Forks & Knives: Nephew's 1st Birthday !

My little nephew from my boyfriends side of the family finally turned "one" on December 26!

Because of all the holiday madness, his birthday party was celebrated last weekend for a stress free environment.

I was honored to be able to participate in such an important and memorable part of their family festivity.

The birthday party worked around a jungle theme with an outdoorsy feel and little jungle animals on display. Since this is a special moment in a family's life, I wanted to help make it feel extra special.

My birthday duty was to whip up the main sweet treat, the birthday cake! I also made some other sweets to accompany the cake.

I researched some cute birthday cakes for a one year old.

Most cakes now a days are made and decorated with fondant which is a thick, creamy sugar paste. I don't really have much experience using this paste so I wanted to do something creative within my own zone of knowledge, without too much trouble.

The ending outcome was a sweet yet ferocious LION face.

I made a vanilla cake with a dulce de leche filling inside.

The outside was decorated with a vanilla frosting as well as other edible candies and pretzels.

Mini monkeys, lions, tigers and zebra cupcakes accompanied the lion cake on the dessert table.

Check out my sweet creations!

Happy 1st Birthday to
Zahir!

The BEFORE stage:

After:

Animal Cupcakes

(Unfortunately, some of the cupcakes got squished on the ride over :/ )

I also made some lollipops made out of candy melts.

Very Easy to make!

Directions:

1.In a microwavable bowl, melt a handful of candy melts in 30 second intervals until completely melted.

Note: You can get candy melts in different colors as well (adding food coloring didn't work for me). You can find all of these products at a craft store like Michaels.