Birthday Burgers

Our number one cousin came to visit for her birthday. My daughter and my wife decided to make a special burger for her celebration.

Umm...what?!?

This burger is no conventional burger. It is a cupcake concoction of amazing fun. Making it was a fun challenge. They started by making some lettuce--coconut shavings stirred with green food coloring!

Stirring the lettuce

Stirring so fast it blurs!

They made some cupcakes from scratch for the buns. That was probably the easiest part of the project.

Cupcakes as buns

The trickiest part was making burgers. We used a plain brownie mix (no nuts or chunks or anything inside) and cut it into circles the same size as the cupcakes. We found a round cookie cutter that was the right size.

Megaburger

Buttercream frosting mixed with red food coloring made the ketchup. Mixed with yellow food coloring the frosting made the cheese.

Ketchup crafting

Putting it all together

Add the lettuce!

Final product

We did test a burger before feeding one to the birthday girl.

Taste test

A fun time was had by all!

Ready to blow out the candle on a regular cupcake

Celebrating Two Years!

The toddler is now a two-year old boy. His first birthday party for his second birthday celebration was at home. Big sister made a cool hat for him to wear.

I'm not so sure it's cool, dad

We had some cousins over which meant more presents to open! Unfortunately, our toddler's skills leave a bit to be desired.

Working on unwrapping

Looking for help

Big brother to the rescue

Fun unwrapping

The dessert plan was cupcakes...decorate your own cupcakes! The birthday boy has fewer cake decorating skills than present opening skills, so he graciously allowed others to decorate his.

Decorating in progress

Some finished products

You can see a monster theme. Mostly that was chosen because eyeballs were on sale at the store. And let's be honest, who can resist a sale on eyeballs? I thought the blackberry noses were a nice touch, as were the fruit roll-up tongues. We had a very creative monster-crafting crew on board. Watch out Doctor Frankenstein!

Our boy has been practicing blowing out candles. He did quite well at this.

Lovely fire, how can I blow you out?

Mission accomplished

After dessert, we went to the basement for a little dance party inspired by Just Dance Kids on the Xbox. It was a big hit.

Mesmerized by the big screen

Dancing craze!

A bit of dance aftermath

We went to visit Grandmama to celebrate along with Uncle Ed, who also has an August birthday.

Birthday boys

Synchronized present opening (coming to the Olympics 2020!)

We did some relaxing and playing before we had dinner. We had more cupcakes after dinner!

Relaxing with big sister

Playing with lots of balls

One big candle

A special joy was finding an extra present to open!

Last gift

Daughter's Birthday 2016

My daughter turned seven years old in June. We had a small, day-of celebration at home. We made some cupcakes and managed to squeeze seven candles on it.

Worried whether the cupcake will survive

She blew it!

She opened a bunch of cool presents but only some got pictures. Favorites included the new roller skates and a Pokemon deck.

New skates at the roller rink

Practicing for the limbo

Pokemon!

To celebrate with her friends, she had a party at the local roller rink. All the kids had fun, especially my children.

The birthday girl

The older brother

The younger brother (no skates on him)

Older brother in action

Birthday girl doing the hokey pokey (it's not just for weddings)

We made cupcakes again, though with thematic decorations.
 

Skating cup cakes

Close up

Back at home, we opened the gifts from her friends. The most creative was a lab jacket, mask, hairnet, set of teeth, and dentist tools. My daughter's class had written little essays about which job they'd like as grow ups. She wrote she wanted to be a dentist. One of her friends from school remembered and made a very creative gift!

My daughter, my dentist

This birthday was a great one. We're looking forward to next year!

Sweet Pea Cupcakes

After the success of our "blue food challenge" (featuring blueberries in various recipes), we started a "green food challenge" (featuring peas). One unusual recipe we tried was pea cakes, which is a terrible name in our humble opinion, so we renamed it Sweet Pea Cupcakes. We adapted this recipe.

We cut it down to make 6 cupcakes (small enough to bake in our toaster oven on a hot day).

• 3/4 cup frozen peas
• 4 1/2 tablespoons butter
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 3/4 teaspoon vanilla
• zest and juice from 1/4 of a lemon
• 3/4 cup cake flour (or all purpose flour)
• 3/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/8 tsp salt

1. Preheat the (toaster) oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Line tin with cupcake papers. Microwave frozen peas until thawed and warm (about 2 minutes, with stirring in between). Drain and rinse with cool water. Place peas, vanilla and lemon juice in a food processor and puree until smooth. Set aside.

Not sure about this ingredient

Visualizing whirled peas

Getting some zest with our special tool

Juicing what's left of the lemon

2.  In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt. Whisk to combine.

3.  Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg, and then add the pea mixture and lemon zest. On low-medium speed, add the flour until  just incorporated.

Using hand-shaped whisks

4.  Spoon into cupcake papers. Bake for 20 minutes or until it passes the toothpick test. Cool cupcakes completely.

Uncooked

The results were perfect.

Cooked

To make the cakes more presentable, we made some simple lemon icing (butter, powdered sugar, lemon juice and zest) and sprinkled green sugar on top.

Icing

Finished product

The most important part of the cakes is, of course, the taste. After that horrible face in the first picture, what will my daughter's reaction be to the final product?

Taking a bite

Mmm....good!