J-man's 1st Birthday Party

J-man turns 1 on Tuesday, so his Mommy & Daddy had his birthday party today!  It was a great party full of cuteness and fun!

Here was our theme:

Yep, Dr. Seuss!  Mommy and Daddy asked everyone to write notes to Mr. J-man in the book for him to read as he grows.  Such a treasure and memory from today!

Our menu was inspired by the famous Dr., too, with such items as:

...and...

...served in a "fishbowl."

I got the privilege of making his cake.  We had a lot of fun planning this and then putting it together.  I searched online for various ideas, and I got inspired by this banner.

I also wanted to incorporate Dr. Seuss's Birthday Bird along with the cake the Birthday Bird flies in that is covered in over sized candles.  But what to make the over sized candles from?  I wanted to use an edible medium (although not required, of course) that could be mold able and not take a ton of time to put together or work with.  That essentially took out fondant.  While fondant is edible, it takes quite a bit of time and effort to put together and work.  And then I remembered something I'd heard about but never used.

Candy clay.  You can find out about it online at a number of sites, including Wilton.  It really is very simple to put together and feels very much like play dough PLUS it tastes better than fondant!  I would encourage you to give it a try sometime!  I really enjoyed playing with this, and hope to use it more and more in the future.

I put the clay together on Thursday evening, and started playing with it Friday night.  Forming the candle was pretty straight forward, but I had another character in mind that I wanted to form, too.  I had this character's body and legs and arms, but I could not get his head.  So I handed it to G and asked him to see what he could do.  Two minutes (or less?) later he hands a perfectly shaped head back to me.  I asked him to show me where the eyes and nose were, and I could totally see this guy taking shape!  Isn't it wonderful how everyone has different talents?  I could have spent many long frustrating minutes (hours?) trying to form his face, but G can quite easily convert 2 dimensions into 3 dimensions, so in very short order, he gave us our character's head!  Sweet!

Mounted on a long lollipop stick, ready to paint and stick into the cake!  I was getting so excited about the cake at this point!  Once I saw that we were this close to Dr. Seuss's most famous character, I had a very good feeling about finishing up the rest!

So would you like to see?  Here are the cakes in process...

I also wanted to try and give a sense of motion - of the bird flying the cake in like the cover of the Happy Birthday to You book.  I have seen cakes that were constructed on a tilt, but I've never attempted to replicate that.

Until now.  There are two primary methods of creating a stacked tilt - one that cuts off a portion of the upper tier at a slat plus a pocket in the lower cake for the upper cake to sit level in, so that it has the appearance of being tilted; and one that uses wedges under the upper tier to support on an angle.  The first method wouldn't apply for what I had in mind, but the second method did, so that is what I chose.  It didn't come out 100% perfect, but I was still very pleased with the overall result.  What do you think?

Here are a couple of other close ups...

And we can't forget about little J-man's smash cake!

As for flavors, the smash and sheet cakes were chocolate, and the round cake was strawberry and all shared the same cream cheese marshmallow filling, embellished with just the slightest hint of citrus from 3 drops of orange oil.  Pretty tasty!

I wouldn't be Mimi if I didn't share at least one smash cake pic!  J-man was a bit tentative about digging in - licking icing, but not doing so much with the cake itself.  That is until Mommy handed him a spoon - and then he was all over it!

And just for the record - our Cat in the Hat was quite smart.  After cutting into the cake, we found him turned around a bit..."reading" the sign and thinking about just who this Jackson may be...

I took bunches more pictures, but I want to include two others, and then I will close out this post.

First - this one of J-man, playing with his Nana...

...and second, this one of J-man playing with two friends, all enjoying one of his new toys.

Too sweet for words, right?

Good party!  Happy birthday party, J-man!!  Mimi loves you!