The Duty Chronicles: Easton's Farm Party

I love themed parties and opted for a "Farm Party" for our sweet one year old. He loves animals and especially loves the Baby McDonald Baby Einstein video. He squeals with delight when the older kids are watching it (yes, they still like Baby Einstein!).

I made a pig onesie for Easton to match the theme. Someone told me later they thought it was a lion. Oops. None of these baby animals ever look like themselves.

And you have to make the token birthday crown, right? He kept it on for all of 3 seconds, the 3 different times we put it on him.

I made a Barn Cake that my neighbor gave me a picture of. I used a different recipe for the cake though. This recipe is hers, also. I've never been the mom who makes the amazing cakes, but the day I made this, I felt like one of those moms. This is by far the cutest cake I've ever made. Thanks to Mandy for the recipe and Erin for the decorating advice and "tips" (literally, cake tips she let me borrow). It might be a little lopsided. Don't hate. It's still #1 for me thus far.

Birthday Cake Recipe: (I doubled this to make 4 - 8x8 pans of cake)

1 package plain yellow or vanilla mix (Duncan Hines)
1 package vanilla instant pudding (3.4 oz.)
1 1/4 C. milk
1/2 C. vegetable oil
3 large eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract (I added a touch of almond extract as well).

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Light mist pan with oil and dust with flour. Mix all ingredients in bowl. Beat with mixer on low speed for 30 seconds. Mix on medium speed for 1 1/2 minutes. Mixture should be smooth. Pour into pan. Bake 35-40 minutes until golden brown and springy to the touch.

Icing Recipe:

1/2 C. shortening
1/2 C. butter
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 lb. (4 C.) powdered sugar
2 T. milk

Cream butter and shortening. Add vanilla. Gradually add sugar, one cup at a time, beating well on medium speed. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl often. When all sugar is mixed in, icing will appear dry. Add milk and beat at medium speed until light and fluffy.

I stacked 2- 8x8 cakes on top of each other (icing in between) and trimmed the last two layers before stacking. On the 3rd layer, I measured 1" from the edge and cut a wedge off each size to make a sloping roof line. On the fourth layer I cut off 1" from each side and then left 1" in the middle of the cake and cut a long wedge all the way to the outer edge (basically make a trapezoid). I stacked them with icing in between.

I put icing and cake in the fridge to harden. Got them out later, iced them all around (with crumbs inside the icing), put them back in the fridge, got them out again and then used my tips to make it pretty. I used the tip that looks like a teardrop (help me out professionals!) to make the red barn paneling all around. I used the smaller one like that to make the roof. I used the grass tip to make grass around the barn and little farm animals to decorate. It was so fun to make.

Before the party started Beckett got to it. He was making the cow gallop on top of the roof, so there might be some footprints on the rooftop in these pictures. ;)

With the scraps I made a little barn for Easton to dig into. Or so I thought he would. Who knew that any one year old who has never tasted cake before wouldn't like it? I thought keeping him from sweets this whole year would make him DIG in at his party. Not for this boy. He loves cucumbers. I guess that should have told me something.

Here he is checking it out:

The video is coming... I've watched it several times now, just having a hard time uploading it. It's worth the wait. Hilarious!

Take that cake away! Now I'm happy!