A {Smash} Caking Good Time

Last weekend we celebrated the bug’s birthday with a big blowout – cake smashing included.

Ok, it wasn’t so much of a blowout, but it was a blast. It would’ve been impossible not to be a blast, seeing as we were surrounded by family and friends.

It’s amazing and heartwarming to see how many people love and care about our little boy, and how many people have been there supporting us and cheering us on throughout this incredible first year of parenthood.

We figured this would be one of the few years where Kabes wouldn’t be giving input on his party’s theme, so we kept it simple: snow. I almost balked at the last minute and changed it to a tropical heat wave theme, seeing as it was 70 degrees and sunny the week before his party, but the weather cooperated {?} and dusted us with our first snow of the season 2 nights before his party.

The main reason I wanted a snow theme? So we could celebrate with hot cocoa. We set up a hot cocoa bar, complete with homemade cinnamon white hot chocolate {with real chocolate!}, mini marshmallows, and peppermint sticks. I don’t think the hot cocoa bar was as big of a hit as I thought it’d be, but hey, that’s ok.

We kept the rest of the food easy and kid-friendly. The star of the meal: PB&Js on Hawaiian rolls, with a couple peanut butter & apple butter sandwiches thrown in for variety. We also served up some mini quiches, veggies with hummus, chips and salsa, and cupcakes {of course}. Besides the hot chocolate we also had some adult beverages on hand, despite the 11am party time. I’m not sure who was more appreciative of those: the break-needing parents or the overwhelmed-with-toddler-chaos childless friends.

While I made real {baby-friendly} cupcakes for KB’s actual birthday, I went with fancied-up baby pancakes for this celebration- solely for the fact that pancakes provided more surface area for the whipped cream. Yes, I was actually encouraging Kabes to make a mess. I used KB’s favorite banana pancakes recipe and made thinner, larger pancakes than I normally I do, then I stacked them like a layer cake with thick layers of coconut whipped cream {the same as this icing recipe}, topped with sprinkles. What’s a birthday cake without sprinkles?!

Our little one year old needed a little egging on to dig into his “cake”, but once he got the idea {and got used to everyone staring at him} he thoroughly enjoyed himself.

He shared. So polite.

So many presents!

Happy first birthday, little man.