Written By: Leslie Means
Last week I was obsessed with 3 things:
1. Instagram (I know! Why did it take me so long to figure you out glorious photo app?!)
2. Pink (sugary-really-bad-for-me) treats
3. My birthday girl!
Friday was Ella’s 4th birthday. We celebrated.
Ugh. I ate too much sugar!
Regardless, it was a wonderful weekend. We do birthday’s pretty big in the Means’ household. The theme for her 4th Birthday Party?
Flowers, a flower cupcake cake (woe – say that 5 times fast) and random pictures taken with Instagram. (I’m warning you – I took a few.)
Let’s get started with the cake, shall we?!
I originally saw this sunflower cake in a Martha Stewart magazine several months ago. I knew at some point in my lifetime – I would attempt to make a similar version. When Ella told me she wanted a flower theme for her 4th birthday I took the plunge and made my own version!
This is obviously not a sunflower cake – (although we almost went with that option). Instead, Ella and I decided to stick with the colorful Zinnia theme as we have SO many in our garden this year! Plus, Ella helped plant all those flowers last spring, so it added an extra element of her own touch to the party.
Of all the birthday cakes I’ve made, (Lamb, Hello Kitty, Bear, Elmo and Barbie) this was by far the easiest.
All you have to do is use your favorite cake recipe (I will share mine below) and make enough large and small cupcakes to create a flower. I also used a bowl shaped cake pan to create the center of the flower. You can use a normal round cake pan, but I liked the added height.
Simply decorate with your color of choice…
and assemble!
Here are a few more flower themes we incorporated into the big day!
Flower shaped cucumbers! (Just cut with flower cookie cutter)
Ditto with the watermelon….
Colorful straws (CUTE ones at Target right now!)
um…flowers.
and more flowers via instagram. I think you get the picture. I may have went a little tiny bit overboard with flowers. I had them in every room. Oops!
Now – I’m staying away from sugar until at least the middle of September when I get the urge to break out the fall theme candy corn/peanut mix. 🙂
Enjoy!!
Almost Homemade Cake Recipe (my favorite!)
Ingredients:
- 1 cake mix
- 1 instant vanilla pudding
- 4 egg whites
- 1 cup sour cream
- 1/2 cup water
- 1/2 cup oil
Directions:
Mix together for 2 minutes. Bake accordingly to the times noted on the back of the box!
Frosting:
Sorry! I never measure exactly. I just mix until it tastes good to me. I did use 1 1/2 bags of powdered sugar for this recipe. Plus – milk, (pure) vanilla and Crisco.
Note: I used 3 box mixes to make my entire cake. I froze my cupcakes ahead of time to make the process much easier on her actual birthday!
P.S. Instagram didn’t pay me a dime to talk about them. I just really like that darn app!!