Honeybee Themed 1st Birthday Party

This past weekend we celebrated our littlest cutie's 1st "bee day"! I love planning any kind of party, especially one with a fun theme. For Aidan's birthday we went with "The Very Hungry Caterpillar", so I kind of wanted to go with another Eric Carle book for Jocie's party. I found one of his books called "The Honeybee and the Robber", and it was so cute! Slovenia is really into beekeeping, so it just seemed like the perfect choice.

Here are some snapshots from the sweet day:

Food/Treats:

- Danish Lagkage - I decorated the cake with peaches, nectarines, apricots, mangoes and blueberries. Then I added a few fondant flowers and candy bees. I made the cake in a smaller pan, so it made 4 layers. I used a round cookie cutter to cut out three smaller circles and made Jocie a mini version of the cake. It worked out perfectly!

- Sugar Cookies - I bought cookie cutters from Ann Clark. I used the beehive one for the cookies. I decorated them with royal icing, candy bees and flowers. If you plan on making these, I suggest watching a tutorial on youtube, it was a big help.

- Sandwiches - My mom helped by using a hexagon shaped cutter to cut out sandwiches. Then my dad cut bees out of bell peppers. It looked so adorable!

- Melon Flowers - We cut flowers out of melons, put them on kebab sticks, and topped them with blueberries. So cute!

- Oreos - my parents brought back these Oreos from the States that have yellow filling.

- Cereal - we had some flower shaped cereal (Honeycombs would work well too). Perfect for a party for babies!

- Food pouches - another great addition for a baby party!

- Lemonade - we added some of the cut up fruit left over from the cake to it.

Decor/Other stuff :):

- We used sunflowers and craspedia (billy balls) for flowers.

- We found the bee lights at IKEA.

- The banner is from Amazon.

- Jocie's super cute dress from her grandparents is from Mini Mioche.

A "Garden Party" Themed Baby Shower

"Baby fever" is the only thing I can call this phenomenon, but I swear, everyone I know is expecting, or just had a baby! At our church, there were (at least) 5 of us pregnant at the same time - with all of us due only weeks apart.  It was crazy!

One of the lovely side-effects of all of this new life is the ability to celebrate with baby showers!

Baby showers are a mostly American tradition, but ladies all over are starting to do them more and more.

I was very touched when a group of my friends from our church here in Ljubljana hosted a baby shower for Jocelyn and I.  It was so nice to feel loved and supported, especially since we had recently moved here.

When one of the sweet mamas who threw the baby shower for us found out she was pregnant, I knew that I wanted to return the favor.  This particular mama isn't in love with the color pink - but is expecting a girl, so I knew I needed to find a tasteful way to make it feminine.  We settled on a "Garden Party" theme, and it turned out just lovely.

For center pieces, we bought potted flowers, and put them in terra-cotta pots.  I loved how naturally beautiful it looked!  I was able to then use them as door prizes at the end - perfect!

This was the "activity" table.  We had a guestbook, where each guest left a thumb print and their name on a bare tree.  Then, I had clothespins out, to play the "baby" game (where you can't say the word baby), and little cards to fill out with "prayers for baby".  I punched holes in the corner, and then had a ring to string them on.

For food, we had cucumber sandwiches, sugar cookies, melon and blueberry "flowers" (melon, cut with a cookie cutter into flowers, then placed on a kebab stick, with a blueberry on top), breadsticks, and Danish lagkage - the recipe for which you can find here.

We also had a really fun gardening station - I bought some dirt, five different seed packets, terra-cotta pots, and also the kind you can plant all in one - the ladies then to planted some seeds to take home; the perfect party favor!

For dishes, I actually used these beautiful dishes my mom recently gave me - they were hers, but she didn't use them, and graciously passed them on.  They're not my style for everyday dishes, but are perfect for something like this.  I also used my great-grandmother's silver, which I adore.  I put the cutlery in a terra-cotta pot, to continue with the theme.  I used garden markers to label the food, and drinks.

I set up a welcome table, with a bucket for cards.  I also set out the board book, The Secret Garden, but sadly didn't get a picture of it.

And of course, a "throne' for the mama-to-be.  I love our apartment, but was especially thankful for the open floor plan.  We flipped the couch around, pulled the benches out from around the dinner table, and changed up the sofa chairs, and it worked out great!

Everyone seemed to have a lovely time, the food all turned out delicious, and I was thrilled with how it all looked!

Danish Lagkage - Light and Airy Berry Cake

I have shared a Danish lagkage recipe on my blog before, but the pictures weren't great, and my baking skills have grown exponentially since then, so I thought it was high time to share it again! :)

My husband lived in Denmark for a year before we met.  Once of his favorite things from when he lived there were the birthday cakes - lagkage - which literally translates to layer cake.

He loved it, because it was airy, light, not too sweet and of course tasty.

I've only ever made it for him, but I was hosting a baby shower a week ago, and it just felt like the perfect addition!

Tools:

- Stand or hand-held mixer (for stand mixer, it really helps to have two compatible mixing bowls)  I'm going to write my recipe for a stand mixer, because that's what I have. :)  

- whisk attachment

- paddle attachment 

- 9 inch round spring cake pan

- parchment paper

- covered cake stand, or other means to store it airtight

- non-stick spray

- ladle

Ingredients:

Cakes (makes 3 layers):

6 eggs - separated (if you're not sure how to do that, here's a great, quick tutorial)

4 1/2 tablespoons cold water

1 1/2 cup sugar

1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour

2 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch

2 tablespoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

*by the way, 1/2 tablespoon is 1 1/2 teaspoons

It really helps me to measure out everything beforehand.

Filling:

Homemade whipped cream (2 tbs sugar for every 1 cup of heavy whipping cream - I used about 3 cups of cream)

4 cups of fresh fruit (I used berries, but you could use any "soft" fruit

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 425 °F/ 218 °C (400 °F/ 204 °C for convection oven.)

2. Beat the egg yolks.

3. Pour beaten egg yolks, water, vanilla extract and sugar into mixing bowl.  Secure in stand mixer base.  Connect paddle attachment.  Mix for 2 minutes.

4. In a separate bowl mix together dry ingredients - flour, cornstarch, baking powder and salt. 

5. Turn mixer to a low-medium speed, and slowly add flour mixture.

6. Pour egg whites into second mixer-compatible bowl, fasten whisk attachment - and whisk until it forms stiff peaks.

7. Fold egg whites into egg yolk mixture, until completely combined.

8. Grease and flour cake pan.  Ladle out about 2 and a half "ladle's worth" (yes, that's an exact measurement, lol) of batter into the cake pan.  Shake, and hit side of pan until it distributes evenly in pan.

9. Place in oven, and bake for 8-10 minutes - until golden brown, and a toothpick inserted comes out clean.  If you find that it's getting brown on top, but not cooked through, place a piece if aluminum foil over the top.

10. Allow cake to cool some, then turn out onto baking sheet to completely cool.  Repeat twice.

Bonus tip: make sure you grease AND flour your pan.  Here is the difference between just greasing, and doing both.

 

11.  If making for that day, continue by making filling.  If making for the next day (it's great for that, by the way), place parchment paper between each layer, and store in an airtight container, to be assembled the next day.

Filling, and assembly:

1. Wash and pat dry your fruit.  I used raspberries, strawberries and blueberries. I cut the strawberries into slices.

2.  Using a whisk attachment, whip together cream and sugar, until peaks form.  Don't over whip, or it'll fall, and become unusable.  Sadly, I made that mistake with my first batch.  I read that using cold instruments (bowl and whisk), it works even better.

3. Start to assemble cake on the plate you plan to serve it on.  Start with a layer of cake, then add a generous amount of whipped cream (placing it it the middle of the cake, and working it out towards the edge).  Place some fruit on top of the whipped cream.  I made some fruit "stick out" a bit to give it a rustic look.  Leave the majority of the fruit for the top.

4.  Continue until you reach the top.  Mix together remaining fruit and carefully spoon onto the top.  Store in fridge or on cold balcony - lol, until ready to serve.  If there's any left over, keep it in the fridge for up to 2 days. The cake and fruit will get mushier, of course, the longer it sits, and it won't be as good.  But the next day it should still be pretty tasty.

And here is the final, beautiful result!

Tips and ideas:

1. I LOVE this batter!  It behaves beautifully - pulls away from the side of the pan, and stays flat on top, so there's no need to level it out for layering.  It is also light and delicious!  One of my more discerning friends said that it was one of the best cakes she'd ever had!

2. You could "frost" the edges too, but for this cake, I really prefer the "naked cake" look.  (Hilary Duff's wedding cake was the first naked cake I'd ever seen, and I've loved the look ever since!)

3. You can use anything you like between the layers - Nutella, jam, chocolate whipped cream! I initially was planning on making a raspberry whipped cream, but it fell, and I didn't have enough raspberries to make it again - which actually worked out, because I way preferred the crisp white cream look.

4. Get creative with the fruit!  You could do peaches, mango, papayas, blackberries... just make sure they're soft.

5. Powdered sugar or drizzled honey on top would be great, too!

And, so... let them eat cake!