Our Princess Turns 4!

Our youngest is very much a girly-girl. All of her clothes must be pink, although she may accept some purple. Her birthday was this past week and a princess theme was a must. I got lots of great ideas for her party just from doing a google search. Some of the things we did included -
1. Homemade 'scroll' invitations with purple velvet and ribbon details.
2. On the day of her actual birthday I made a Castle birthday cake using the Wilton castle kit. (recipes below)


3. For her party (a couple of days later) we asked the moms to come dressed as fairy godmothers.
4. We asked that the girls dressed as princess but not wear crowns or jewelery.
5. On the day of her party, I took our princess out to get her finger and toenails painted. She also went and got her hair done up with gold sparkles. She loves doing these things! I also thought it would be nice to buy her some flowers and the local flower shop did a really great job of making it all very special for her. (Flower shop attached to Nature's Emporium).
6. Our daughter greeted her guests at the door with their crown and a welcome.
7. We had a tea party. I purchased a teacup and saucer for each guest to use. They got to take them home.
8. We had crown shaped sugar cookies with royal icing (recipes below).
9. We had heart shaped biscuits with jam (biscuit recipe below).
10. They played 'Plant the kiss on the frog'. It's just like 'Pin the tail on the donkey' but we used a frog and red lips.
11. We played freeze dance to a princess sing-a-long dvd.
12. We played musical squares/chairs to the princess sing-a-long dvd.
13. We meant to play find the pea (princess and the pea fairytale) but didn't get to it. Basically it is the 'shell game' but with a small green ball and three pillows.
14. All of the prizes were princess dress up to go with their costumes - rings, necklaces, bracelets etc.
15. I took a picture of each of the princesses with my digital camera once they had all of their prizes. I printed up the pictures and put them in a plain white frame with a Cinderella sticker on the front.
16. I made a Cinderella carriage cake. I used the Wilton ball cake pans to get the basic round shape. The bottom layer was the most amazing carrot cake with cream cheese icing (recipe below).





Sugar Cookies
*This recipe came from a children's book my daughter got about 15 years ago. Sorry, don't remember the title.

1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
3/4 cup raw sugar (can use white)
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

1. Mix the butter and sugar together in a big bowl until they are creamy.
2. Add the egg and vanilla extract to the bowl. Mix again.
3. In another bowl, stir the flour, baking powder and salt together.
4. Bit by bit, add the flour mixture to the bowl with the butter mixture and mix until smooth.
5. Pat the dough into a ball and wrap it in plastic wrap or waxed paper. Put the dough in the freezer for about 15 minutes.
6. Preheat the oven to 350. I used my stoneware so I didn't need to, but you might need to grease the pans.
7. Roll out the dough on a floured surface until it is half as thick as your cookie cutters.
8. Gently remove the extra dough around the dough letters. Put the cookies on your cookie sheet, leaving a space as wide as three of your fingers between each one.
9. Bake the cookies for about 10 to 12 minutes, checking them to make sure they don't burn.
10. Cook slightly then move to wire rack.

Wilton Royal Icing Recipe
(www.wilton.com)
This smooth, hard-drying icing is perfect for making decorations that last. It is also useful as a "cement" to fasten decorations together. Royal icing is edible, but not recommended for icing cakes.

3 tablespoons Meringue Powder
4 cups (about 1 lb.) confectioners' (icing) sugar
6 tablespoons warm water
Makes: About 3 cups of icing.

Beat all ingredients until icing forms peaks (7-10 minutes at low speed with a heavy-duty mixer, 10-12 minutes at high speed with a hand-held mixer).

NOTE: Keep all utensils completely grease-free for proper icing consistency.

* For stiffer icing, use 1 tablespoon less water.

**When using large counter top mixer or for stiffer icing, use 1 tablespoon less water.

Thinned Royal Icing: To thin for pouring, add 1 teaspoon water per cup of royal icing. Use grease-free spoon or spatula to stir slowly. Add 1/2 teaspoon water at a time until you reach proper consistency.

I used the straight recipe for icing the cookies and it came out great. I used a plain plastic icing bag (no tip) and just cut off the tip. I outlines the design I wanted then filled it in. The outline hardens first so the inside doesn't ooze over the sides of the cookie. It all smoothed out wonderfully to give a glossy finish. You can add candy sprinkles for added sparkle but I ran out of time.

Biscuits
This recipe came from the same children's book as above.

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup milk

1. Preheat the oven to 450.
2. Stir the flour, baking powder, and salt together in a bowl.
3. Add the butter-and-flour mixture between your fingers until it looks like bread crumbs.
4. Bit by bit, stir in the milk with a fork until the dough sticks together in a ball. (You may not have to use all the milk.)
5. Roll out the dough on a floured surface until it is half as thick as your cookie cutters. Cut out the dough, using any of your cookie cutters.
6. Gently remove the extra dough around the dough shapes. Put the biscuits on your cookie sheet, leaving a space as wide as three of your fingers between each one.
7. Bake the biscuits for about 12 minutes. Let the biscuits cool before eating.

* I thought these biscuits would taste better if they were thicker but you might need to lower the temp as they brown up quickly. You would also need to cook for longer.

Lemon Cake
I used this cake in place of a pound cake and it worked great!

1 cup butter, softened
1 cup raw sugar (can use white)
4 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
zest of 1 large lemon (I actually preferred it with 2 large lemon zests, about 2-3 tsps)
2 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

(Lemon Frosting - I didn't use it for the decorated cakes but it makes for a lovely tea time cake if you make it with just this simple frosting. 2 cups icing sugar mixed with 4 tbsp fresh lemon juice until smooth then drizzled over top of cakes and allowed to drip down the sides.)

1. Preheat oven to 350. Place pan of water on bottom rack and move the second rack to the middle.
2. Grease and flour a 9 inch pan.
3. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
4. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
5. Beat in vanilla and zest.
6. Mix dry ingredients in a separate bowl. Mix dry mix and lemon juice to wet ingredients only until incorporated.
7. Pour the batter into the prepared pan, smoothing the top. Bake about 40-45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted int he center comes out clean. Place on a wire rack to cool, then gently remove the sides of the pan.

Wilton Buttercream Icing Recipe
(www.wilton.com)
Our Buttercream Icing recipe is perfect for spreading or decorating. Follow our instructions to make it the ideal consistency you need.

1/2 cup solid vegetable shortening
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine softened
1 teaspoon clear vanilla extract
4 cups sifted confectioners' sugar (approximately 1 lb.)
2 tablespoons milk
Makes: About 3 cups of icing.

Medium Consistency)
In large bowl, cream shortening and butter with electric mixer. Add vanilla. Gradually add sugar, one cup at a time, beating well on medium speed. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl often. When all sugar has been mixed in, icing will appear dry. Add milk and beat at medium speed until light and fluffy. Keep bowl covered with a damp cloth until ready to use.

For best results, keep icing bowl in refrigerator when not in use. Refrigerated in an airtight container, this icing can be stored 2 weeks. Rewhip before using.

For thin (spreading) consistency icing, add 2 tablespoons light corn syrup, water or milk.

For Pure White Icing (stiff consistency), omit butter; substitute an additional 1/2 cup shortening for butter and add 1/2 teaspoon No-Color Butter Flavor. Add up to 4 tablespoons light corn syrup, water or milk to thin for icing cakes

NOTE: Changes in Wilton's traditional recipes have been made due to Trans Fat Free Shortening replacing Hydrogenated Shortening.

**For the birthday cakes I used the lemon cake recipe, cut the shapes required, iced with buttercream. If the cake had fondant then I iced it lightly and added the rolled fondant over. The fondant actually helps to keep the cake moist.

Best Carrot Cake in the World!

This carrot cake is so moist, without adding pineapple.

4 eggs
1 1/4 cups vegetable oil (I used canola)
2 cups raw sugar (can use white)
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp ground cinnamon
3 heaping cups grated carrots
(optional) 1 cup chopped pecans

1. Preheat oven to 350. Place pan of water on lowest rack, then place second rack in middle position. Grease and flour two 9 inch pans.
2. In a large bowl, beat together eggs, oil, white sugar and vanilla. In a separate bowl, mix flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Add to wet ingredients.
3. Stir in carrots. Fold in pecans. Pour into prepared pans.
4. Bake in preheated oven for 40 to 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely.

Cream Cheese Icing

1/2 cup butter, softened
8 oz (1 package) cream cheese, softened
4 cups icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
(optional) 1 cup chopped pecans

For a really decadent cake double the icing! To make a very spreadable and smooth icing you can add some milk (by the tbsp) or corn syrup.

In a medium bowl, combine butter, cream cheese, icing sugar and vanilla. Beat until the mixture is smooth and creamy. Stir in chopped pecans. Frost the cooled cake.

I iced the carrot cake generously with this icing and had some left over. I then covered it with fondant. It was so soft that some of the icing oozed out the bottom of the fondant and it was hard to get a perfectly straight shape. I didn't care though as the taste definitely made it worth the fussing and no one noticed it wasn't perfect.