camping birthday party: put a bear on it!

Elsa loves finding worms and bugs and being outside. I thought a camping theme would be fun for her fourth birthday party and she was immediately excited about the idea. I didn't think we could compete with the fun we had creating her cardboard box party last year but the camping theme turned out to be super fun. Plus, it gave us an excuse to finally build a fire pit in our backyard!  

I created a bear roasting a marshmallow for the invitation and then had fun developing the theme from there. Lots of burlap and tree stumps and bears. And cake. Lots of cake.

I finally attempted to cut fabric with my Silhouette machine. I was so impressed with the results and had fun making various burlap banners. I also found out that you can print right on burlap. I actually fed a piece of burlap through my printer and it worked! I didn't end up using it for the party, but I'm excited about the possibilities.

Of course I had to cut a bear out too.

I used the same graphics from the invite to create these signs for the tables. Ben cut the little pieces of wood and then drilled holes for the sticks.

We had to include Elsa's favorite food, nutella. I made the Greek yogurt and nutella dip to have with strawberries, her other favorite food. 

 

And some salads the adults would appreciate.

The kids used the red baskets for their hot dogs and the adults used foil pie plates.

We had a drink bar where people could make their own sodas in mason jars. I knew the kids would lose track of their jars easily so I put chalkboard paint on the lids and wrote their names and then punched a hole through the lid for the straw.

 

 

I had fun with the desserts. Even though we were having s'mores, a birthday party isn't complete without cake. I made cupcakes for the kids. I wasn't sure if one cake would be enough to feed all the adults (it was) so I ended up making two cakes. Which was fine because there were a few recipes I wanted to try. 

 

Chocolate cupcakes with vanilla buttercream. Some with sprinkles and some with graham cracker crumbs, and a chocolate bar on top.

The s'mores cake had brown butter graham cracker crust baked into two of the chocolate cake layers and a chocolate ganache between cake layers and on the outside. I followed this recipe but used my own recipe for the chocolate cake. I ran out of time for the meringue top so I just used leftover marshmallow frosting from the other cake. Then sprinkled graham cracker crumbs over the whole thing.

  Ben cut me some nice wood slices with a chainsaw and then I used wood glue to make cake stands.

I really loved the graham cracker layers and the ganache on this cake.

   

The second cake was a little more intimidating. A six-layer rich chocolate malted and toasted-marshmallow cake. I found the recipe here. (I used my own recipe for the chocolate cake again.) I was really concerned about this thing toppling over. But it didn't! Until we had cut half of the cake. The toasted-marshmallow frosting was so yummy. It had bits of actual toasted marshmallows in it. Making the cake turned out to be pretty easy compared to slicing it.

 

We ate cake for three days straight.

And of course the s'more fixin's. It's hard to beat a classic s'more. But I must say nutella was pretty awesome. So was cookie butter. We also tried peanut butter cups. So delicious. I'm pretty sure everyone went home in a sugar coma.

 

I made personalized labels for the bug hunt jars. We hid plastic bugs and gummy bugs for the kids to find.

I had fun screen printing little favor bags. We filled them with pop rocks, gummy bears, glow sticks, a mini flash light, and a small camping activity book. I also screen printed shirts for Elsa, Amelia, and Oliver.

And now that I've indulged myself with party details, stay tuned for another post that will contain pictures of actual people at the party, not just bears.


(If you don't get the "put a bear on it" reference, you better watch this clip from Portlandia.)

party gear.

Elsa was incredibly excited when she opened Aunt Steph's birthday present before her camping birthday party. Steph thought of all the perfect details and filled the vest pockets with essentials likes snacks and a little notebook. It even has her name on it! The shark flashlight was Elsa's favorite. The hard part was waiting ALL DAY LONG for her evening birthday party.

lemons!

A few weeks ago on a rainy, yucky day, this showed up on my door step:

Fresh lemons. Straight from California and courtesy of my wonderful friend Sarah. They smelled so good. I got to work right away, starting with lemon pudding cakes and lemon crinkle cookies.

The lemon pudding cakes were amazing. Light and fluffy with a delicious lemon custard surprise in the bottom. And low in calories!


Lemon Pudding Cakes
(from Everyday Food Magazine)

• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted, plus more, room temperature, for ramekins
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon fine salt
• 3 large eggs, separated
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest, plus 1/3 cup lemon juice (from 2 lemons)
• 1 1/4 cups whole milk
• Confectioners' sugar, for serving

 Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Butter eight 6-ounce ramekins or a 2-quart baking dish. Set in a shallow baking pan. In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt.

In a large bowl, whisk together egg yolks with 1/2 cup granulated sugar until pale and smooth. Whisk in butter, lemon zest and juice, milk, and flour mixture.

In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat egg whites with 1/4 cup granulated sugar until stiff peaks form, 5 minutes; fold into batter. With a ladle, divide batter among ramekins, keeping sides clean. Pour enough hot water into baking pan to come halfway up sides of ramekins. Bake until cakes are puffed and slightly golden on top, 30 minutes*. Dust with confectioners' sugar and serve immediately.

The lemon crinkle cookie recipe was floating around on Pinterest. It can be found here.

Oliver was a huge fan of the lemon pudding cakes.

Lemon Bars were a must.

Double Lemon Bars
(Bon Appetit, 1991)

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup powdered sugar
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter, cut into pieces, room temperature
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon all purpose flour
1 tablespoon grated lemon peel
Powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350°F. Combine 1 1/2 cups flour and 1/2 cup powdered sugar in large bowl. Add butter and cut in until mixture resembles coarse meal. Press mixture into bottom of 9x13x2-inch baking dish. Bake until golden brown, about 20 minutes. Remove from oven. Maintain oven temperature.

Beat eggs, 1 1/2 cups sugar, lemon juice, 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon flour and lemon peel in medium bowl to blend. Pour into crust. Bake until mixture is set, about 20 minutes. Cool.
Cut into 24 bars. Sift powdered sugar over top before serving.

I finally tried making my own lemon curd. And it was a cinch! I was so pleased with the results. And also pleased that I had the perfect use for these jars I found at the Crate & Barrel outlet. 

Lemon Curd
(from Stephmodo)

1 cup fresh lemon juice (about 6-8 large lemons)
2 tablespoons fresh lemon zest
1 cup sugar
6 large eggs
1 1/2 sticks unsalted cold butter (12 Tblsp), cut into chunks

Zest lemons and set aside. Halve lemons and juice. Whisk together juice, zest, sugar and eggs in a 2-quart heavy saucepan. Cook over medium low heat for about one minute. Then slowly add bits of chilled butter, whisking frequently, until curd is thick enough to hold marks of a whisk and the first bubble appears on the surface (about 5-6 minutes).

Press curd through a large sieve into a shallow casserole dish (a 9×13 Pyrex works well). Cover the surface with plastic wrap to keep a film from forming on the surface of the curd. Chill overnight or for 8 hours before serving. Makes two half pints.

This lemon yogurt cake was delicious and moist. And extra good with some lemon curd spread on top.

Lemon Yogurt Cake
(from Ina Garten)

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1 cup plain whole-milk yogurt

1 1/3 cups sugar, divided

3 extra-large eggs

2 teaspoons grated lemon zest (2 lemons)

1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

For the glaze:
1 cup confectioners' sugar
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

Preheat the oven to 350*. Grease an 8 1/2 X 4 /14 X 2 1/2 inch loaf pan. Line the bottom with parchment paper. Grease and flour the pan.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt into one bowl. In another bowl, whisk together the yogurt, 1 cup sugar, the eggs, lemon zest, and vanilla. Slowly whisk the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. With a rubber spatula, fold the vegetable oil into the batter, making sure it's all incorporated. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 50 minutes, or until a cake tester placed in the center of the loaf comes out clean.

Meanwhile, cook the 1/3 cup lemon juice and remaining 1/3 cup sugar in a small pan until the sugar dissolves and the mixture is clear. Set aside.

When the cake is done, allow it to cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Carefully place on a baking rack over a sheet pan. While the cake is still warm, pour the lemon-sugar mixture over the cake and allow it to soak in. Cool. For the glaze, combine the powdered sugar and lemon juice and pour over the cake.

Makes 1 Loaf

We also used the lemon curd on crepes.

Sarah introduced me to the best ebelskiver recipe a few years ago. Lemon mascarpone ebelskivers. Another excellent use of the lemon curd. And if you don't have an ebelskiver pan, just mix lemon curd and mascarpone together and you'll have an amazing dip for fruit, or your fingers.

We had to sneak some nutella into a few ebelskivers too.

Thank you, Sarah, for making our week a little bit brighter and far more delicious!