Flopsy, Mopsy & Cottontail Dessert Table for Charlotte’s 1st Birthday
I am very excited to share this Beatrix Potter themed 1st birthday party for an adorable baby girl named Charlotte. Specifically, the theme was “Flopsy, Mopsy, and Cottontail” (Peter Rabbit’s sisters) from the Beatrix Potter Storybooks. It was perfect for this spring-time birthday so close to Easter. Charlotte’s lovely mom, Terry, came to my mom and I for the desserts! I grew up down the street from Terry’s in-laws, so I feel like we’re very-close-family-friends-in law. Is that something? :)
Either way, I was so excited to make something special for little Charlotte’s 1st birthday and to get to collaborate with my mom on another project. We worked separately for the most part (her in New York and I in San Francisco) but we got to deliver everything together since I had plans to be in New York for Easter. We also checked in on each other’s work over Facetime, just for fun. By the way, this was the inspiration / “favorite scene” which Terry sent us:
I made Flopsy, Mopsy, and Cottontail cookies. The sisters in the book are basically identical so I made really one cookie.
However, each one came out different as they are all done entirely free-hand. So when you pick three at random, it’s like they were made a little bit different on purpose. Can you guess which one is which? 
I also made some cabbage / lettuce head oreo truffles (entirely inspired by these), which you will see below in the real party photos.
My mom made a beautiful cake with fondant figures that I thought were PERFECTION — almost looked like real porcelain little figurines.
For the other treats, my mom made cupcakes with cute little easter cupcake picks by meri meri. She put bunny-shaped marshmallows (something like these) in miniature wood crates and an assortment of pink & green easter candy in cute little pink polka dot nut cups. We found cute little gift tags (Treasures by Shabby Chic) at Michael’s and I wrote out labels for the dessert table.
Terry did all the rest of the adorable decor and set up. She even shared a photo album of the party with me, which I absolutely love getting! I did a little bit of photo editing & put together a montage to share with you below!
Thank you, Terry for the order and the beautiful photos and Happy Birthday Sweet Charlotte!!
April’s 1st Birthday
Here’s the thing. April (my niece who lives in Boston) just turned two (on April 15th). So, why is this post about her 1st Birthday? Well, some of my favorite things to blog sometimes, unfortunately, just get put aside. Perhaps it’s because I want to do an extra good job with the post/photos that other things that are easier for me to blog get to “cut the line”. Eventually, I feel like it’s too late to blog it and I feel blog guilt about it. This time, however, I had a fun idea that I could finally blog April’s 1st Brithday (“The Lost Footage” if you will) just in time for Cinco de Mayo. The party theme was bright colored flowers with some Mexican / Cinco de Mayo inspiration.
April LOVED her 1st birthday party. She really enjoyed it. Her face lit up when she realized everyone was watching her open presents and that all those presents were for her. She baby-signed “thank you” to everyone. It was adorable. Of course, there was this equally adorable meltdown that lasted a few seconds. My personal favorite. It’s how you know it’s been a successfully overwhelming day for the little one.
It faded quickly as soon as “Happy Birthday to You” started and of course some yummy new foods to try. First Sweet Kiera cookies and Nettie cake, ever!
April threw up her “uno” several times, at key moments, proud to show off knowing how many years old she is. Wow, time flies… I mean in just a couple weeks I’ll be posting her 2nd birthday! Let’s hope. 
My sister designed/created the birthday invitations, paper flower decorations, paper banner, table runner, and felt flower headband for April. My mom made the colorful flower cake and cupcakes. (And transported it from New York to Boston!) Brendan made the amazing Mexican food — mmm, carnitas. I made the flower cookies. With lots and lots of different icing colors! Cole photographed the party, beautifully! A solid team effort!
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Dr. Seuss Baby Shower Cookies!
I made these cookies for a Dr. Seuss themed baby shower, which my friend Britt planned for her sister-in-law. Britt had an adorable Pinterest board going with all sorts of Dr. Seuss themed ideas for food, decor, etc. that she shared with me. She used various books for the party inspiration, not just one. I thought that was really clever and allowed so many more possibilities for creativity! She asked me to do cookies for the dessert table and said I could use pretty much any book or character, except maybe One Fish, Two Fish as she had some cupcakes planned for that. Thing One and Thing Two and Cat in the Hat were good candidates for my cookie inspiration. The only “thing” I was trying to avoid with Thing 1 and Thing 2 cookies was implying twins, as the shower was just for one baby boy, to be named Harley! (Side note: It’s kind of nice knowing the baby’s name in planning things like this for a shower, I must say.) So, that brings me to what I ultimately came up with. Thing 1 Onesie Cookies and Thing 2 Baby Bottle Cookies!
I thought if I did baby items, like onesies and bottles, as the respective things, it was less twin-suggestive and more like “baby essentials”. Then for the Cat in the Hat inspiration, I went with the very recognizable hat design (red and white stripes) for letter cookies, to spell out the baby’s name. To give all of these cookies a really authentic Dr. Seuss touch, I tried to incorporate the shading style he uses (black lines). Emphasis on tried. I’m no Dr. Suess, but it was fun (and a little bit challenging) trying to guess how he would shade a baby bottle and onesie. I got major clues for the bottle by looking at the fish bowl from Cat in the Hat, actually! It was a delicate balance trying to not over do the shading and keep the cookies looking clean & consistent. I think it all came out pretty good though. Here’s a whole board of “things” I used for design inspiration.
Image Sources: Cat in the Hat Book Cover | Cat in the Hat’s Hat | | Thing 1 Thing 2 & Dr. Seuss Fish in Bowl | Thing One Onesie
Purple Floral Wreath Inspired Cake for Maria’s 40th Birthday
Just a quick post on a cake I made for Maria’s 40th Birthday, ordered by Vale. The direction for the cake was to make something with purple flowers and have “40″ somewhere on the cake. Also, a vanilla cake with chocolate frosting and marshmallow fondant! Let’s not forget these cakes are meant to be eaten.
My general inspiration was to have a “floral crown” or wreath on top of the cake. I wanted to put the 40 on the side of the cake, but sometimes my sketch of the cake doesn’t always work in real life. The drawing I did of the cake was way taller than what actually came out and Vale was OK with style adjustments, so my next best idea was to go vertical. I made cookie pops and gave them a little silver luster sheen, which kind of made them look like those massive mylar number balloons. A fun little bonus.
