One Smart Little Cookie is a collection of everything that brings inspiration, comfort and beauty into my life and home.
I love to create a beautiful home and enjoy it with my family.
It is sharing
what I love to do; baking and cooking in a healthier way without sacrificing flavor
, crafts,
party planning, activities, organization, and home decor.

Being a "Smart Little Cookie" is not about being perfect, it is about knowing how to enjoy life and family to it's fullest~to your fullest.
Due to my creative process, my home gets messy, my kids play in their jammies-all day sometimes (the terribly relaxed days tend to be my favorite),
and my hubby has become much more patient and supportive over the years with all of this.
In fact, he often has his own creative ideas and we both find ourselves anticipating our upcoming projects together~love him!
Don't get me wrong, I LOVE a clean house, but I've rejected denial, and with a toddler who is a budding creative type herself,
I feel accomplished when the dishes are in the dishwasher before naptime (not mine, hers).
I've accepted the fact that "spotless" cannot mean what I have always
envisioned in my mind, at least not with kids,
and I would rather enjoy my kids and beautiful home, than a spotless, sterile home.
I have learned to take each day, one day at a time, and everyday should leave us feeling inspired and more contented.
The day should leave us, whispering in our ear, "the day has been as well as it could have been done, and it has been done well."

Go ahead and take a bite, indulge yourself and try my recipes and crafty creations in your own home.
I hope to inspire you to feel like the "Smart Little Cookie" you are!




Showing posts with label Themed Cakes and Treats. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Themed Cakes and Treats. Show all posts

Thursday, February 2, 2012

Cooking Mama Birthday Party


My daughter's have always asked to have princess parties to celebrate their birthdays with their friends and that is what I have been used to putting together and throwing for them.  This year my 8-years-old daughter asked to have a Cooking Mama party.  I was going between feelings of sadness that for the first time ever in our family, The Disney Princesses weren't going to make their annual debut; and a little excited to plan something completely different.  I first googled "Cooking Mama Birthday Party"...nothing came up on the internet.  I couldn't believe the theme was nowhere in the realms of "internet space"!  Apparently, Cooking Mama is part of the Wild Frontier of birthday parties.  So, to my birthday party planning board I went and this is what I put together for her.


  Hamburger Cake

I usually bake from scratch because that's what I enjoy doing.  But with a guest list of 26 cute and silly friends, I went the boxed route.  No biggie! It made my life so much easier to do it this way.  I purchased enough boxed yellow cake mixes, brownie mixes and sugar cookie mixes to make the yummy treats I needed for the party.

This cake is fairly simple to make.  I baked a yellow cake mix in a regular round cake pan and a second yellow cake in a Pyrex glass bowl.  Spray each with Pam Cooking Spray For Baking~it has flour mixed into the spray making it much easier to turn the cakes out of the pans.  While the yellow cake "hamburger buns" are cooling, mix one brownie mix and pour into a round cake pan (either the same pan that has been completely washed, or another pan exactly the same size as the one previously used).  Bake the brownie "hamburger patty" just until set.  Remove from the oven, turn out of pan and let cool completely.
Now assemble the hamburger cake with lettuce, mustard and ketchup Frosting, here's how:

This is another of my favorite frosting recipes~
(You can use canned frosting too, nothing wrong with that.  Whatever makes your day easier! I just enjoy the flavor of homemade frosting best.)

Perfect Buttercream Frosting

                                     5 T butter                    2 1/3 c powdered sugar
                                     dash of salt                   1/2 t vanilla extract
                                     3 T milk                       red, green, yellow and blue food coloring
                                          
 Soften butter, add salt and powdered sugar.  Beat until smooth and fluffy.  Add vanilla extract.  Separate frosting into 4 different medium sized bowls.  Keep one bowl of frosting white (mayonnaise), add red food color (a lot!) into another bowl with 1 very tiny drop of blue (this will make the ketchup a little bit deeper in color), add yellow (again, a lot!) into another bowl (mustard), and in the last bowl add a few drops of green (lettuce).
Fill 1freezer Ziploc baggy (thicker than the regular baggies) with red, another with yellow and last with green.  Cut a small tip off of the corner of each baggie, set aside.

First place bottom hamburger bun on a cake stand or plate, using the white frosting frost a medium size inner circle on top of the bottom bun.  Place round brownie center on top.  Frost a smaller inner circle on top of the brownie layer, also pipe each condiment frosting as desired for the lettuce, mustard and ketchup.  Place top cake bun on top of the brownie layer.   Place in refrigerator until ready to display and serve.  That's it, you're done!


Mini Hamburgers and Sugar Cookie Fries
 
Next I found this great tutorial for Mini Hamburgers and Sugar Cookie Fries here:  
http://www.bakerella.com/fast-food-fun/ I think the buns came out much more realistic and cute when I left them in the oven until they were a medium golden brown.

I made these as part of the party favors.  I made a small "Cooking Mama" card to add to the theme and slipped them into each of the vellum fry holder's I made.  I also made the paper food trays which I downloaded from here: http://zakkalife.blogspot.com/2010/03/how-to-make-paper-food-baskets.html.  I googled "red gingham images" and found  a cute pattern I liked.  I then resized it and printed the pattern onto cardstock, reran it through the printer with the paper food tray download and made enough for each guest at the party.  I then lined each paper food tray with tracing paper and added the hamburger cupcake and sugar cookie fries.


Sugar Cookie Fries with Mustard and Ketchup Frosting

I used the extra Sugar Cookie Fries and condiment frostings as part of the treats at the party. I also made Peanut Butter and Jelly Sushi Rolls and Honey Caramel Popcorn.



Games!
  As each guest arrived they chose a handkerchief to wear on their heads like Cooking Mama.  The boys can wear the handkerchiefs around their necks like a chef.  They chose from Red, Pink, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue and Purple.


Marshmallow Skewers

 
The kids had 15 seconds on a timer to put 5 large marshmallows on their sticks.  This one was a lot of fun!

  
Hot Dog! (Hot Potato)

My husband found the cutest plush hamburger and hot dog at the dollar store.  We played Cooking Mama music from Youtube as they passed the Hot Dog around as quickly as they could! 


Egg Relay Race

I hard boiled 3 eggs and split everyone into teams of two.  One person had to walk across the room balancing an egg on a plastic fork in their mouth, while the other tried to catch the egg being dropped into a cupcake cup at the end.  Lot's of fun and giggles!


Cook The Fish In The Pot Toss







Frost The Cookie...and eat it!

30 seconds to frost and eat their cookies.


Decorations







The Party Fun








The Birthday Girl




Cooking Mama says, 
"It's Delicious!" 



Saturday, January 22, 2011

Under The Sea Birthday Party

My oldest daughter just turned 7 years old and Loves Ariel! So, for her friend party she really wanted to have an "Under The Sea" party.  
I tried to make it as original and sweet as I could.  Something I hoped a mermaid like Ariel would like to attend while on land.



The Decorations


Smart Little Cookie Tip:
Balloon "bubbles" float above the fishies I cut out of cardstock and scrapbook paper free handed.

Fishies swimming through and around the "seaweed" crepe paper.


Party Games

When the princesses arrived, they each chose a hibiscus flower clip (the flower of mermaids) for their hair and a mermaid name chosen by combining their favorite color with their favorite gemstone, 
making them mermaids for the afternoon!

Pin The Flower on The Mermaid

For this game I printed an image of Ariel and mounted it on cardstock.  For the flower, I printed a beautiful coral hibiscus flower also on cardstock 
and used double stick tape on the back so the girls could try to pin it on Ariel's hair while blindfolded.

Feed The Shark

 My hubby made this awesome shark for me.  He did a great job! For this game I purchased the cutest little bean bag fishies at orientaltrading.com.  The girls had so much fun playing, this was hands down their favorite game at the party!
We also played freeze dance to The Little Mermaid Soundtrack, which was also a big hit!


The Party Favors

 These are the adorable party favors I found at orientaltrading.com as well. The cost of a "cake" of ten is the same price as a package of colored paper bags, I had to get it! I printed and cutout starfish name cards and placed them on top of the favor boxes to add to the mermaid theme.


Under The Sea Punch

I mixed 2 liters of Sprite with 2 drops blue food coloring, that easy!


 The Cupcakes

You can make any flavor cupcake your mermaid's heart desires.  Mine loves chocolate, so I made chocolate cupcakes, filled them with lemon creme filling, frosted them with a turquoise "bubble" ring and topped them with a chocolate molded flower.  She Loved them!

Smart Little Cookie Tip:
You don't need to use the expensive chocolate melting wafers found at craft stores.  I prefer to use chocolate chips.  Melt them for 20 seconds at a time, pour into candy molds that fit the theme of your party and freeze until set.


The Ice Cream

 Smart Little Cookie Tip:
This is a great tip I read about somewhere a while back.  The day before the party, scoop ice cream into cupcake cups, cover and freeze.  No messy hands while scooping ice cream at the party, no waiting and no melted mess on the party plates or your floor during cake and ice cream time!
I LOVE this tip!


The Fun!








It was such a fun afternoon with these Little Mermaids!