Sweet 16 Cake

Alanna's daughter Kayla turned 16 in August and I made this cake for her actual birthday.  I think the stand up letters make the cake more festive.  You can learn how to do them here.

Here's what you'll need:

1 3/4 C Flour
2 C Sugar
3/4 C Cocoa Powder
2 t Baking Soda
1 t Baking Powder
1 t Salt
2 Eggs
1 C Buttermilk
1/2 C Vegetable Oil ~ I used Canola
1 t Vanilla
1 C Strong Hot Black Coffee ~ I used Espresso Roast

Combine your dry ingredients and mix well. Add wet ingredients with the exception of coffee. Give it a couple of minutes with the electric mixer. Pour in black coffee and mix until incorporated. The batter is a bit thinner than a cake mix.  Pour into greased pan.  I used a round pan that took about 40 minutes at 350.  If you used a 13x9, I'd start with 20-25. Bake until toothpick comes out clean.

I cut the cake into three layers and put a chocolate cream cheese frosting inside.

This is what you'll need:

1 brick Cream Cheese~softened, yep low fat
1 stick butter~softened
2 t Vanilla
3 1/2 C Powdered Sugar
1/2 C Hershey Cocoa

Mix together and frost.

For the outside I did a simple chocolate buttercream but you could also use the chocolate cream cheese if you wanted.

Decorate with your chocolate toppers, refrigerate for about an hour and serve.

  The kids enjoying dinner with some fun masks.

 Happy Sweet 16 Kayla!!

Super 16 Birthday Party

I don’t think I’ve had a party give me more anxiety than my son’s 16^th.  I wanted it to be special.  I wanted it to be comparable to a SWEET 16.  Just because he’s a boy shouldn’t mean that he not have the fun decorations and “big deal” made.  I finally came up with SUPER 16 and made a play from the Superman logo and it was a hit.  The small problem is, you have to create everything yourself.  BUT it was all fairly easy and the end result was a big smile from a SUPER kid.

I started with having his Dad put a 16 inside of the superman logo.  From there it was just a matter of printing different sizes.  In Microsoft Word I also created a few POW, BANG, ZAP and Happy Birthdays.  To do that I went to insert, shapes and used the first star shape

 I also sent the logo to a local t-shirt place and had t-shirts made for all the kids that were coming.  Not only did the kids all love it including his friends, but so did he!!

He wanted cheeseburgers for the food so I did a topping bar with that and kept the rest simple with deviled eggs, tuna salad, potato salad, beans, vegi and fruit tray and chips.  The sweet table was where I had a little fun because Max has always been about the sugar! 

I created Super 16s with colored chocolate melts from Michaels.  I put the logo under wax paper and with a squeeze bottle created the toppers for the cupcakes and cookie cake.

I dunked Oreos in red and drizzled with yellow, dunked marshmallows on sticks into red melts and frosted rice krispy bars with yellow chocolate and sprinkled.  We also had Nana's fudge and I scooped ice cream into small cups for root beer floats.

I bought some cheap yellow, red and blue bags at the dollar store, printed out smaller Super 16s and made goodie bags which I just filled with candy and a juice jug.  And even though they didn't say so, I could tell the older kids liked getting a goodie bag as much as the youngest kid there. 

The banner was just 8x10 sheets of paper that I printed with a font of 650.  I also had blue star balloons lining the driveway that I taped Super 16s to. 

Lastly, my favorite photo of the day.