One wish, two wish, three big wishes! (cupcake party!)

We made yummy chocolate caramel cupcakes to celebrate Raina's 3rd birthday.

Doesn't Snow White do an amazing job of showing off the cuppycake?

Truth be told, the cupcakes themselves were from a box.  Yup, they were.

But the frosting... it was made from scratch, and oh.my.goodness.  it was delish.  Once you make frosting from scratch, you'll never go back to the can!  It's pretty easy to make:

You need:
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 3/4 cup confectioners sugar
1 tbsp light cream or milk
1 tsp vanilla
2 squares unsweetened baking chocolate, melted

Here's what you do:
Mix the butter until it's creamy.  I used a hand mixer, but sometimes I use a fork.  You can also use a full size mixer.  Whatevs.  Slowly add in the confectioners sugar and milk/cream.  Mix until it is smooth.  Add in vanilla and melted chocolate... mixmixmix until everything looks blanded and fluffy.

When I'm making this, Raina waits right next to me so she can call dibs on the mixers or fork :)  Smart girl!

For the birthday celebration, I added some sugar Doras to the tops of the cupcakes.  Miss Raina is easy to please sometimes :).

Birthday Bling!

Tomorrow is Miss Raina's THIRD birthday!  She's a princess loving girl right now, so I made her a birthday princess crown to proclaim er new big girl number.  I seriously hope she wears it all day. 

It's made from felt and sequins, held together with some thread and glue.  So simple.  I found a template on the interwebs (searched under "princess crown template"), traced it on felt (Sparkly felt!), then cut around slightly larger on a new color for the basic crown shape.  I stuck in a piece of elastic sandwiched in some bias tape for the back, then sewed around the whole thing.  Some of my stitching around the top circle-like parts is a little wonky, but I don't mind :)  It's decorated with felt hearts, and since I love you I'll tell you that they were pre-cut felt shapes.  No work for me!  I did hand-cut the big number 3 emblem in the center, though :)  I attached the felt decorations with hot glue, then added some sequins for some extra pizzaz.  Ta-da!

cut out and pinned in place

pre-cut felt hearts!

you can really see the sparkles in this one - love!

elastic sandwiched in bias tape

THREE bling!!

I like how it looks nice and ruffly!