Sweet Sixteen

Savanah had her Sweet Sixteen back in July.  She did something pretty cool.  She asked to have her party at Feed My Starving Children.  It's an organization that depends on volunteers to package meals to send to "starving" children all over the country.  So that's what we did.  25 of us (the youngest was 5 and the oldest was 82) put on hairnets and packaged meals for an hour and a half.  I can't remember how many boxes we did but let's just say, we were ROCK STARS!

 Getting directions

 At the food packaging station.

 All done and waiting to hear the total for our hard work.

Then we headed back to Chantel's to celebrate how fabulous she was.  Chantel did this awesome treat station in Savanah's favorite colors.  Yes, all the candy was blue, pink or purple!!  We each got to make our own goodie bag of treats to bring home.  Between you and I, I think this should be at EVERY party.  Heck, it should be at anything you go to;)

The problem was she didn't want a cake.  She wanted cookies and brownies which I made but you can't have a Sweet 16 without a cake?!?  What the heck was that child thinking?!?  I told her she was getting a cake and she agreed on one condition, NO stars.  All the Sweet 16 cakes I could find had stars of some sort on them.  I thought they were super cute.  She didn't share my opinion;)  So, I came up with this.  The 16 and her name is made out of white chocolate.  Those little purple balls?  Those are over-sized Sixlets.  Brilliant!  They're my new favorite thing.  Inside the large cupcake were pink and purple M&Ms.

Here's the beautiful birthday girl!

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!!