Sara In Akko

After much Googling for the perfect Very Hungry Caterpillar birthday cake, I decided that for baby 3's 1st birthday I would go way over the top with some sugar-dough painting. If you haven't ever worked with fondant or sugar-dough, it helps to look at the dough as clay; sticky, quick drying, finicky clay.

However, I took a slight gamble on painting the individual elements of this caking, hoping it would produce a watercolor-ish, Eric Carle inspired VHC birthday cake.

Here's how it turned out:


I started with a non-dairy pound cake recipe, lots of green gel food coloring.... and more fake "buttercream" frosting than I care to admit.

I think the most inspiring element of the Very Hungry Caterpillar is that the illustrations look vibrant and timeless, so I used the bright dots on the cake as well as in the invitations and other party elements. 

The cupcake toppers and wrappers were just a few quick DIY projects, maybe a quick tutorial template to follow? Let me know if anyone is interested.

How do you throw an entirely successful "Very Hungry Caterpillar" 1st birthday party when you are either on a budget or live in a nation with no caterpillar party accessories in sight?
Very Hungry Caterpillar party idea are pretty easy to come by after a few dozen searches. So if your setting out to craft the bajeebeez out of your child's birthday, you're in good company.

All envelope and invitation formatting was achieved through a process of what can only be described as "futzing."

Even if you aren't a die-hard Martha fan, you're going to want to catch her and Joan Rivers crafting together. It's just that good!



Take a minute to process that; remake Marc Jacobs with felt and a glue gun?

I'm no fashionista, but as a sister to and mother of  2 girls with the fancy gene I can tell you that this is probably wrong. And yet, it's sooo right.This purse was made to be remade.

But I'm not entirely in love with the results of this craft session gone astray.


Step 1). If you have some spare pleather lying around in fanciful colors you can start by crafting yourself a basic clutch, any size and shape you like will work. I found this great turquoise purse for about $2. Cutting apart an old purse saves you the trouble of finding the zippers and other important purse parts.

If you're crafting your own clutch from scratch, skip to the bottom, otherwise stay with me.

*Tip: I mix paint when I've finished with one batch of hearts by adding the new paint to my original color. This keeps your hearts mostly within the same color family or tone so everything is well coordinated.

Our newly completed French Bakery hanging playset!

Complete with salivating poodle, ice cream soda, cupcakes, madelines, macaroons, croissants, Eifel Tower, and cherries galore.  And after nap-time there will be pictures galore of this set in action!

You may remember the doorway castle I made some time ago, it's the same principle. Take some heavy canvas and dive right in. This is a great project if you really want a fun interactive mural in your kid's room but rent or aren't sure you're that committed to French bakeries and poodles. Both is true in our case.

With a little impulse and crafty courage, you can take the plunge and finish the entire thing in a few short hours.

Not to worry, there's still a GIVEAWAY!
 
I seem to get more people looking over this remake of the Anthropologie Fresh Deliveries Clutch than any other post.




All you have to do is follow me, leave me a comment, let me know you're out there and you'll be entered to win today's giveaway.

Make sure to have a look at the rest of the French Bakery Playset and visit my other giveaways  this week for your chance to win other neat and crafty things.

  
This project has been a very long time in the making. Originally it was one of the gifts of a fourth birthday extravaganza that was scaled way down after a week long family emergency that kept the set from being completed. I even sat in the hospital with an injured toddler stitching felt food by nightlight but just couldn't make this deadline.

Months and months later, I think that my own birthday is the right time to give the littles in my house their play set. Lucky for them, the extra time of hiding in the craft room has expanded the set to include all sorts of neat extras.

Have a look!

It inspired comments like "Best. Cake. Ever!" and  "Wow!" and my personal favorite "Will you be my Mommy?" Now that's validation for the day of work you took off to bake a cake for a toddler.

Although it may seem simple enough, I admit I googled through a dozen or so blogs to see the variations on rainbow cake just to give me the start-up courage. In keeping with the birthday spirit, I want to share with you the straight forward how-to of this cake (it's a monster but worthwhile). But onto the How-to.


How To Bake your own Huge Rainbow Cake


2). Break out the gel food coloring. You really want your colors to be vibrant now before you bake (some colors may dull out a bit in the oven).


3). Pour and bake each batter in separate aluminum pie tins, unless you have 6 or so cake pans lying around your kitchen. These make slightly thinner layers than a normal batch of layer cake (1/3 batter vs 1/2) so watch carefully. 


 4). Take random pictures of your kitchen until your cakes are baked and cooled entirely. Again, if you are smart you will level out the layers of your cake that have puffed during baking before using your store bought frosting to layer and crumb-coat the ginormous cake tower.  If you're a renegade like me, you will throw caution to the wind and begin stacking your puffy cakes with homemade buttercream and hope the shear weight of the piled cakes will hold it upright.


5). If you're looking to go all the way with this cake (come on, you know you want to) cover in fondant and create 6 balls of gum-paste to match the colors of the inside of your cake and decorate in an outside ring. If not, decorate as you please.


 But cut one of these babies open at your party and wow! Even when you see it open for the first time, it's impressive and worth all the tiny steps.


6). Cut yourself and your party-goers a slice with a very large and very sharp knife (keeps the colors tidy) and enjoy!



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