Birthday Party=Birthday Cake

First off, I rarely have original ideas. The butter cream roses and the vertical layer cake tutorials can be found HERE. It's a beautiful, delicious blog... you should check it out.

Secondly, there are tutorials on how to make gelatin bows, butterfly wings and flowers all over the net... but HERE is one if you don't have time to search.

Vanilla Butter cream Roses over a Devils Food and Yellow vertical layer cake

before I sprayed it with yellow and pink food coloring

I am on the Relief Society (R.S.) meeting planning committee with several wonderful ladies. We've been planning the R.S. Birthday party for a while now, and it sure has given me a greater appreciation for all the work that goes into functions like these. It's a LOT of work, and takes a lot of planning and people to pull things off, more than I ever realized.

One of the committee’s main goals this year is to make sure that the meetings we plan are worth while for the sisters to take time out of their day, away from their families, to go to. The R.S. Birthday Party is the one big activities of the year, so we wanted it to be a good one with all the essential elements: Spiritual content, lots of visiting, good information, and good food.

Same cake as white one above after I sprayed it with the food coloring

The birthday party tag line this year was "Learning from the Past". We had a delicious dinner of lasagna, bread sticks and salad. Then there were demonstrations on Writing a Family History, Basic Quilting, and Old World Bread Making. Plus we had a butter churning competition.

I kid you not, we had Butter. Churning. Competition. Can you say, awesome?! :)

Last, but certainly not least, we had a short program/narration about all the past General R.S. presidents while we ate birthday cake.

So, as part of the committee I suggested we ask for volunteers from the ward sisters to make and bring simple birthday cakes to double as the dessert and the table center pieces. This was a great idea… in concept. Originally we needed 8 cakes, and then after sending around a sign up sheet to see how many people would be coming, we determined we would only need 6. We had plenty of people signed up… and then life happened. People that signed up, had other commitments, were helping with other parts of the activity, or just couldn't do it. So, I volunteered to make 3 cakes. No biggie. I saw it as an opportunity to try out some things I’ve wanted to try, and practice some other cake decorating skills. We ended up with 8 cakes after all…but you can never have too much cake.

Vertical Layer cake

So, I spent the week baking, making fillings, fondant and a really cool bow made from gelatin, saving the final decorating till the day of. Guess who decided to not feel good that day. *sigh* Sweet little Ruby either had a cold or was teething or something, but she came crying to me every 5 minutes wanting to be held. I am not really complaining, I love it when I get to cuddle the cute little thing, but something that should have taken only a couple hours tops… took ALL day.

Another thing I’ve found is inevitable when I have a lot of baking to do: pain…arthritic flare up, hip, back, knee and joint pain. You name it; I have a lot of it. I don’t know how much of it is stress related, and how much is just sheer dumb luck. But it was there, and by the end of the day I could barely walk. I figured I’ve been relatively pain free for the last few weeks, so I was due.

The party was great success! We had a really good turn out, and the demonstrations were incredible.

Devils Food and yellow vertical layer cake with sour cream chocolate fudge frosting

Can I just take some time to brag about the wonderful sisters in my ward? They are amazing to me! Talk about magnifying your callings and sharing talents. I love them all and they are great examples to me. I find that most of the time I do the bare minimum possible to get by. Not these ladies. Nor their husbands for that matter… what good support they are to their wives.

Our R.S. President, Melita Welling is incredible. She is so talented and I learn something new about her every day. She made all the bread sticks for the dinner and they were wonderful. AND she made a cake (she wasn’t supposed to since she made the bread sticks, but she did anyway)… I didn’t get any of it but everyone was raving about it.

Danielle Underwood did the beginning quilting demonstration. She made little quilt squares, and brought embroidery hoops to show people the basic hand quilting stitch. She also brought a couple of her beautiful quilts to give ideas. Our R.S. president also put up a baby quilt to show people how to tie a quilt as well. I take for granted that most people know how to do these things… but there are actually many who don’t. Danielle also did a lot of the set up, and her husband helped out a lot in the kitchen.

Gaye Willis set up a beautiful display on writing a Family History. This is something that I loved to look at and get ideas from. I’ve always been horrible about journaling, (I’m trying to blog more) but there are so many other elements involved, and so many different things you can do. Her insights and tips were terrific, as was the display.

Sour Cream white cake with Lime curd filling,

coconut flavored marshmallow fondant,

and gelatin bow

Tamara Criddle had a delicious display on old world bread making, and using a stone for baking.She had information sheets on yeasts, several different recipes and of course, some bread to taste. The rosemary and sea salt bread was to die for! Now I have more recipes to try out… shucks.

We also did butter churning in pint jars. There was one on each table for everyone to shake. And Victoria Adams had such a good idea to encourage people to keep shaking the jar and not give up, she bought candy bars to use as a prize to the table who churned their butter first. It was fun to watch everyone shaking their jar full of cream, everyone taking a…churn. Ha, ha.

Angela Babcock got volunteers for narrations about the past General R.S. Presidents, and Brother Willis put together a slide show of each of their pictures. It was really nice, and interesting to hear about all of them and some of the hardships they endured. What incredible women!

In my pain induced state, I failed to take pictures of everyone’s beautiful displays. I am so mad at myself!! I remembered to take pictures of my cakes, of course. Ever remembering and relieved that they were finished and I could move onto my next project. But I didn't take pictures of the others. I am so lame some times, ugh! Anyway… I am so happy that it was a success, and I am so grateful for the ladies in my life that are always teaching me something, and supporting me in all that I do.