Baby Boy's 1 Year Birthday Party

I hate when there is no responses to a post. Anyway, I don't really have a recipe but I think cupcakes are a great 1st 2nd 3rd birthday thing. They now have "stands" that "tier" cupcakes which is a great party idea. They have some that hold 13 to 25 cupcakes. I have used mine for 3 birthdays now and will probably continue. My daughters are expecting them now. I just change up the cake and the decorations. Have fun.

HI J.,
I don't know how savy you are about baking cakes so I'll just go step by step and I hope I don't offend you. The way I like best to make cakes is to first use whatever your favorite boxed cake mix is and just bake it according to the instructions. Make sure you grease and flour the pan really well so the cake won't stick. Once you pull it out of the oven let it cool in the pan about 10-15mins then place a cake plate or carrier or a platter of some sort larger than the pan upside down over the cake and then holding them (the platter and pan) together flip the pan over onto the platter and set down on the table or countertop. Giving the pan alittle jiggle slowly try to lift the pan off the cake. If the cake sticks to the pan set the pan back down and let cool longer to see if the cake comes off on its own but hopefully the cake won't stick. Then as soon as the cake is free from the pan wrap it and the platter in plastic wrap and put it in the freezer at least 4 hours. I like to make the cake the night before and let it freeze all night. Freezing it locks in the moisture so once it's thawed you will have the yummiest moist cake ever! When you do take you cake out of the freezer let it sit for just a few minutes you want to frost the cake while it is still frozen. Do this early enough so the cake is completely thawed and at room temp before serving. I hope I explained this well enough. Good luck let us know how it turns out!

C.
P.S. I do this with thanksgiving turkey too, kinda. I cook it like normal in an oven bag and once its done cooking I let it cool so its just warmer than room temp then leaving it in the bag I put it in the fridge over night (do not cut or open the bag!), so I cook the turkey the day before. Then to get the turkey ready for dinner I put it back into the oven at the same cooking temp for only like 45mins to 1hr, just long enough to warm it back up and then take it out of the bag and serve. MMMMM the most moist turkey ever!

Congratulations first of all!! I agree with the cupcake idea they are the perfect size for your little guy, and to dress his up (because no one else at the party will care, trust me) there are a few things you can do. For a fish shape pop the top off and cut a rectangle shape out of the center pushing the two other pieces back together you can use the bottom of the cupcake and the piece you cut out to make fins and a face. Also a football could be made using the same concept because cutting out that middle piece gives you that nice oval shape. Or just get some twizzlers or other kind of flexible candy and make the cupcake into some kind of a bug! Decorate with any kind of frosting and just use a box mix it's much easier and you'll have enough to worry about with party planning in general. Hope this helps!!

J.-

I didn't make a special recipe, but I did purchase a little teddy bear mold and made a small teddy bear cake with regular cake mix. It was cute! Then I made another regular cake for everyone else. That way, my little one had a cake for fingers and to dig into and we had a regular cake!

Good luck - just have fun with it!
C.

I love spice cake with cream cheese frosting. Mix all ingredients for 4 minutes and bake 35 minutes on 350 degrees: 2 1/2 C Flour; 3/4 C Brown Sugar; 1 t Baking Powder; 3/4 t Cloves; 3/4 C Butter or Applesauce; 3 Eggs; 1 C Sugar; 1 t Salt; 3/4 t Baking Soda; 3/4 t Cinnamon; 1 1/4 C Buttermilk

I also love an Oatmeal Snack Cake (without frosting):
1 1/2 C Boiling Water and 1 C Oatmeal. Mix and let stand 10 minutes.
Cream together: 1 C Brown Sugar; 1/2 C Butter; 1 C Sugar; 2 Eggs.
Add to creamed mixture, and mix: 1 t Baking Soda; 1 1/2 C Flour; 1 t Salt; 1 T Cocoa; 1 t Cinnamon.
Then mix in Oatmeal mixture.
Stir in 1/2 C Chocolate Chips and pour into pan.
Sprinkle top with 1/2 C Chocolate Chips.
Bake at 375 degrees for 35 minutes.
Option: Can top with cream cheese frosting, if desired.

OR since he probably doesn't know what kind of cake he likes, just make your favorite or stick to plain white.

It's a traditional thing to do for 1 year old parties to give them their own cake to tear into. Get out the camera and take lots of pictures. They have mini cake pans at Michaels, or just do a simple round one. ENJOY!!

Go to http://familyfun.go.com/ Depending on how crafty or creative you want to be, they have TONS of cake ideas. I just made the Choo Choo train one for my twins' second birthday. It was SO cute! But there are all kinds of ideas. Some you cut the cake into shapes, freeze for a few hours, then frost (less crumbs). And some you use candies, cookies or other food items for decorating so you don't have to use frosting bags and tips, etc. Anyway. It's fun to try. I made the horse one for my daughter's fourth birthday recently, and the choo choo train for my boys' second birthday. They were pretty easy to do, but I'm pretty crafty and creative already. If you're looking to make a "small" cake (like single serving size or something) I've also had a lot of success with splitting cake mixes in half, or halving the recipes and making only one 8 inch round, or two 4 or 5 inch rounds that I can stack for a type of "mini" cake. They have a lot of tiny pans out there for stuff like that.

are you really wanting to bake in this hot hot weather?? here is a refrshing couple of recipies.
1. angel food cake or pound cake
2. whipped cream of your chice
3. fresh fruit or pie filling to top
next recipe
1 box of ice cream sandwiches
2. 1 pkg of oreos
3. 1 shell choc topping
4. 1 jar caramel; topping
5. 1 arosol whip cream or redi whip
layer your ice cream sandwiched
add can of whip cream to cover sand
then crush the cookie and put on top of sanwiches
add shell topping and caramel
add whip dollups and sprinkle nuts on top of dolups
freeze and pull out for 10 min before you serve.

good luk and god bless

Save yourself some time and choose any box mix. There are some great flavors out there. Then have fun decorating the cake. You are the only one who will know the difference. Your little guy and the party guests won't care. Congrats!

I make all my children's cakes. I love Duncan Hines plain white cake mix. It is super tasty and easy. I recommend freezing the cake over night and then decorating it. If you need to shape it or cut it, freezing it makes it much easier. Also when you go to ice it the cake does not flake or get crumbs in the icing.

An easy idea I have done is to use a glass bowl (Pyrex type) and bake the cake. Flip it over and decorate it like a sports ball of your choice. I have also done this for a ladybug for my daughter. A basketball is easy. Cover it all in orange icing and use black licorice for the stripes. Same with a baseball, all white with red licorice. EASY!!

I also love the Wilton cake pans. There are several easy ones you can do without experience. Michaels has the best selection without ordering online. Good luck. Cakes always come out better when you make then yourself and are more memorable.

I don't know if anyone else has suggested this, but our tradition is to get one of those cake pans frpm Gygi's that's in the shape of a little teddy bear and then I decorate that whole thing up and just give that to the baby on their own. It's been fun to watch my kids kinda poke at it, then devour it. Just completely undress your little guy first or he's going to get messy!

I have a recipe for a 1-2-3-4 cake (which just has to do with the amount of eggs, flour, etc, in it) if you want it. I got it from Paula Deen's "The Lady and Sons Dessert Cookbook" if you want to try to find it at the library. She has some variations included with the original recipe. It is a good cake and easy to make. For our daughter's b-day cakes I bought a pan at Michael's or Hobby Lobby and baked from a mix. I did get her a fancy decorated cupcake from the bakery (chocoate, of course!) for her to smush on her first b-day, but could have just as easily baked some myself. Guess I just wanted something extra special for the first one. Happy B-day to the little guy and happy baking!

Our little guy totally got a kick out of brownies with frosting. We did Ghiradelli brownie mix and chocolate frosting. When we put him in the tub to clean up, the water turned brown immediately! LOL! He couldn't have had more fun, and it couldn't have been easier. We did traditional cake for #1 and he didn't have nearly as much fun.

We made a choo choo train cake. You can search for it on google and see pics. Just use mini loaf bread pans. It was pretty easy.