Happy 1st Birthday Max!!!

Well this seems like as good a time as ever, to revive the blog I let die a long time ago. Whoops, turns out, when you have kids they suck your time dry! But then they also bring joy and fun birthday parties which inspire you to bring it all back. Wish me luck on that one.

It has been over a year since I blogged. I left you high and dry on a heavy noted post about my second pregnancy trials. Well that little monster came into this world and changed it forever. I’ll have to do a recap of his amazing first year, it flew by in a blink. And suddenly I was planning his first birthday party which has come and gone. Max was named in memory for my Grandpa, Marinus. A good Danish name I didnt want to burden a child with but still wanted to honor the memory. Max was his nickname when they immigrated to Canada and no one could pronounce his name properly. Which made it the perfect name to give this hilarious little boy. It’s also the name of a the character in a favorite book of mine, Max – King of all the wild things, ever fitting. So we celebrated him with a Wild Things theme. I hope you enjoy all the little details as much as I did.

Our little cake display area was my pride & joy of the party. I may have only gotten 2 hours of sleep because of this party falling on the same weekend as my annual scrapbooking weekend. We got home at 7pm and I baked all night and set up so that it was all ready to go by 11:30 the next morning. Might have been the reason this is one of my less elaborate cakes! haha

Where The Wild Things Are Party

Where The Wild Things Are Party

The wooden cake stands are from Indigo in Canada, I found them this summer, fell in love and ran with the whole theme based on them. I found moss at Michaels along with some light up tree’s that will circulate into my thanksgiving decor later this year. The pine cones are from our Mt. Charleston one year Birthday shoot with Max the week before. The steel lanterns are from target, and I get asked about them from every guest.

Where The Wild Things Are Party

I made a monthly banner and if you are counting, yes I did end on month 10, always a month behind but consistently, so that counts for something right? And that beautiful blue highchair that has had color identity issues is going to stay this mint color for the rest of its life because it caused major heartache while trying to cover the last shadows of pink. For some reason the paint kept spraying out a different color when I went to cover the last spots. Driving me INSANE. But I finally did it and its beautiful and so worth all the cursing.

Where The Wild Things Are Party

My mantle is one of my favorite places in this new house. We had the tv outlets removed and moved, and a mantle custom made so I could decorate it every month. I have loved watching it change this last year. So September was all about this Baby’s 1st Birthday. Some throwback photos from my pregnancy, and his first days. And his brand new photos from his one year shoot. The big canvas is from his nursery and one of my favorite quotes. The letters are Heidi Swapp Marquee letters from Michaels. I obviously didnt add the marquee lights for the party but I will for his room! I ordered a book just to destroy for this party. Sorry book gods! Top it off with a banner & it makes it hard to pull it down for Halloween decor next!

Where The Wild Things Are Party

Where The Wild Things Are Party

If you know me, my decor is usually centered around photos. They are my love and life. We took these a week before his birthday and they sing to my soul. They are everything my heart dreamed of with his shoot. I will share the actual images in another post! I added a custom banner, I got the letters from target in a banner kit. Way too cute and easy!

Where The Wild Things Are Party

Wild Things Birthday Party

My cake took a backseat this time. And that still is bothering me. But when its 3am and you know your baby is going to be awake in 3 hours, you just slap some frosting on that thing, add some sprinkles and call it a day! And besides, it tasted good and that’s all that really matters! I made 50 mini cupcakes too! Because you can never have too many cupcakes. And they made their way home with a lot of guests too!

Where The Wild Things Are Party

Here’s where procrastination will never teach me a lesson. I had these elaborate favors in my head. I let it go until the last minute, and instead whipped these babies up. Thank goodness for my hubby and putting up with my endless, “Can you make me this in photoshop?”

Where The Wild Things Are Party

The food was awesome and incredibly easy!! And you know what, it was the most recipe requests I’ve ever gotten! So here they are in all their easy peasy glory, but with no pics because I just wasn’t that on top of it!

Spinach Artichoke Pasta Salad

Ingredients
  • 12 oz pasta (I used rotini)
  • 1 cup sour cream
  • ¾ cup mayonnaise
  • 1 package (1.4 oz) vegetable soup mix
  • 3 green onions, sliced
  • 1 can water packed artichokes
  • 4 cups chopped & lightly packed fresh spinach
 Instructions
  1. Cook pasta el dente according to package directions.
  2. In a large bowl combine sour cream, mayonnaise and dry soup mix.
  3. Drain artichokes well and cut into quarters.
  4. Toss pasta with sauce. Gently fold in spinach, green onions and artichokes.
  5. Refrigerate 1 hour before serving.

 

SWEET AND SPICY SLOW COOKER KIELBASA BITES

INGREDIENTS
  • 3 packages kielbasa, cut into 1 inch cubes
  • 2 cups BBQ sauce
  • 1 (10.5 ounce) jar red pepper jelly
  • 2 tablespoons honey
  • 2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
  • 1 tablespoon red pepper flakes (or more if you want it extra spicy)
INSTRUCTIONS
  1. Combine all ingredients in slow cooker. Stir to combine.
  2. Cook on low 6 hours, increasing to high for the last 30 minutes of cooking (or on high 3.5 to 4 hours total)
  3. Stir every 30 minutes to make sure the bottom kielbasa isn’t burning.
  4. Enjoy!

I mean seriously two of the easiest things I’ve ever made and SO delicious that we thoroughly enjoyed the left overs! I made the pasta salad the night before so it had lots of time to set. We also had brushetta, chips, carrots & dip too. And gourmet PB & honey sandwiches for the littles.

Where The Wild Things Are Party

And then we sang Happy Birthday and let a little dude go to town on a BIG piece of cake! He was ready for a nap but decided he could spend some extra time destroying this thing. For never having cake before, he sure knew he liked LOVED it!

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And then he went off and slept a solid 3 hours! His best nap yet. So do I just bake him a cake everyday for that perk? #sugarcoma

 

Where The Wild Things Are PartyWhere The Wild Things Are Party

Max loves his new chair from his GB&PopPop. He was stealing Sawyer’s a lot recently, and with 2 kids you know you need 2 chairs! We were so lucky to celebrate this birthday with both Grandma’s in person. When you live in another country from family, this isn’t a given, its a privilege and these boys are constantly spoiled with visits, their biggest gifts on birthdays! So we had some traditional Birthday video chats with our other long distance families, Auntie Kimmy and Braxton entertained Max right up until bedtime. Making it a chalk full of perfect happiness for this little boy!

Where The Wild Things Are Party

Where The Wild Things Are Party

Thanks to everyone who came and wished this favorite one year old of mine a Happy Birthday! It was a delightfully perfect day spent with friends and family. I’m sure I’ll blink and be posting his 2nd Birthday. Where The Wild Things Are Party

And stick around, I’ve already got a couple blog posts scheduled for this week! Im back, and I hope you are just as excited as I am about that!

 

Happy 3rd Birthday to my Dear Nephew Becks.

Last night surrounded by family my little nephew celebrated turning 3. And I made his cake, like I’ve done for the past 3 years. I love being a special part of their celebrations. It’s a gift to get to be an auntie to three kids so close to us. {I love my other nephews back in Canada too!}

Power Ranger Birthday Cupcakes | Lissables.com

Here is to a wonderful {Power Ranger filled} Happy Year. We love you so much Beckett and you are a wonderful cousin to our little Sawyer.

Power Ranger Birthday Cupcakes | Lissables.com

Power Ranger Birthday Cupcakes | Lissables.comPower Ranger Birthday Cupcakes | Lissables.comPower Ranger Birthday Cupcakes | Lissables.comPower Ranger Birthday Cupcakes | Lissables.comPower Ranger Birthday Cupcakes | Lissables.com Power Ranger Birthday Cupcakes | Lissables.com

Heart Wedding Cake.

Last Friday one of my friends from Calgary flew down to vegas to ELOPE! How cute is that? You never hear of eloping anymore, so I had to do something special to honor her big day. And what else would you expect from me. I had plans for a much simpler smaller cake. But at the last minute I just couldn’t hold back.

Two tier triple chocolate cake with chocolate chips. Blue vanilla butter cream layers and white buttercream frosting. White fondant hearts to cover both tiers. One blue heart to pop!

Revised Strawberry Trifle

I think I linked to my original recipe for my Strawberry Trifle about a dozen times this last week. Well I updated my version yesterday. And since there is no left overs, it must be good!

Its the best dessert you’ll ever eat. {In my humble opinion} But it’s also the best because its so easy to make. 5 ingredients. Easy enough to remember when you are out at the store. Easy enough to throw together last minute. Easy easy easy.

1 family size Sara Lee pound cake {cubed.}

1 large vanilla pudding {prepared as directed.}

1 large Cool Whip lite

White chocolate, shaved

lots of fruit, yesterday I used strawberries and blueberries for red, white and blue! {about 4 pounds of it total.}

Combine the prepared pudding and cool whip until smooth. Layer pound cake, pudding mixture, fruit, and then sprinkle white chocolate on top. Repeat. I am able to get two layers of each in my massive trifle dish. {NOTE: Before I was doing: pound cake, fruit, pudding mix, white chocolate. Leaving the top layer as all pudding mixture. I think the revised way leaves a much nicer finish for the top of the dessert!}

You want to make it a couple hours before, so it has time to set. And keep it refrigerated for best results. It usually is only good for 2 days, {otherwise it gets too mushy} but it also doesn’t usually last that long with people around! Its very rich, but light at the same time. Enjoy it, experiment with other fruit combo’s. Normally I only use strawberries but the added blueberries were a nice touch. My mom’s standard is raspberries, and I’m sure you could do blackberries and other delicious fruit too!

Make sure you bookmark or pin this because it’s going to be your go to summer BBQ dessert! And if you do, make sure you write me a comment telling me you’ve been here or tried it! Enjoy!

Happy Fourth of July!

To all my American readers, family, and friends. Happy 4th of July!

This is one of my favorite parts of living in the States. {They do make holiday’s that little bit more magical, Thanksgiving is a close second. But really anything that revolves around getting together with the people you love, and eating good food, has to be good!} I have never experienced anything like it. They sell fireworks in every parking lots for the 2 weeks leading up to it. {which is why some of you might have seen my complaining about it last night on facebook!} So when that sun sets. The whole city goes off. We have a spot up on the highway where we just park the car and can see the entire skyline. I wish pictures could do it justice. It leaves you in awe.

So celebrate with friends and family like us. We’ll be doing a backyard BBQ as tradition calls. And always one for traditions, I’ll be bringing dessert! So check back tomorrow because I modified just slightly a favorite of mine. Its a Strawberry/poundcake trifle. I asked for it every summer for my birthday. Its amazing and its simple. And with a few tweaks, it was perfect for celebrating the Red, White, and Blue!

PS these were cupcakes we made for a work BBQ yesterday. I thought I would layer blue, white, and red batter. I measured them all out equally, which took its fair share of time. Only to pull them out of the oven and discover I was left with 2 thin lines of blue and white, and a whole half of red. Hey I experiment so you don’t have to! Apparently you want to cover your top layer with much less batter! No one complained though! I even slipped 3 Canadian flag liners into the mix 😉 For Brandon, myself and Sawyer!

Happy 4th of July!

Be safe!

Pineapple Sunflower Cupcakes.

This is my first post-operation blog post, that isn’t about Sawyer or the surgery. So I hope all my new readers decide to stick around for the happy stuff too! We are still dealing with Sawyers recovery, but there is less drastic changes each day. He is still swollen but not enough for strangers to notice anymore. Still a little bruising under his eyes, and of course the no hair thing which throws me the most. But today we are getting a visit from some friends from Calgary, and going to a big family BBQ. So its too much of a happy day already to be talking about cranio stuff!

So lets move on to the good stuff! I haven’t talked cupcakes for 2 weeks now. Unheard of in my house. In fact this is the first time in a very long time that I haven’t brought cupcakes with me to the family gathering. Which is nice that I don’t have to make anything this first weekend home, but I feel so lost with not bringing something. So instead I’m just going to share some that I made a couple weeks ago for a friends birthday!

Pineapple Sunflower Cupcakes! Chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream frosting and a pineapple sunflower to top each one! I love the way they turned out. Here is a breakdown of how to make the pineapple sunflowers.

Clockwise from top left.

1. Cut the outside off the pineapple. {Can you tell I hate pinapple, I don’t know if the outside has a special name or if there is a term like peeling for it. I despised the smell of my hands for the rest of the day.} Remove the eyes.

2. This is the hard part. You need to slice the pineapple extremely thin. Most of mine were too thick, or it would only slice it in half. So a lot of my pineapple flowers were wasted. I need to find a better way of doing it next time.

3. Bake at 250 until edges slightly curl and start to turn brown. Flip and repeat on the other side. I burnt a lot of mine because for some reason I knew it was 250 but set my oven to 350. So mine were very dark and even burnt. I didn’t realize my mistake until my last batch. So I only got a few usable ones.

4. These are going to be very wet even after baking, so you want to make them at least 1 day ahead of presentation. After baking, lay the pineapple in cupcake trays and let dry overnight.

Then ice your cupcakes as usual. I wanted mine to be a simple black and white look to them, so I did a chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream frosting. Then I pressed the dried pineapple flowers onto select cupcakes. These were a big hit at the little birthday gathering. I am excited to try them again, with all the kinks worked out. And now you can too!

Enjoy.

Princess Party Cakes

I somehow forgot in all the hustle and bustle to share one of my favorite recent cake creations. After doing most of our friends little’s birthdays, I had one last request. A full on princess party! I cannot tell you what a little princess I was, so I was extremely excited to make anything PINK PINK PINK!

There was a large amount of cupcakes and mini’s. But my favorite part is the princess cakes themselves. As requested a Belle from Beauty and the Beast.  And Aurora from Sleeping Beauty. Belle is all buttercream with the smallest details of fondant. And Aurora was all fondant. I have to say as I look at them I hate Aurora and love Belle. But that’s just the way they turned out.

I can’t wait to play with this cake pan again. I am dying to make an Ariel cake next. However I see a much different theme in our future! And that is perfectly ok. But if YOU are looking for a princess cake in the future, you know where to find me.

Mint Chocolate Cupcakes

Hey all.

cupcakes make everything better. So here is my latest.

Last weekend, last minute I needed some zen therapy. To me that means making my mixer shake across my counter as I make cake and frosting. In the experimenting mood I offered to make some mini’s for a baby shower. Mint Chocolate. Fudge cupcakes dipped in chocolate ganache. Topped with mint green buttercream and 3 mini chocolate chips. Mighty fantastic. And then to make sure I had some for the non-minter’s, I made some always favorite: cookies n’ cream. Coordinating opposite liners for each.

When everything else goes wrong, eat cake.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar Cake

One special First Birthday Custom cake order!

I have been so lucky to have two birthday cake requests in the past 2 weeks. Remember the animal crackers cupcakes from 2 weekends ago! Well this was a much larger order but just as fun. And I had been dying to try this design. I love it because its simple cupcakes for all the kids and guests but a special cake for the first birthday boy to make a mess of!

If you’ve read The very hungry caterpillar {see: anyone who’s read any book to a kid,} you know the design. I tried to incorporate the water color effect in the swirled green frosting. Plus some added paper embellishments to finish it off.  50 cupcakes and a personal cake. I followed my trend and baked it all last night after babysitting till 10:30. Stayed up till 2 and had it done this morning by 10. Easy stress free order. Gotta love when that happens.

So Happy First Birthday Noah! Hope you smothered yourself in cake and maybe ate a little too.

And if your looking for custom cupcakes you know where to find me!

lissables@gmail.com

For the love of red velvet.

There is nothing but frustrating waiting, and dealing with never ending insurance approvals and referrals. So while we have a whole weekend to nothing but wait, I thought I would share something different today. This should have been posted a week ago but something else kinda took the lead on here…

Red Velvet. For some people that alone will make them read the rest of the post. I find you can like vanilla or chocolate but when a person prefers red velvet, they don’t like it, they love it. So today I have for you: Red Velvet Brownies! I got the recipe from {da da da da} Pinterest! I think this is the first recipe that Ive actually made from pinterest. And it sure didn’t disappoint. WOW is all I can say.

So here is the link to the most delicious Red Velvet Brownies! They had the absolute perfect amount of light crispiness on top, gooeyness in the middle and only lasted 2 days in our house. They’re deadly is what I am saying. But now you have the recipe. For if your having an off week and are like me in an “eating your feelings kind of way.”

ENJOY!