A Modern Minted Birthday Breakfast

All printable party supplies for this post were provided by the good people of Minted.  Thank you for supporting all of our loveable sponsors.

If you're following along on instagram, you may have read that June is a busy month for celebrating at our house.  Yesterday was Father's Day, next weekend is Caitlin's 3rd birthday party (more to come on that soon), and last weekend we hosted a little breakfast in honor of my mom's birthday. Since things have been so busy around here, I knew I wouldn't be able to design everything myself.  This time I ordered The Porch collection from Minted's new line of party supplies, and you can see how well it brought everything together.  Of course, I can never resist doing a few projects of my own, so keep reading for details and some quick DiYs...

The breakfast menu was delicious, though perhaps not quite nutritious.  We started with mini veggie quiches and greek yogurt with honey + fresh strawberries.  Michele of Cakewalk Baking brought over a yummy lemon cake and muffins with lemon curd + cream cheese frosting.  And then we had a few apothecary jars full of mini donuts... because obviously we didn't have enough sweets already.  To drink (in addition to coffee), I offered grapefruit or apple juice to mix with Prosecco for a unique twist on mimosas.

I topped the cake with a few scalloped stickers and strung them along a length of twine, then grabbed a big rose from our garden to coordinate with the happy birthday banner.

The table runner was easily made by stamping black circles on kraft wrapping paper using a round sponge brush.  Notice how it again ties back to the banner as well as some of the oversized table confetti?

In my favorite project of the day... the hand drawn dotted planter and dessert plate were made with dry erase marker.  Obviously you don't want it to touch your food, but it's such a fun way to add a finishing touch that won't ruin your ceramic dishes. After the party it just wipes away!

I'm always a sucker for a bit of washi tape, so this time I used it to make toppers for the muffins as well as tails for a little prize ribbon that served as the gift tag on my mom's presents...

It was so cute to see my mom wowed by the details that were just for her.  And this one was easy to put together on a tight schedule... aren't breakfast parties the best?

photos + styling © cake. 2013 

Special thanks to Minted + Cakewalk Baking for helping bring this celebration to life.  These images are for personal use only. If sharing them on your site, please credit CAKE. events blog and link directly to this post.

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Martha Celebrations | A Botanical Garden Party

All of the Martha Celebrations at JCP products featured in this post were provided by the Editors at Martha Stewart Living, a team that loves a good party and deeply admires the bloggers who throw them.  

Sometimes living in Northern California it's hard to tell where spring ends and summer begins.  We're blessed with mild weather throughout much of the year, which makes outdoor entertaining a joy.  June is my favorite month of all... the flowers are in full bloom and everything still looks so lush and green.

Last weekend I took advantage of the season and hosted a small party for a friend's birthday in our backyard. I knew I wanted it to have a botanical feel after I saw the new Sweetgrass collection from Martha Celebrations, and I decided to mix it up with some bright bursts of California Poppy orange. 

This was an informal gathering so I set our picnic table up as a buffet with a green + white striped fabric that I often use as a tablecloth, and hung the lovely fern paper lanterns from the trees above.

To add a little extra orange color, I was inspired by this post to make some hand painted terra cotta pots.  I used washi tape to mask off varied heights and, after realizing the orange craft paint was going to get totally soaked up by the terra cotta, I remembered that I was supposed to put down a layer of white paint first.  As you can see it really helped the color pop.  I also framed a few botanical prints that I found here and spruced up in photoshop.  Fun, right?

I adorned the table with a garland of... handmade fringe napkins actually. Pretty sure this was the most fun and easy craft project I've done in a while... and it's a great way to make your party supplies do double duty!

How to Make a Fringe Napkin Garland: Hold your napkin so the fold is facing up & away from you.  Take your scissors and cut up about 3/4 of the napkin height, leaving at least a 1/2" space at the top.  String through your ribbon and secure the center of each napkin with a glue dot or double stick tape. Done and done.

As is always the case when I'm in need of a cake, I reached out to my friend Michele of Cakewalk Baking.  She created a delicious white birthday cake with buttercream frosting, along with her classic vanilla cupcakes (and even stayed to help me put everything together because she's just that awesome).  I topped the cake with a variety of ribbons tied on skewers, fresh California poppies from our yard and added pretty butterfly picks to the cupcakes that coordinated with the wrappers.

There was also an assortment of little sandwiches (who doesn't love little sandwiches?) along with tea cookies and some candy treats.  The drinks were served out of weck juice jars on this vintage bamboo tea tray that I scored at a thrift shop.

I sent my friends home with these darling faux bois favor boxes filled with mint chocolate maltballs.  The boxes are great because they come flat so you just fold as many as you need and save the rest for future gift giving...

photos + styling © cake. 2013

We coudn't have asked for a nicer afternoon... sadly the pictures I took don't begin to do it justice.  As nice as the weather was, dappled sunlight sure does make for some challenging photography!

If you enjoyed this party, be sure to check out the #LetsCelebrate pin party and take a peek at what some of my favorite bloggers did with their Martha Stewart Celebrations products.

I'd be remiss if I didn't also encourage you to re-pin your favorite pictures from this party using the hashtags #MarthaCelebrations and #LetsCelebrate. You'd make me look good, which is always nice- but more importantly you could win your own Martha celebration-in-a-box!

Many thanks to the team at Martha Stewart Living for helping to bring this celebration to life!  All opinions featured in this post are my own.

These images are for personal use only. If sharing them on your site, please credit CAKE. events blog and link directly to this post.

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Merry Happy by CAKE. | The Summer Fun Collection

Friends- I'm pretty flipping excited to be debuting a new collection of party invitations on Etsy today, just in time for the start of summer.  You might wonder why they have a similar look, but that was actually purposeful. Inspired by our upcoming family vacation to Kiawah, I sketched out the wave concept... but once I started designing I kept thinking of different ways to apply it. So I decided to challenge myself and create a similar design across multiple party themes... surf, pool and beach. I'm happy with the results and I'd love your feedback.

If I was a savvy marketer, I'd have complete collections all built and ready to roll in the shop... I don't. So if you like what you see and would be interested in adding on other elements, all you have to do is ask. I promise, you shall receive...

Now go out and plan yourself some summer fun!

photos, design + styling © cake. 2013

Click here to purchase invites.

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Coconut Key Lime Cookies

Hey you guys!  It's been a while... again.  Life is moving fast and I've been struggling to find the motivation to sit at my computer and post.  Whenever I have a quiet night at home, I feel more more inclined to relax on the couch with a book or a movie. I think I'm in need of a re-boot. Anyone else? I've got some pretty exciting projects coming up in June (think sponsored parties + birthday fun), so I guess it's time to get my butt in gear - and maybe I can actually share the good stuff with you before summer has come and gone.

But I digress. This post is supposed to be about cookies.  Delicious cookies that were a total happy accident.  I set out to make my mom some of my favorite lemon currant cookies for Mother's Day, only to discover that I'd forgotten to buy currants. After a slight meltdown I decided to see what other useable ingredients I had around the house.  I had some roasted coconut chips from Trader Joes (have you tried them?), but wasn't sure about pairing them with lemon.  Then I remembered we also had some key limes left over from Cinco De Mayo. Score. Lime and coconut always go hand in hand.  And kind of perfect for a summer party now that I think about it...

I followed the original recipe with my substitutions and somehow they were a smashing success. I think my mom described them best when she said "I would never think to call a cookie refreshing, but these totally are!". So there you go. When life hands you coconut in place of currants... go make some cookies. Profound wisdom for a Thursday.

photo + styling © cake. 2013

Coconut Key Lime Cookies

adapted from martha stewart

Ingredients

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened, plus more for baking sheets
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup sour cream
1 large egg
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup toasted coconut flakes
1 tablespoon grated lime zest

1/4 cup lime juice

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Generously butter two baking sheets, or line them with parchment paper.
2. Combine the butter and sugar in a mixing bowl; beat until light and fluffy. Beat in sour cream and egg.
3. In a separate bowl; whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Gradually beat the dry ingredients into the butter mixture until they are well combined.
4. Stir in coconut and lime zest/juice.
5. Drop heaping teaspoonfuls of dough about 1 1/2 inches apart onto prepared baking sheets. Bake until cookies are puffed and golden around the edges, about 20 minutes.
6. Let cool 5 minutes on baking sheets before transferring cookies to wire racks to cool completely.

These images are for personal use only. If sharing them on your site, please credit CAKE. events blog and link directly to this post.

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Cornbread Cake with Honey Butter Frosting

You know those recipes that never fail... the ones that you know by heart because they're quick, easy and always get rave reviews? That's my honey cornbread.  For our latest backyard gathering, I had the crazy idea to step it up and turn the recipe into a layer cake. It's already so moist and dense that I figured it would hold up great when stacked (which it did), but I wasn't sure how to frost it without overpowering the cornbread's subtle honey sweetness.

 My husband actually solved my dilemma when he said skeptically... "A cake??  But I like your usual cornbread with honey butter on the side". Wait, what?  How did I forget about honey butter and why not turn it into a honey butter frosting?  It took a little fussing to work out the flavor, but in the end it was an experiment gone right. And so, I bring you the three layer cornbread cake. You should totally make this for your next party... your friends and skeptical spouses will think you're pretty swell. And they'd be right.

photos + styling © cake. 2013

Honey Cornbread Cake
adapted from a family recipe

1/2 cup butter
2/3 cup white sugar
2 large eggs
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup fine ground cornmeal
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup honey

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.  *Grease two 6 inch cake pans.
2. Melt butter and pour into mixing bowl. Quickly mix in sugar. Add eggs and beat until well blended.  3. Combine buttermilk with baking soda and stir into mixture.
4. Stir in cornmeal, honey and flour until well blended and batter is smooth.
5. Pour batter into prepared pans.
6. Bake for about 30-40 minutes (until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean).
*Note: For a three layer cake you'll want to double this recipe.

--
Honey Butter Frosting

1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup honey
1.5 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup full-fat sour cream

Directions
1. In a medium-sized mixing bowl, beat butter with an electric mixer on high speed until light and fluffy- at least 5 minutes.
Mix in powdered sugar a little bit at a time until fully combined.
Mix in honey and sour cream until combined (this could take another 5-10 minutes on high speed. if it looks lumpy at first... have faith.)
Tip: If frosting is too runny, add more powdered sugar to bulk it up, just a little at a time.
Spread with a spatula onto fully cooled cakes.

These images are for personal use only. If sharing them on your site, please credit CAKE. events blog and link directly to this post.

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