Sweet Celebration

My little sunshine turned 5 years !
... a perfect occasion and reason for trying out some home-made sweet treats for the little guests :)

A super simple cup cake decoration ... just a swirl of butter cream icing topped with some sprinkles and M&Ms.
The heart and also the letters in first picture are made from royal icing. It was actually left overs after the pink roses (below) I made for the birthday cake.

First attempt in making a cake of this big a size ! You bet I had my fingers crossed through out :)
Its a simple vanilla cake with butter cream icing. The sides were decorated with the basket weave and this worked pretty well since I still struggle to get the perfect finish with this icing.

For the decoration I made Wilton roses using royal icing.
The left overs of which I used to make the letters, hearts and also number 5 which unfortunately broke :(
So with royal icing, be sure to make plenty of extras in case a few of them break !

Not a great shot, but wanted to show full picture of the cake.
I realize the writing on the cake isn't great...so there is always an excuse to make more cakes and work on that :)

Bread sandwiches cut into Dolphins and heart...using a sandwich cutter.

The Brownies looked pretty plain and simple. So used some butter cream frosting for this quick design.

It was quite some work and planning in getting all this ready in-time for the party. At the end, it was all worth-it !

Spring-ing to action !

As we get set and march into Summer, its been a fantastic spring so far.
For last few weekends it has been a lot of activity in our backyard. 

It started with re-potting my existing plants ...

...then some new additions 

...and few more !

Tried my hands making these Terrariums

We have had a challenge with outdoor plants in the past due to the squirrels. But the optimist me did not want to give up ! Infact made a more ambitious attempt and made this tiny vegetable and flower patch in my backyard...after taking some measures to keep the squirrels away :)

some vegetable seeds that I sowed with a silent prayer ... are now springing to action now. 

Can't wait to cook with veggies from my own backyard :)

The backyard is now the sweet corner of our house .. be it my cup of tea, evening snacks... all the fun time with family and friends is now centered in our backyard.