Princess Bella's 1st Birthday!

Whenever there's a big party coming up, our family couldn't get any more excited. Every sibling finds a way to contribute something and offer help. In this case, it was our Bella's 1st birthday. My sister C has decided to have a mini dessert bar for the kids at the same time giving the impression of abundance in the party. Aside from the games, prizes and the usual food booths, the so called piece de resistance was Bella's Castle Cake, done by no other than my sister C. In keeping up with the theme of "Land far, far away", I created a dessert booth around the castle cake with leaves, twigs and flowers as decor. The cupcakes were iced with pink vanilla buttercream and filled with caramel. Everyone had a pleasant surprise upon biting onto the caramel ensconced in the rich chocolate cupcakes. My pregnant eldest sister had a craving for them at the end of the party and she made me dash back and forth to get her some more cupcakes! She rivals her son Javi's sweet tooth.

Working with little space, I was informed to prepare a minimal number of varieties, in which I decided to fill up with peanut butter brownie bars, chocolate chip cookies and peppermint bars.

The peanut butter bars were topped with rice crispies coated with peanut butter-chocolate icing and was a last minute addition to an otherwise simple fudge bar. I figured the kids would be delighted in biting onto the crisp chocolate topping that would be as appealing to the adults given its textural difference.

With the peppermint bars, I didn't put in a lot of the peppermint icing as I know some kids haven't developed a palate for mint yet. In general, the mint layer merely provided an interesting contrast and receptacle to the chocolate drizzle. Puss in Boots: protector of cupcakes