B-day stuff: Chocolate Cake with Whipped Frosting and brunch from The Pink Princess Book

Here is my little Ry-Bear. She turned 5 on October 25th. She loves the carousel, animals and dinosaurs, but sometimes has a thing for pink and princesses, too.
When we discussed her b-day cake, her first choice involved pink and princess, but she quickly changed her mind to dinosaurs and green frosting. I asked her multiple times and the dinosaur/green frosting combo was the winner.
She wanted to decorate it, so I let her put the little plastic dinos on top and then all the kids help throw the dinosaur eggs (candy-coated chocolate covered sunflower seeds) on top. Kind of relaxing to let the kids do all the work.
I had no problem getting rid of the extra frosting. The recipe for cake and frosting are below. Nothing too spectacular, but good enough for a birthday.
For her birthday brunch, the birthday girl flipped through the pages of Pink Princess Cookbook and chose a menu. The kids helped me prepare all of the food for our brunch.

I was not planning on taking pictures of this brunch, but my mom and husband both protested when I told them I was just going to have a relaxing time with no pics. They insisted. So, I grabbed the camera when everything was on the table (not the usual place for taking pics of food in my house) and I tried to get a decent shot of the brunch. Bear with me on these :-)
Ry chose Mini-Marshmallow Smoothies to start us off. I adapted the recipe from the book and placed 1 sliced banana, 1 cup sliced strawberries, 1/2 cup frozen blueberries, 1 cup vanilla yogurt, and 1 1/2 cups skim milk in the blender. I blended it well, then poured it into glasses and added the colored mini-marshmallows. (The adults enjoyed smoothies w/out marshmallows).
Next up
Blackberry Biscuits
1 can large-size refrigerator biscuits
1 cup canned blackberry pie filling
1 tsp ground cinnamon mixed w/ 1/4 cup sugar

Spray a muffin tin with cooking spray. Slice or divide each biscuit in half. Press one half in the bottom of 8 of the muffin cups, covering bottom completely. Leave 4 of the muffin cups empty.
Spoon 1 Tbls pie filling on top of each biscuit half.
Cover pie filling w/ remaining biscuits halves.
Sprinkle tops w/ cinnamon-sugar mixture. I used decorating sugar too
Bake for 15 minutes.
Serve warm.
Fairy Tale Fondue
3/4 cup heavy cream
12 oz white chocolate, chopped
1 tsp vanilla

Heat the cream in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat until hot, about 2-3 minutes.
When hot, add the chocolate and stir until it is just melted and smooth. Stir in vanilla.
Serve with your choice or fresh strawberries, banana slices, pound cake, pretzels, grapes, etc. for dipping
This was Ry's fave thing to help make for the brunch.

Little Ladybugs
12 seedless red grapes
12 toothpicks
12 whole strawberries w/ stems
1 package mini chocolate chips

Place a grape on a toothpick, sliding it all the way to the end of the stick. This is the ladybugs head.
Place a strawberry on the toothpick, stem end first, and slide it down to touch the grape. This is the body.
Lay the ladybug down and carefully push the pointed ends of several chocolate chips into the strawberry to make the spots.
Raspberry Tea Sandwiches
8 slices white bread
1/2 cup soft spread cream cheese
1 Tbls raspberry preserves
1 pint fresh raspberries

Cut bread into desired shapes with a cookie cutter. In a bowl combine cream cheese and raspberry preserves. Spread a thin layer of the mixture on each bread cut-out and place raspberries on top.

Classic Cucumber Sandwiches
1 English cucumber, sliced
8 slices whole wheat bread
2 Tbls softened butter
salt and pepper
cherry tomatoes for garnish

Cut crust off bread and cut into shapes with cookie cutter.
Spread butter on each cut-out. Lay cucumber slices on top.
Season with salt and pepper.
Garnish with cherry tomatoes


The whole brunch was really fun to prepare and even more fun to share. It was a great birthday!

Recipe for Chocolate Cake

Recipe for Whipped Frosting