Jace is 1!

Seriously, how can you resist that little grin?!
Picture courtesy of talented Auntie Julia :)

My sweet little dude is 1.  How one year has passed already is beyond me...there should definitely be a pause button in life.  Jace has brought such joy into our lives...he has us all wrapped around his little finger with his giggles, easy-going personality and love for life.  He loves to play crazy with his daddy, be carted around by his big sister, and enjoy the (occasional) cuddle with Mommy.

Party table! 

His first birthday was a perfect excuse to bake and play in the kitchen :)    I went off some guitar fabric he has in his room and decorated with teal and black with guitars and music notes made with royal icing.

The cake, topped with a chocolate cupcake for the birthday boy! 

I've been wanting to do an ombre cake for a while, so I made a layered cake--one blue ombre, vanilla cake, and the bottom my favorite chocolate cake.

Since it's been forever that I decorated sugar cookies, I made some for everyone to take home as party favors.  

Party favors

I'd say he loved his first taste of cake...just maybe? ;)

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Honoring the red, white and blue

With the new year here and the Christmas season behind us, I thought it was a good time to remember those who are sacrificing their lives for our country's freedom. It's easy to get caught up in the busyness of the holidays and not have time to think about those who are serving in the armed forces, both here and abroad. My younger brother, Reece, is a couple months into his deployment now, and we are thankful for God's protection over him so far. Please keep him and his fellow servicemen in your prayers, as well as his wife, Krissy.

Before Reece headed off to Afghanistan, we had a deployment party/send-off. We went with a patriotic theme, and decided to have a dessert bar...cake, cake pops, cookies, and all sorts of candy in red, white and blue!


I made a red velvet cake with a blueberry filling to fit with the color scheme. The bunting on the cake was an idea I had seen online...so fun!


Reece and Krissy


Cake pops were decorated in red, white and blue with ribbons to coordinate.




Candy buffet!

Thanks for reading!
Rianne

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Special-order cake

When a client contacted me about making a special, gluten-free cake for a dear friend's birthday, I knew it was a challenge I wanted to take. I have a special respect and for those suffering from gluten intolerance. My husband has had stomach trouble for years, and for 5 months we tried the gluten-free diet to see if that was his problem. It is an extremely hard diet to follow--both eating-wise and cooking-wise--so I have a respect for those that do.

Since I'd never come across a good gluten-free cake recipe in my months of searching, I decided to use the Betty Crocker gluten-free cake mixes. While not as fluffy and tasty as a regular cake mix, they are definitely one of the best GF cakes I have tried! After searching the Internet to ensure all the ingredients were gluten-free, I whipped up a couple batches of the Wilton icing, and away I went.

The client wanted something elegant and 'not pink' for her friend, so this is what I came up with...fresh, elegant and pretty! She also requested an individual-sized cake for her friend--such a fun, great idea to honor the birthday girl!

A bouquet of blue and white roses topped the cakes.

I loved the request for an individual cake for the birthday girl...a mini-replica of the main cake!

I decorated with white swags touched with blue flowers and clean blue lines; trios of blue dots and a white pearl border finished off the cake.

Pretty roses...

Hope your week is wonderful!

Rianne

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Nothing fair about this Fair!

It's Fair time in Lynden...something I look forward to every year. Even though it's the same each year, the smells of greasy curly fries, the sights of rides and booths, the taste of poffertjes and moowiches, the sounds of happy kids...it brings back such good memories of roaming the Fair every year, taking everything in. I'm a Fair diehard! :)

This year I decided to participate in the Fair in another way--entering some of my cookies and baked goods! With a blog name of 'Sweet Things', I thought I'd better ;) There are tons of categories for baking submissions alone, so I thought 'why not?'

I decided to combine the design of two Barbie cakes I made this year and submit a very girly princess cake in the 'special occasion decorated cake' category...and I won first place!

One of my favorite cookie recipes comes from our church cookbook--Chewy Double Chocolate Cookies. With a name like that, how can they not be good?! I submitted those as well and after my sister scoped it out, she told me I had won a first place for that submission too. Score!

About a month ago, my mom sent me a link to the Fair website, where they were promoting their Centennial Year Celebration. Part of that celebration included a Centennial Cake Contest. Just for entering, you would receive a free entrance admission into the Fair, so again, I thought, 'why not?' This cake brought me a little more trouble than I was expecting. I've never done any fondant work, but thought this would be a fun time to try. Turns out fondant's a little more touchy, sticky, and troublesome than it looks ;) The cakes were going to be judged on how well they matched the theme "Endless Memories", so I decided to go with Fair colors (white fondant w ith blue stripes), a fondant '100' on the top, a Fair ribbon, and a banner with the saying 'Endless Memories. While I'm not super proud of the way it turned out, a letter I received in the mail today told me I had placed in the top 5 in the contest...winning 2 more entrance admissions and VIP tickets to the Centennial Celebration party on Friday!

It was a busy week last week getting these two cakes, plus 2 more cakes (more on those in another post) done, but it was well worth it!

Hope everyone has a wonderful week...I'm going to enjoy every minute of my Fair-going! :)

Rianne

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