BOOOO! Halloween Party

There is no doubt that Halloween is one of my favorite holidays.  I don't know if it is because it kind of signifies the beginning of Fall for me, or if its the excitement everyone gets over dressing up and pretending to be something else for the day!  Last year, I was able to plan my first Halloween party and boy was it a good time.  I scoured Michaels, Hobby Lobby, Dollar Tree, Party City, thrift stores and every Halloween store in town to find the best decoration deals I could.

My husband and I decided we wanted to keep the party in the garage and have it be adults only.  This allowed us to get a little creepier with the decor and by having it in the garage, we could set it up ahead of time.  For this party, I stocked up on a TON of "creepy cloth" and cobwebs from the Dollar Tree.  I wanted the look of this party to be that of an old, abandoned house.

I brought in some small furniture (love seat, oversized chair, side table) from our house and used some patio chairs and rocking chairs from our front porch.  I covered each piece of furniture that was going to be sat in with a white sheet, giving it the abandoned house look.  All of my sheets were thrift store finds and were under $5 (sheets had to be large to fit over the furniture).

I hung the creepy cloth all over the garage, making sure to tear and stretch it to give it an authentic look.  Cobwebs went everywhere cobwebs could go, making it look as if the place hadn't been cleaned in decades.  I also put plastic rats, crows and a variety of bugs anywhere I could.  I had two small tables that I used to put little extras on, such as, spray painted black vases with black flowers, old candle holders, candelabras, creepy pictures in frames, old books and an old creepy telephone.  The room was lit just by tons of candles to give it yet another element of abandonedness.

I had purchased two animated dolls from our local Halloween store.  One little girl that sat on a swing that hung from the ceiling and hummed some creepy tune and one little girl that stood about 4ft high and looked like the girl from the Exorcist.  She too hummed a creepy tune and lunged at you when you least expected it.  I also invested in a small fog machine from Party City that took the party to a whole new level of scary!

A couple of thrift store dolls were given a makeover and turned into some creepy bystanders that
stared at you no matter where you were in the garage.  I was pretty proud of their scary makeovers.

For the dessert table, I covered the table with a black table cloth and spread moss over the top of the table.  I used a roll of "weathered wood" paper from Michaels to create the backdrop, along with a black mirror from Bed, Bath and Beyond and two scary pictures in frames from the Dollar Tree.  The focal point on the table was a huge candelabra from Michaels (use coupons,
it saves a TON) with matching black candles (also from Michaels).  I had two glass containers from another party that went on either side of the candelabra, filled with a skull and bones and more moss.  Of course, everything (besides the food) was also covered in cobwebs.

As for the desserts, I made carmel apples, using a Dollar Tree knife as the stick.  I also made red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting and shards of "glass" made from drying a sugar syrup and breaking it into pieces.  I made a simple pistachio bundt cake and covered it with red
frosting to mimic blood and made marshmallow pops, stuck into a styrofoam skull.  Lastly, I made piñata headstone cookies with mini m&m's inside and "bones" out of pretzels, mini marshmallows and white chocolate (tutorial shared below).

Marshmallow and Pretzel "Bones"

Ingredients:
1 Package of pretzel sticks
1 Package of mini marshmallows
1 Package of white chocolate (I use Baker's brand)

Take one pretzel stick and push a mini marshmallow onto each end.  Melt white chocolate on double broiler, until smooth.  You may also use a microwave by putting the white chocolate in a microwave safe bowl and heating at 30 second increments, stirring in between, until white chocolate is smooth.  Dip assembled pretzels into white chocolate and let dry on parchment paper.



This party was so much fun and everyone that attended loved it! We loved the decorations so much, we left them up for trick or treaters, some of which were scared to come into the garage.  We had people in our neighborhood giving us so many compliments and I can't wait until our next Halloween party!

Hope you enjoyed this party as much as we did.

Until next time,
Creative Details Event Planning.

Minnie Mouse or Bust

It is so hard to believe it has been so long since I have posted on here.  So many things have happened in the long year and a half since my last post.  We have recently relocated to the East Coast and are just getting settled in to our new place and new routines.  My one and only little one started kindergarten this year and I have been a ball of emotions to say the least.  The past year and a half have been nothing short of awesome and I have a ton of parties to share with you guys.  You may also notice the new name.  This month, I decided to take a bit of a turn in my focus.  I still LOVE cake and cupcake decorating, but I have decided party planning is more my passion.  I will still share my baking ideas but you will see more of my posts will be on party planning.  Over the course of the next month or so, I want to show you what I have been up to and I hope you guys enjoy :)

This post is dedicated to the loveliest mouse of all.  The one and only Minnie Mouse.  This was my daughters 4th birthday party theme last year (2013).  I started out only wanting to do a very small, "no big deal" party because we were spending a few days at Disneyland for Emma's actual birthday.  Who was I kidding, me do "no big deal"?  It just didn't happen that way, but it ended up super fun and most importantly, the birthday girl LOVED it and it was a magical way to begin our trip to the happiest place on earth.

We started the party out at our local beach where we enjoyed a nice BBQ with our friends and family and of course some fun in the sun!  After a couple hours and full bellies, we made our way back to our house to celebrate some more with cake and ice cream.

For the cake, I used the Wilton Giant Cupcake Pan, frosted the bottom with a pink, high humidity frosting to match the rest of the decor.  I then used the rose swirl technique to frost the top of the giant cupcake (tutorial coming soon).  I had previously made Minnie ears out of black fondant with spaghetti noodles at the picks to stick into the cake.  I also made a pretty pink bow and Disney font letters/number for "Emma" and "4", using Disney font I found online, printing off the letters/number I needed in the size needed, covering with wax paper, and using black fondant to outline the letters/number.



For the matching cupcakes, I made Minnie ears out of black fondant, using a small circle cutter and pink bows using a silicone mold I have.  I decorated each cupcake using the rose swirl technique and placed two ears on each cupcake with a bow in the middle. For the other cupcakes, I decorated them using the rose swirl technique and placed small, white ball candies on the tops to mimic Minnie's polka dots on her dress.




I also made Minnie shaped sugar cookies (will share the recipe in a later post) with coordinating frosting colors and chocolate dipped Minnie Oreo cookies.  I have had a TON of questions on how I made these Oreo cookies and they were quite simple.  Although I don't have process pics, I thought I would quickly share how they were made for all those how would like to make them as well.








Minne Mouse Oreo Cookies:

Ingredients:
1 package of double stuffed Oreo cookies
1 large package (or several little ones) of mini Oreo cookies
1 package of white chocolate, separate some for dying and a small amount to keep white (I used Bakers brand white chocolate)
Pink chocolate food coloring (yes there is a difference from regular food coloring, I will explain below)

Start out by disassembling the mini Oreo cookies, scraping the filling from the backs of either cookie,  so you have two mini cookies.  Then take one double stuffed Oreo and gently press both mini cookies into the filling of the double stuffed Oreo, making "ears".  You can also use some frosting or melted white chocolate to keep the "ears" secure, but I found that I didn't need it.  After you have assembled the Minnie Oreos, slowly melt white chocolate over a double broiler, until smooth.  You can also use the microwave to melt the chocolate.  Simply use a microwave safe bowl and heat the chocolate for 30 seconds at a time, stirring in between, until chocolate is smooth.  Then, using chocolate food coloring, dye the chocolate the desired color.  You must use chocolate food coloring due to the oil in the chocolate or your chocolate will not hold the color and separate.  I also use Flo-Coat by AmericColor to make sure my chocolate has that smooth consistency.

After your chocolate has reached your desired color, take each Oreo, being careful to keep the "ears" in place, and dip the bottom portion of your double stuffed Oreo half way in the chocolate.  Let dry on parchment paper.  While the chocolate is drying, you may also use some of the left over colored white chocolate to make a small bow between the "ears", using a small cake decorating tip (Wiltons round #2) in a decorating bag.

After the chocolate has dried, melt the remaining white chocolate to make the polka dots.  Use a small cake decorating tip (Wilton round #2), in a decorating bag, and fill it with the melted white chocolate, making sure it has cooled enough to handle, but not enough to begin to harden.  Make small polka dots on the colored white chocolate to mimic the polka dots on Minnie's dress.  Let dry and enjoy.

Hope you enjoyed this party as much as I did planning it.  I look forward to sharing more fun parties with you in the near future.

Until next time,
Creative Details Event Planning

Flirty 30

Hello again to my faithful followers, all 6 of them ;)  I have been a bit MIA lately.  I remember last year writing about one of my new years resolutions being to blog more...well that didn't go so well haha.  Maybe this year I can try it again (even though it is already 1/4 into the year and this is my first post :/ )

I recently celebrated a milestone birthday, the big 3-0.  I can't say that I was thrilled to let my 20's be a thing of the past, but it has proven to be okay so far.  I had originally planned this over the top, 50 Shades of Grey themed "dirty 30" birthday bash for myself.  Everyone was going to wear gray, have masquerade masks on and we were going to celebrate eating foods that reminded us of the books and the characters that made the book so interesting ;) Submissive Subs, Bow 'tie me up' pasta, red room of pain velvet cupcakes, vanilla cupcakes, soft limits taffy, hard limits candy, you get the point.  Well finally I decided, why am I throwing my own party and causing myself stress on my own birthday!?!?!  I called the party off and planned on just having a stress free, low key get together with friends and family. 

On the Saturday before my birthday, we had some friends visiting from out of town and my friend Jaime and I went to get our nails done.  My husband made the appt, which was a little odd, but I didn't think much of it.  When we got to the nail salon, the nail tech asked to look at my nails.  I wasn't quite sure why she needed to see my nails as I had planned on just getting a quick mani/pedi.  She kept pushing getting fake nails to make them longer because I am a biter :)  I had just taken a set off and my nails were still thin from it, so I didn't really want to damage them more.  Finally Jaime said that Todd insisted I get the fake set.  I text Todd asking why I had to get them, because this was MY birthday weekend :)  He told me to stop being difficult and to do what he said.  I had a nail color all picked out and the tech came out with a printed out nail design based on one of the 50 Shades book covers. 

From what I was told, we were going out to dinner as a family to celebrate my upcoming day.  I thought maybe he just wanted me to have a piece of the book I loved so much since I wasn't doing the big party.  After my nails were dry, the tech led me back to the waxing room.  My first thought was, OH GEEZ, NOW WHAT!!!!!  Inside the room, she told me to change into a purple dress that had been left there for me (for anyone who hasn't read the books, Anna's favorite dress is purple).  On the box of shoes that were also left was a note saying: "Put this on and meet me at home. -Mr. Grey".  Then I got to thinking, maybe he is taking me to Seattle ;)  I put the dress on and Jaime and I headed back to our house.

When we got back to the house, I did suspiciously look around to see if there were any cars I recognized haha.  There weren't of course.  When I opened the door, to my surprise, a huge SURPRISE was shouted at me!!! 

It took me a while to take everything in.  There were all of my closest friends and family, wearing gray, in masks ready to celebrate my 30th.  As I looked around, I saw the vanilla and red velvet cupcakes, little wine with gray stripped straws, chocolate "keys to the playroom", submissive subs, sea salt chips, bow "tie me up" pasta!!! Everything I had envisioned for my own party was right in front of me and I didn't have to do any of the work!  It was fabulous!  My mom put together all the little details of the party, with help from my hubby, aunt and close friends as if she had been in my head!  I could not believe all the details and work that they had put into it!

We had a fabulous evening and I felt so special that I got to spend it with all my favorite people!  Hope you guys enjoy the pictures as much as I enjoyed telling you about the party :)

Until next time,
Lacey Cakes

It's Jungle Time

Well it has been a little while since my last post, and for good reason :)  My hubby is finally home from a 7 month deployment and my time has been devoted to him and our family for the past month.  That doesn't mean I haven't been busy coming up and styling parties (the ideas never stop churning around in my mind).  My most recent party was for a dear friend of ours who after years of trying, she and her husband are finally about to welcome their first bundle of joy, a little boy named Ryan.

The mommy and daddy to be had first thought they were not going to find out the gender of the little peanut, so we settled on a gender neutral, safari/jungle theme.  After not being able to handle the suspense, they decided to find out the gender and it is a BOY!!  I also had the pleasure of designing the cupcakes for their gender reveal party, which I will share in another post.

Since the safari/jungle theme still fit, we decided to keep it.  For the shower, I designed a dessert table, fit for the king of the jungle.  With a custom backdrop to look like jungle vines and glass palm trees with brown gumballs, the table was the draw of the party.  I got burlap at our local Joann's and used it for the table covering and hand made a custom banner out of felt that the guests of honor could hang above the crib in the nursery.  I found a great burlap lined basket at our local Marshall's, turned it upside down and used it to elevate the cupcake stand.  The cupcakes stand and hand cut palm leaves and was custom made for this event.

As for the desserts on the table (the best part of the table), the mommy-to-be wanted Lemon/Blueberry cupcakes.  I handmade fondant cupcake toppers that were both 3D and 2D, as well as some that were animal print to go on top of the yummy cakes.  The dessert table also had hand dipped marshmallow pops, sugar cookie cut outs shaped like bananas and a small candy buffet.

As for the decor, we hung multi-colored green streamers on the light fixtures to resemble jungle vines and placed baby jungle animals in the center of the tables as well as on the autograph table (that the mommy and daddy-to-be could use in the little guys nursery as well) with green jungle vines around them.

For the games, the guests were greeted with a small pacifier necklace for the "Don't Say Baby" game ( pretty self explanatory, say baby and someone gets your necklace.  Person with the most necklaces at the end of the shower wins), and also played "What's in the Diaper" (where guests have to guess what melted candy is in a diaper by smelling, tasting or whatever else someone could come up with), "Mold a Baby" (where guests molded a baby out of play-doh and the daddy-to-be picked the winner) and "Guess how many M&M's are in the bottle" (where guests took a guess on how many M&M's were in a giant bottle, closest to the correct number won).

For the food, sub sandwiches were provided by an AMAZING local sub shop, Hungry Bear Sub Shop.  The guests enjoyed the subs, as well as pasta salad, macaroni salad, chips and fruit.

After lunch, the guests enjoyed some swimming in the club house pool and some casual conversation before the Mommy-to-be opened all over her great gifts!

The party turned out great, and was one of the funnest I have done so far.  Hope you enjoy all of my crazy ideas!

Until Next Time,
Lacey Cakes

Tangled in FUN!!

Yesterday we celebrated our daughter's 3rd birthday!  Hard to believe she is 3 already! I have been working on this party for a few months now and I have to say, it is my best one yet.  The details all came together so amazingly and everyone had a really good time!  I always love seeing a vision come all together and love seeing it turn out the way it was envisioned.

We started the celebration the day of her birthday and wanted to share her birthday day cake first :)

I started with awesome, homemade invitation inspired by Paging Supermom and designed by Courson Graphics. 


 The party was held at the Camp Pendleton Arts and Crafts Hobby Shop and the kids got to pick out and paint their own ceramics.  We spent time eating, painting and enjoying the company and at the end of the party, we even got a special visit by Rapunzel herself!  The ladies at the Hobby Shop went above and beyond and really made the party effortless!

  I tried a backdrop for the first time and replicated the mural on Rapunzel's tower wall.  It turned out great and really pulled the entire table together.  I used some retaining wall bricks to set the custom cupcake/cake tower up higher and to also provide some height for the fruit and cheese and cracker trays.  I bought some easels at Michael's to label the foods and used some yellow lilies from our yard, along with some ferns to add a little floral to the table. We braided a long braid using yellow yarn to wind through the table and to also greet the guests as they entered the party room. I used a pennant stencil designed by Courson Graphics and cut out flags of purple felt as well as yellow bursting suns to make a Happy 3rd Birthday banner that hung above the table.

As for the food, we used some fruits and cheese, crackers and salami to stay with the theme as well as some adorable jello boats using blue Jello with a slice of orange and the town flag on a toothpick to act as the canoe Rapunzel and Flynn Rider used to view the floating lanterns.  I also tried out ice cream cone cupcakes for the first time and decorated the outside of the cone to look like Rapunzel's tower and piped some purple frosting to act as the roof.  I added some colored gumballs and some marshmallow pops with cake pop petals to make them look like flowers to the table.

For the main course we did simple turkey and cheese sandwiches from our local mom and pop sandwich shop that were amazing and perfecting put together by the shop!  If you are ever in the Southern California area, I strongly suggest trying out Hungry Bear Sub Shop in Escondido...AMAZING and a pound of meat on each sandwich!

My favorite part of the party was the cupcakes and cake.  I made the cupcake toppers, pulling inspiration from the movie.  There were 5 different toppers: Pascal inspired, cast iron skillet, braided hair, paint set and a bursting sun.  All the toppers topped off a Lemon Blueberry cupcake that was a new recipe for me and it was very yummy!  As for the cake, I decided to try the Ombre style, using 3 different colors to match the purple color scheme.  I topped the cake off with the Rapunzel inspired cake topper I had made with a small town square pennant behind her.  The cupcakes, as well as the cake were all placed on a custom cupcake/cake stand that I made with a tutu on the bottom tier and the center pillar looking like the tower with braided hair circling the tower.

For the favors, I purchased tiny cast iron skillets online from Ron's Home and Hardware and filled them with custom M&M's with my daughters photo on them.  I also purchased some simple, small purple bags from the Dollar Tree and cut out a bursting sun and glued them on the bag to look like the town flag.  I filled them with "Rapunzel's Paints", princess lip gloss, comb and mirror, Tangled towel, princess wand, princess book and Tangled gummies.  I hand made the party hats using a template I found at Oh Happy Day.  I cut them out of purple card stock and attached a yellow card stock bursting sun to go with the theme of the day.  I hand braided yellow yarn and attached it coming out of the top of the party hat to look like Rapunzel's hair!

Thank you again to all our amazing friends and family who shared the special day with us!  Hope you all enjoy the pics!

Until next time,
Lacey Cakes