El Mundo de Elí

Here are some photos from Elí's first Elmo birthday. I guess Elmo is becoming a trend :).Party prep: Elías Sesame Street Crayons and Dorthy royal icing cookiesThe birthday boy and his abuelitoThe birthday tableRainbow pound cake with Italian buttercream frostingBirthday brother eating cakeThe Sesame Street birthday familyChocolate Elmo lollipopsRoyal icing Elmo cookiesDiecut Sesame Street BannersSesame Street Fruit and Vegetable traysWatermelon cake for the birthday boyParty prep: Chocolate covered crayons pretzelsAwesome El Mundo de Elías birthday sign made by NicoParty prep: Sesame Street diecut bunting flagsParty prep: Sesame Street diecutsParty prep: Cakestands

Fourth of July Flag Cake

Last fourth of July I was SUPER pregnant.  And like any rational minded soon to be mami of two, I decided that I should spend my last days of freedom on my feet, for hours, baking a flag cake.I started by making a 5 layer red test-cake with buttercream filling.  But I wasn't happy enough with the height ratio of the red to white, so I ended up with this monstrosity pictured below.Really this cake didn't reach it's full height potential. But that is only because I reached the max height of our freezer, where I was storing the layers, and I literally couldn't stand on my feet any longer. That being said, it still irks me when I look at the picture above and wish, wish, wish that there was a the very least another top red layer.The most delicious part of the cake was actually the lemon curd filling, which you can't see here. I chose it because it wouldn't detract from the colored layers.These are the royal icing cookies I made with toddler. This was the first time I let him roll out his own cookies and decorate them. He was DELIGHTED!Here is my happy boy with his abuelito.Here he is again with his abuelito and grandma.

Since my second son's birthday is coming up next month my plan was to hold off from making a cake this year. But my family seemed so disappointed that it looks like I'll be baking a cake after all. And I am actually really excited to use my new Russian icing tips. So I think the plan will be to make a red white and blue pinata cake with my toddler.

I'll keep you guys posted...

happy healthy #artbaby

He is crawling around like crazy, just got his first tooth, still prefers breast milk as his drug of choice, and LOVES art!http://instagram.com/p/iPd6noHgMrhttp://instagram.com/p/jZn0q5ngEw/http://instagram.com/p/jPrWKbngMV/http://instagram.com/p/iPPeldHgFf/