Amanda’s Birthday

I know I have mentioned it before, that on Amanda’s birthday I some how feel compelled to make the wildest, wackiest birthday cake I can come up with. It usually takes some planning and never goes according to said plan. This year since I was here – I really wanted it to be special. David had surprised her with a trip to a Jazz club earlier in the day, and I ran with it as a theme.

The “piano” cake. It took a lot more planning this time – since there are no good cake mixes here, and everything is just that much different that I didn’t feel confident making a home made cake – I ordered box mixes. I attempted to dye the cake mix black so when you cut into it, the cake itself was black – apparently, to make this happen you need more than a full container of black food dye. Thus we ended up with a gray cake. Inside and out. At least MOST people knew what it was!

The “spread” Again, I was going for fun fancy finger foods – that were simple enough to prepare. We ended up with vegetables, ants on logs, cheese and crackers, popcorn and these wonderful little tomato bites (except since the cheese here is SO awesome, I went with ordinary cheese instead of mozzarella). Also I hand made mustache straws – because what is a jazz party without mustaches?

The “Decor” I had spent some time browsing the local stores for inspiration but came up empty handed and instead ordered everything online. The awesome part about living here and mostly everything was free shipping. The musical notes cost a whole .70 – the only problem was they said 70’s disco club – but no one seemed to mind.

Amanda and David.

Amanda and I modeling our top hats. I had originally ordered some top hats to be used as serving dishes (like the popcorn was in). The first time I ordered – I ended up with mini top hats, which made Amanda and I crack up – since she didn’t know what I was planning I think she might have been a bit skeptical!