess...Last step is to smooth any imperfections with a smoothing fondant tool...(I never strive to have the perfection that a professional cake maker would have remember imperfection is perfectly perfect)...For the 8 inch cake at this point after the fondant was placed I used extra sticks to poke from the underside of the cake circle through the top of the cake so that I could see the pattern of where to place the topper on cake...Once the topper is through the cake circle just stack the cakes on top of each other...place flowers around any sticks that are visible...now for the edges of the cake...the glitz ribbon just sticks to the cake and hides the imperfection of the cake edge I used this on both layers...Last detail was a leaf glitzed up with a crystal...Phew I know it sounds like a lot but by far it was a very simple cake...My first and only other fondant cake was a topsy turvy now that was hard...
 
 
 

 
I wish I could keep decorating but my daughter insists that this is enough already...so I'll have to stop for now...It is her day her Sweet Sixteen...omg I am starting to tear up again that's been happening a lot lately is that normal??
 
Menu items:  Taco Bar...Soft and Hard Shells, Taco Meat and Pork Carnitas (same pork recipe already posted just change the rub to a southwest seasoning and top with a white queso cheese sauce), Mexican Rice, Refried Beans, Fresh Salsa and Guacamole and Tortilla Chips, Loads of toppings: Lettuce, Onion, Jalepeno, Tomato, Sour Cream, Cheese and Cilantro.
Desserts: Fried Ice Cream, Cake, Brownies (half of the batch I iced with a german chocolate icing yum), Store bought Busken and Loftouse Cookies they are sooooo good and my daughter's favorite...

 

 
 



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