Lauren Jane turned 2!

Our Lauren Jane turned 2! 

We had an intimate celebration . . . 

and invited her best friend "Giraffe" . . . and a few of her other close friends (and family) to join us for a day filled with birthday fun!  

  
~ meet Lauren's best-friend, "Giraffe" ~

 

~ and close friends "Froggie" and "Monkey" ~

 Our morning began with "birthday pancakes" . . . YUM!   

  
~ buttermilk pancakes with mini chocolate chips ~

topped with whipped cream and sprinkled with confetti 

 

Our youngest little lady is just that . . . little . . . and petite.  

She's our doll baby . . . a daddy's girl. 

Lauren Jane spends the majority of her days keeping up with her 3 year old brother and 5 year old sister!  And she does a great job at it too!  

  

She started asking "Why?" a few weeks ago . . . and I shake my head & giggle every time she asks me! Can she really be entering the "why" phase already!?   

       

We adore her sweet smile . . . big, long, warm hugs . . . and playfulness.

Lauren Jane's 1st birthday was full of sunshine and pinwheels!
  
And her 2nd birthday was also celebrated with beautiful, bright colors! 

Take a close look at the cupcake centerpiece!

It's a piece of art! Thanks, Emily!

  

I dressed up the cupcake centerpiece with pink paper medallions and white hydrangeas. 

So bright and happy!

  

~ I LOVE these paper medallions  ~

I glued them onto wooden sticks 

  
~ fun birthday candy skewers ~

~ lots of candy confetti ~

~ my "Sunshine" girl ~

~ birthday dinner menu ~

a hot dog bar

with condiments, including chili

Hawaiian BBQ chips

nestled in polka dot cupcake liners

fresh pineapple & maraschino cherry skewers

 

~ the kids LOVED these skewers!! ~

Lauren's birthday cake was inspired by a Polka Dot Cake I saw on Pinterest, 

except I created a . . . 

POLKA DOT ice cream cake!

made with 

Key Lime sherbert

Mandarin Orange sherbert

& Raspberry sorbet

with a Vanilla Wafer cookie crust

and topped with fresh whipped cream & heart confetti

 

Our night ended with lots of gifts, fun, and laughter!

Happy Birthday, my sweet baby girl!

I love you, Mum

yes, sometimes she calls me "Mum!" . . . and I LOVE it!

follow Simply Suzannes at Home 

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cupcakes ~ hello kitty cupcake toppers

 

Charley loves sweets . . . So planning the sweet treats for her dessert table is always so much fun!

There are some sweets that tickle her fancy . . . and marshmallows & cotton candy are just a few at the top of her favorites list these days!

So when I made cupcakes for her 5th birthday party, I had to include fluffy pink cotton candy!

We served moist, tender Vanilla Cupcakes frosted with Miette's Raspberry Buttercream. Each cupcake was topped with pretty pink pearls, pink cotton candy, and Hello Kitty Lollipops! 

They were darling . . . and delicious too! 

Here's what I used to make the Hello Kitty toppers . . .

I secured a Hello Kitty candy to the front of each lollipop 

using melted white chocolate. 

It hardens quickly, and makes a great edible "glue!"

I also secured a heart on the back of each lollipop. Sweet endings!

Add the cotton candy to the toppers at the last minute!

Cotton candy melts when it comes into contact with anything 

that's damp/wet, like frosting. 

TIP!!!!

Leave a small space between the cotton candy and the frosting

so that the cotton candy doesn't melt!

Each cupcake found a special seat atop a white cupcake stand at the base of the cake.  

They were a perfect treat for Charley's dessert table! Oh so sweet!

 

Vanilla Cake

(recipe used for Hello Kitty cupcakes)

Ingredients

Nonstick baking spray

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting

1 sticks butter

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 large eggs, yolks separated from whites

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup milk

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a 9-inch cake pan with nonstick baking spray and dust with flour. Line the pan with parchment paper and spray again.

Beat the granulated sugar and 1 stick butter in a large bowl at medium speed with a mixer until fluffy. Beat in the vanilla. Add the egg yolks, beating until combined.

Combine the flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl. Gradually add the flour mixture to the butter mixture alternately with the milk, beginning and ending with the flour mixture, beating just until combined after each addition. DO NOT over-mix.

Beat the egg whites in a separate bowl until stiff peaks form. Gently fold the egg whites into the batter.

Fill cupcake liners 3/4 full. Bake until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean, 18 to 20 minutes. Cool the cupcakes completely before frosting.

A peak at a few other sweet treats at the dessert table . . .

~ heart marshmallow skewers ~

~ Vanilla and Chocolate French Macarons ~

~ white chocolate dipped marshmallows ~

~ vanilla meringues ~

bon appetit!

nomélie cupcakes

We ventured southeast to Old Town Parker, Colorado today . . . and, of course, toured their Main Street. 

Old Town Parker is beautiful! 

While on our tour of this charming and historical town, my oldest daughter, Charley, and I stopped into a sweet Cupcake Shoppe called Nomélie Cupcakes. 

I'm quite a critic when it comes to cakes and cupcakes, so I  don't say this often about cupcakes, but . . .  Nomélie Cupcakes are DELICIOUS!

From the mismatched furniture down to the amazing milk glass cake stands you’ll find in a little antique shop, filled with an amazing assortment of sweets – no detail was left un-touched. I wish I had taken a photo of the chandeliers and painted tin tile ceilings. More importantly though, the cupcakes were tres chic and ooh la la sweet!   

Nomélie Cupcakes was founded by a mom and baker, Selah Davenport.  She shared in an interview that she has no formal training. She worked in the corporate world, then in massage therapy, got pregnant and then became a stay at home mom.  

Selah began watching a lot of Food Network, and after moving to Colorado in 2006, she became serious about her cupcakes and went to work testing her recipes in the high altitude. With determination and a lot of research, she found the right balance of ingredients. The results are not only beautiful, but delicious. 

She started with selling special order cupcakes in 2007, and then opened up the retail space in May 2009.  

The name Nomélie came from the joining of Selah's son and daughter’s names – Noah & Amelie and it kinda sounded French (which she's obsessed with), and she felt like it worked.

In my opinion, Nomélie's cupcakes rival that of Sweet & Saucy in Southern California (which to those of you who have had their cupcakes ~ is a BIG compliment) . . . 

PERHAPS THIS IS WHY . . . 

Nomélie is a small, family run artisan cupcakery. Everything is created in small batches with great care. They sift everything by hand, and Selah's sister makes all the frostings.  They incorporate buttermilk into all of their batters, and they use Mexican vanilla beans. There are no pre-made products in their batches, only the finest ingredients; and they try to use local products whenever they can find them – summer time is big for local fruit.

You can actually taste the QUALITY of the ingredients in their cupcakes! 

I LOVE that their cupcake MENU changes daily! With so many yummy cupcake selections to choose from . . . it was hard to pick just one, so we bought a few (smile).

~ Charley chose a Vanilla LOVE Cupcake with blue sprinkles ~

She LOVES her little box!

~ I chose a TUXEDO, BUCKEYE, & MAPLE Spice cupcake ~

The BUCKEYE is one of their most popular cupcakes!

It's a delicious, moist chocolate cupcake filled with 

a sweet, creamy peanut butter frosting,

and then topped with chocolate ganache 

and sprinkled with a soft chocolate peanut butter candy.

L.O.V.E.

Be sure and stop by Nomélie Cupcakes 

in Old Town Parker, Colorado, the next time you visit!

bon appetit!