Ivan's 1st Birthday Party

Last Friday, November 9th, Ivan turned 1! We threw him a big 1st Birthday Party on Sunday,November 11th.

2 weeks of planning, searching the internet and preparation, test-baking and shopping. Then 2 days of baking, cooking and decorating and finally it all came along.

Here is how it was:

We are lucky to have a meeting/party room in our building. So we rented it for a full day for only $25. It comes with tables, chairs, fridge and microwave. So it was a very good deal!

I decided not to use any specific party theme (like cars, soccer, maritime theme, etc…), because I don’t really know what my baby really likes yet, apart from that he loves music. So I decided to go with just green and yellow. So I tried to keep the decorations and food in these colors as much as possible.

My husband was responsible for the savory part of the table. So here is what he made:

Mini-apples with cream cheese, blue cheese and pink pepper syrup

Cold yellow beetroot soup

Dried beef with marinated onions

“Caprese” – tomatoes and mozzarella under balsamic sauce

Foi Gras with caramelized onions puree and micro-lettuce

Arancini with wild mushrooms and mayo with estragon

And I was responsible for the sweet side of the table

So I made vanilla cupcakes with butter cream frosting

Brownies. To make them look more interesting, I put them in individual cupcake forms and decorated with Ivan’s crazy face on a toothpick. To make the face I chose a picture of Ivan, add a hat via pickmonkey.com, had them printed out at the local pharmacy and cut them out, them attached them to the toothpicks with some scotch tape.

And the most important: I made a fondant cake. This was the most challenging part. To begin with I had never made a fondant cake before. And I didn’t even know how to make one. So I spent HOURS online to find the best recipe for the cake, then HOURS for the fondant recipe and finally HOURS for the decoration ideas.

So, I used the cake recipe from here http://www.manusmenu.com/tips/cake-decoration/fondant-cakes#buttercake

It makes one cake (23cm). So I made 3 of those for the bottom tier. The top-tier is made of two 17cm cakes (I used one full 23 cm recipe divided in two half).

I used Butter cream frosting in between the layers of the cakes and all around them.

And I used the marshmallow fondant recipe from here:

http://www.annies-eats.com/2009/07/06/andrews-first-birthday-party/

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Ivan had such a blast at the party.

He was dancing, clapping, laughing, running…

And then we sang “Happy Birthday”

He was very touched!

And then we blew the candle and made a wish

Then Ivan helped his daddy to cut the cake

And then it was time to open the presents

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Ivan with his great grand-parents

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And the most important! We made a time capsule for Ivan. I wanted to freeze the present moment, so that when Ivan opens the time capsule at his 18th Birthday, he will be able to see what it was like when he was 1. So in the party’s invitation I advised the guests about the time capsule,so that they could bring  anything for 18 y.o. Ivan : private notes, little souvenirs, magazines, CDs with popular music, etc…

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Once again, Happy Birthday, my sweet little man! I LOVE YOU!!!

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