How To Make A Lego Birthday Cake

My son has entered his LEGO years.  It actually started when he turned four but over the last year, his love for building and creating and imaginative play with LEGO has grown into a full force favourite thing to do.  So when I was thinking about what to do for his fifth birthday, a LEGO themed birthday party was the obvious choice.  I have enjoyed making his birthday cakes since he had his very first taste of cake on his first birthday (click here to see some of the cakes I have made over the years or click here to see the race car cake I made for his fourth birthday) so tackling a LEGO cake was my challenge for this year.

Here is how I made a LEGO birthday cake:

1.  Make a two layer cake using a 9 X 13 pan.  I made a double batch of chocolate cake using this recipe.
2.  Put icing between the cake layers and frost the outside of the cake.  I used chocolate icing but you could use any colour you'd like.
3.  Decide how big of a LEGO area you'd like to have in the cake.  I cut out a piece on the front of the cake about two inches deep and about seven to eight inches long.
4.  Using LEGO pieces (I had a ton at home to choose from!), I built a LEGO wall that would fit the hole I had cut in the cake.  I added LEGO figures and tools as though the characters were doing construction work on the cake.  You could add any type of LEGO characters or scene based in the LEGO you have at home or what kind of LEGO your child is into.
5.  I added some LEGO candles on top that were found at Target and used some white icing to add his name and then the number five.

Brownie Mint Birthday Cupcake Recipe

I place great importance on the cupcakes or cake used to celebrate a birthday so I am constantly trying new recipes to make sure that the dessert served on a birthday is simply amazing!  This recipe certainly falls into the amazing category.  I made them for my brother's birthday one year - he is a big chocolate and mint fan. This recipe is simple, it doesn't even need icing, but does well with a scoop of vanilla or mint chocolate chip ice cream on top.  As momstown celebrates our 6th birthday, I thought this was a great time to post this delectable recipe.

What you need:

8 ounces of semisweet chocolate
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
3/4 tsp salt
3 eggs
1/2 all purpose flour
1/4 Dutch cocoa
12 small/mini chocolate covered peppermint patties

What you do:

Preheat oven to 350F.  Line a muffin tin with paper liners (feel free to use some decorative birthday ones!). Put the chocolate and the butter in a bowl (microwave safe) and use the microwave to melt.  Do 1 minute at a time, stirring after each minute, until melted.

Whisk in the sugar and salt, then eggs until all combined.  Gently add flour and cocoa and mix just until smooth (do not overmix).

Spoon one heaping tablespoon of batter into each lined up and place one peppermint patty on top.  Gently press it into the batter.  Top with 2 tablespoons of batter, covering the patty completely.  Bake for about 35 minutes but start checking them at 30 minutes, it is important not to over bake these treats. They are done when a toothpick inserted into the centre (above the patty) comes out with with just a few crumbs on it.

Alphabet Theme Birthday Party for Kids

My daughter is turning two this week (taking a moment to pause in disbelief that she is two already).  This past weekend we celebrated with family and decided on an alphabet themed birthday party for my little girl who loves letters and books.

She decided on a chocolate cake with white icing which I then dressed up with all the letters of the alphabet in pink and purple.  I made the letters using melting chocolate (you can purchase these wafers in all sorts of colours) and a mold.  After melting the chocolate, you pour it into the mold and then just leave it out until it hardens.  The chocolates popped out easily and turned out really well.

Alphabet themed birthday cake

I also wanted to add some decor to the house.  I took the birthday girl to pick out some special foil balloons and then I also added cut out letters to our dining room light fixture by hanging them from pieces of ribbon.

Alphabet chandelier (with birthday balloons in the background!)

A quick project with black construction paper and stick on sparkly foam letters made over our dining room hutch.  I put the letters on first and then taped the paper (letters facing out of course) to the inside of the glass doors on our dining room cabinet.

Alphabet birthday party decor

Once all the party guests had arrived (her cousins), we kept the kids busy with a letter craft project.  Each child got their initial on some construction paper and we provided markers, crayons, foam letters to stick on and a variety of stickers for them to use to decorate their page.

It was a great afternoon and I love that all her cousins live close enough that they could come and celebrate. We didn't give out loot bags but books would be an obvious choice or a gift card to a local bookstore or to Chapters so that party guests could go and pick out a new book themselves.

Since both my kids are winter babies, my birthday party planning is done for the year!  That means I have a whole 10 months to come up with themes for next year although my son is already telling me he wants to do a race cars theme again!