A Little Bit About a Lot of Things

It’s so fun to be turning 1!! The Go Local Boston gals and I put together a fun party for my little one who has a birthday right around the corner. If you’re looking for a traditional cake, The Icing on the Cake is one of my top choices. Located in Newton, TIOTC is in their 29th year of business. They did our wedding cake, which was amazing. The cake designs are beautiful and they can create a custom cake (or cupcakes) for your event. 8″ round cakes, that feed around 10-15, start at $45. This cake, with pale pink rosettes, was a perfect centerpiece for our party.

We paired the cake with a sparkler #1 candle from Greentail Table. Greentail has a large selection of housewares and textiles. I literally want EVERYTHING in the store.

The candle in action!

Sparklers not your thing? Here’s another fun way to top your cake – picked this up in the dollar bins at Target!

Other places to get great cakes:

• Party Favors in Brookline – they do custom cakes, but also have cakes (and cupcakes) ready to go in the shop
• Blackbird Doughnuts in the South End – Chef Anna Perna makes a doughnut cake, 5″ wide, made with doughnut layers and berry jam. For $26 you can get one for your next event, covered in vanilla buttercream or the seasonal buttercream (which is strawberry at the moment). Hey, if Adele loves it, you will too!
• AJ Cakes in Marlborough – for those of you out in Metro West, Ashley is your girl. She makes custom cakes, cookies and cupcakes.Do  yourself a favor and pick up a cinnamon roll for yourself while your in there for the ride home…
• For those of you farther out west, try The Crown Bakery and Cafe in Worcester – Our girl Kim swears by the princess cake, but they can whip you up any number of options, they’ve been around for 55 years!

Here’s the birthday girl going after that first taste of cake!

Traditional cakes not your thing? Try an ice cream cake from New City Microcreamery in Hudson. I love New City for their liquid nitrogen ice cream and eccentric toppings. Now, they offer cakes, starting at $25. Choose from three popular flavors:

Strawberries and Cream: Yellow Cake, Strawberry ice cream, whipped cream icing.
Birthday Cake: Funfetti cake, Cake batter ice cream, whipped Icing, rainbow sprinkles.
Double Chocolate: Chocolate Cake, Chocolate ice cream, brownie crumble, chocolate icing.

Pop on to their website, you can order it right online, pick your flavor and pick your size (6″, 8″ or 10″) – BOOM, you’re done. You can make a fully customized cake starting at $35.

We had the strawberries and cream cake – I love strawberry ice cream and the cake was very light and fresh. Pick one up today!

Let’s talk party favors. Before I had kids, I went to some first birthday parties. When you don’t have kids and you get invited to a 1st birthday party, you can probably think of a million things that you’d rather be doing. I love the idea of party favors for the adults at a kids party – make the non parents happy and put out some single serve bubbly and fun party straws. We thought the LaMarca proseccos were a good choice and paired them with fun paper straws from Target.

Bubbly not your thing? The Francis Ford Coppola winery puts out these cute Sofia mini cans. The Sofia Blanc de Blancs come in fun pink cans with their own straw for sipping. Those without kids will thank you. And even if you do have kids, you might want to grab one of these 😉

Now that the adults are happy, how about the kids? How adorable are these sappy cups that Leah found from Francesca’s. Party favors at 1st birthdays aren’t really necessary, but fun for guests to walk away with a little something.

Succulents are so in these days, how about these cuties from Niche in Cambridge? Leah likes to pair these with $5 gift cards for the kids – I like that idea too! I think I’ll steal it. Because you know that those kids don’t need cheap plastic toys or more candy…

Let’s throw in something a little sophisticated shall we? I’ll start off with these amazing unicorn macarons from Maca Boston. Tamy is my go to gal for macarons – not only does she make adorable characters, but they TASTE DELICIOUS! They are so fresh – these ones are filled with fruity pebble buttercream – so fun!! We shot them on top of Hammond’s cotton candy from Brothers Marketplace, because…what kid doesn’t love cotton candy! Oh, and by the way, she also makes MACARON CAKES!!!!!

Another option for party favors, not just for a 1st birthday, but for any event, are La Doce brigadeiros. These Brazilian handmade truffles come in this 4 pack size ($10), perfect for a favor, or a larger size of 15 ($35). They are made locally and are HAND DELIVERED! Yay!!

Stay tuned all this week for fun party themed posts!

Thanks to the following companies who provided the products for this post: La Doce, Brothers Marketplace, Maca Boston, New City Microcreamery and The Icing on the Cake

Tags: events, products