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I was holding back on this post until a certain baby Isabella made an appearance. Now that she got to exist as a human, I really wanted to show you how we prepared for her arrival with a baby shower some time back. As sweet as babies are, we all wanted to make the day even nicer so I prepared a sweet station. It was quite simple to put together and it was such a hit – so much so I really want to be throwing another party soon so I can repeat it! We went with pink but as you decorate it all yourself, you can really go all out on the theme, the options are endless. I reckon a rainbow theme would work really well too.

DSCN2035 Here’s what you’ll need:

– A few large bowls in all sorts of shapes, the huge decorative martini or wine glasses would work well too
– Ribbon to decorate
– As many types of sweets as you’d like (one per bowl)
– Cellophane bags with ties for takeaways
– Cookies
– Mini cupcakes
– A cake
– A cupcake stand (I used a cardboard one found in the pound store)
– Any party decorations/props which would suit your theme
– A party!

Arrange it all as artistically as possible and don’t forget to stuff yourself with all sorts of marvelous sweet things.

Here’s a close-up of the cake with the cutesy tiny presents I picked out for Isabella too:

Et voila!

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When you have a few picky eaters to please but want a show stopper cake, you need to get creative. No chocolate, no fruit (or in particular berries), no cream cheese frosting. So what do you do? You create a vanilla ombre pinata cake full of jelly beans, of course. It’s that simple – if the flavor must be rather plain, you just go all out on decorations.

I started by preparing three quarters of the batter for Jemma’s Rainbow Cake – I wanted 4 layers instead of 6 as it was to be a small family celebrations and I didn’t want any cake to go to waste. But instead of colouring them in rainbow colours, I created 4 shades of pink.

cake1

Once the cakes were baked and cooled, I used a round cutter to cut holes in the 3 darker shades, leaving the palest layer untouched. Once I had those 3 layers arranged on my cake board (using vanilla buttercream between them), I filled the gap with jelly beans all in pinks. I applied the top layer and did the crumb coat (a thin layer of icing meant to lock all crumbs). I left the cake to chill in the fridge for the icing to set and in the meantime I coloured the rest of my buttercream in 3 shades of pink. Using a large petal nozzle I then created a dark pink rose for the top and then created ruffles on the side of the cake for extra lush. You can see how to make the ruffles in this video (of course, again by Jemma – it also shows how to create the pinata effect).

cake2 When you’re done with this and it’s time for the party, sit back and enjoy the faces of the crowd as they cut into the cake and the jelly beans spill out!

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Cupcakes & Unicorns

Nadia's Baking Heaven

Party Idea: Sweet Station

The pinkest cake ever!