Little princesses

With the huge Disney princess craze going on, princess cakes have been in high demand. They're pretty, easy to customize, and perfect for any girl! I thought I'd share a few of my favorites over the last couple years.

My most recent cake--the Tangled princess for a sweet friend of Ally's. I think this is one of my favorites...the colors, her pretty dress and her long hair. Love!

Princess Ariel (aside from the blond hair :) ) for a sweet neighbor friend. Love the versatility of the princess cakes!

Ally's 4th birthday cake...pink with ruffles, as requested :) I loved how this one turned out...simple and elegant!

Bright, happy princess! Perfect for any girly girl :)

And Princess Ariel is back! Pretty dress, yummy cake...can't get better than that!

Sleeping Beauty. This was for my niece's 5th birthday--we made it as a surprise for her, and seeing her face was 100% worth making this cake! :)

If you have a special occasion coming up, a delicious cake is the perfect way to celebrate! :) Contact me at rianne.kruyswijk@gmail.com for pricing and more info!

Thanks for reading!

-Rianne

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Tea party time...and a prayer request.

MIA...that's been me for the last 3 months. It's passed in a blur over here! Between being pregnant with baby #3 (and feeling tired/sick), getting an offer on our house, having a family reunion, packing, moving, and everything else in between, blogging has taken a backseat. But now that we're settled into our temporary home, I have a little more energy and I'm feeling a little more like myself. So I'm excited to share some of the things I've been up to in the last 3 months (although cake making has taken a bit of a back seat, too!).

First off I wanted to share Ally's 4th birthday party which was in June. Being the girly girl that she is, we went with a vintage tea party theme. I chose pink and green for the colors, and went from there. I know it's not everyone's cup of tea ;), but I love planning the girls' parties and spoiling them for a day! :)

Tea party invite

I made up custom printables for her party...just designed them in PSE and printed them onto cardstock--super easy!

Cake pops are always a hit at parties...so much easier to eat than a big piece of cake (especially when there's lot of other candies too! :) )

Tea cup sugar cookies!

I saw an idea for ice cream sandwich labels on Pinterest, and used the idea for juice boxes. So unnecessary, but so fun :)

And the whole table!

She requested a princess cake for her birthday again, so I couldn't refuse. She wanted the princess to have a pink dress with ruffles...I love how specific she was!

Princess cake...pink with ruffles as instructed ;)

I loved setting up this little table. I started off with a cute vintage table runner that I was lucky enough to get from my sister-in-laws wedding tables...then added some fresh cut flowers from our garden and a little place setting for each girl--cutest tea cups (thanks Karen!), a necklace and a vintage headband/flower I made up.

The girls' tea party table!

Individual place setting

It was a very fun, girly party with lots of giggling, tea sipping, crafts, games, dresses and laughs...perfect way to spend her special day.

All the girls...all of them are so special to Ally in their own way. So pretty in their favorite party dress!

And now for a prayer request:

My sweet three-year-old niece, Hadley, begins chemo (the first of 28 weeks) on Thursday for treatment of cancer in her kidneys. Please pray for a miracle...that she will be healed completely and quickly. Please pray for patience for her and her family, and the strength, trust, and perseverance her family will need to make it through this long journey. You can read her story and leave encouragement for the family at: http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/hadleylodder

Rianne

(PS...big thanks to my sis, Julia, for taking these beautiful pictures and helping out with the party...she's the best!)

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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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June=party month! Part 1: the princess party

June is going to be a party month for years to come, as both our girls are born in June. Party planning is totally up my ally--finding fun ideas to go with a theme, making yummy food, hosting lots of people--and I loved every minute of party planning for my girlies!

First up was A's 3rd birthday party. She is a girlie girl if there ever was one--in love with dancing, ballerinas, princesses, dresses, etc. So a princess theme was a no-brainer. I found some super cute ideas online, and was especially inspired by Kate's Fairy party on one of my favorite party ladies, The TomKat Studio (http://tomkatstudio.blogspot.com)!

My plan was to deck out the girls in tutus, necklaces and princess wands which had a flower hairclip attached (these were soo fun to make--and a great favor for the girls to take home and reuse!). I planned to have a dessert table with a princess cake, cake pops, candy and pink lemonade. I made cute little tags for each food...a nice extra touch. For favors, A handed out decorated sugar cookies--crowns and high heels--wrapped up with a little 'thank-you' tag.

Once all 14 girls arrived, we had a great morning of games, cake, princesses, and presents! It was such a fun, girly day!

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