Celebrating Her 1st Birthday with Snowflake Cupcakes!

I have 4 sweet children…this winter that’s 4 coats, 4 hats, 8 mittens and 6 boots (since the baby doesn’t need any!).

That’s also 4 birthdays each year. Yes, I was an A student, especially in math class. But seriously, coming up with festive new ideas 4 times a year…that proves slightly difficult.

Since I know that it’s a challenge – themes, cake, food – I love to be able to share the ideas from their parties so that you, in turn, can be inspired when planning parties for your kids.

So, here goes – my baby girl turned one at the beginning of December and I was completely unorganized when it came time to plan a celebration in her honor. The menu ended up being super simple, but it was delicious.

I have always done cupcakes for the baby’s first birthday around here, they display nicely and everyone has their own, including the baby. I wanted them to be decorated sweetly and a little girly, so I chose snowflakes and they turned out adorable and didn’t take very long at all.

The one mistake that I made was making chocolate cake, while it was tasty to all of us, the birthday girl didn’t like it and so she didn’t eat much of her own birthday cake. I didn’t really think that she’d never had cake, let alone anything chocolate. So I would probably recommend using a white or yellow cake if it is baby’s first real cake experience.

BUT this was an easy homemade chocolate cupcake recipe, so I definitely wanted to share it with you.

Easy One-Bowl Chocolate Cupcakes

Printable Recipe Here

1 3/4 cups FLOUR

1 cup BROWN SUGAR

1/4 cup UNSWEETENED COCOA POWDER (sifted)

1 teaspoon BAKING POWDER

1 teaspoon BAKING SODA

1/2 teaspoon SALT

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon (optional)

1 cup MILK

1 EGG

1/3 cup CANOLA OR VEGETABLE OIL

1 teaspoon VANILLA

1 cup SEMI-SWEET MINI CHOCOLATE CHIPS

Preheat oven to 350°.

Line 12 regular size muffin cups with paper liners.

In a medium bowl, using a wooden spoon, mix together flour, brown sugar, sifted cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and cinnamon.

In a two-cup measuring cup or bowl whisk together milk, egg, oil and vanilla.

Add milk mixture to dry ingredients; stir with wooden spoon until well combined.

Mix in chocolate chips.

Divide the batter evenly between the muffin cups.

Bake for 22-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle come out clean.

Cool and frost.

At Walmart, I found neon food coloring, which had the color purple, and Wilton brand White Sparkling Sugar (both were located in the baking aisle). I also used foil cupcake papers, which I thought went well with the shimmering snowflake cupcakes.

I made this cream cheese frosting and colored about 3/4 of it purple and left the rest white. I frosted the tops of the cupcakes with the purple and then dipped the tops in the sparkling sugar. I put the white frosting in a decorating bag and used decorating tip 2 (you could use 3 if you have it) and made the snow flakes. That’s it!!!

She wasn’t so sure about it.

The menu for the party was:

Crockpot Italian Beef Sandwiches

Loaded Cheesy Potato Casserole

Pasta Salad (from a box!)

Veggies and Dip

The best part about this menu is that the beef cooked all day and I mixed up the potato casserole the night before and it was ready to put into the oven in time to cook for the party. Pretty easy and low key, the perfect combination for me to enjoy her little party!

This post is linked to 12 Days of Christmas Goodies – Mom’s Crazy Cooking