thirtieth birthday party

A few weeks ago, my friends and I hosted a thirtieth birthday party for our friend. 

The party was at my house, so the table was set with hand me down china. My mom got ahold of a big set of Spode Blue Room Collection 'Willow' china from my grandmother so that we could all match. This was especially for my friend Allison, who says we eat on a different set of china each time she comes to my house.

My sister-in-law was one of the hostesses (she did everything), and she made this cake for our friend, who loves monograms and prints. Her bakery's blog is here. 

Allison made a special punch that went perfectly with my punch bowl. 

Our friend enjoyed her party, and she makes 30 look fun :)

chocolate sour cream pound cake with Mom Mom's icing

Real talk: my mom made this cake.  She used her go-to pound cake recipe, which is fabulous.  I mean, people request that she make this cake.  How often are you thrilled by a pound cake?!  I love it, especially when it's warm.  For a shower, she fancied it up with chocolate icing that her grandmother, Mom Mom, used to make.  I never met Mom Mom; she passed away before I was born.  I hear she made the best fried chicken.  

I am only going to post the icing recipe since my mom said the pound cake is from an old Southern Living recipe.  I try my best to post only original content on my blog.  I cannot find the recipe anywhere on the internet, but send me an email if you want help with a chocolate pound cake.  

Mom usually bakes the cake in a 10 inch tube pan, but I requested that she make it in a bundt pan to pretty it up.  The recipe made this cake + a small loaf pan.  

Mom Mom's chocolate pound cake icing

1 cup brown sugar

2/3 cup evaporated milk

1/2 stick margarine

2 teaspoons vanilla

1/2 package chocolate chips*

Combine first four ingredients and bring to a boil.  Boil 3 minutes.  Remove from heat.  Add 1/2 package chocolate chips.  Beat until melted.  Ice cake.  

*Mom said she thinks that chocolate chips used to come in 9 ounce packages, so she added 4.5 ounces of chips when she made the icing.  

The pretty shape got a little lost under the icing, but it still tasted great!  

Do you like pound cake?  Have you ever made a pound cake?  What kind?

oh boy! cake banner

Since I'm no expert at decorating a cake with frosting, I like the idea of cake banners.  Plus, how great is it that you can reuse the banner?!  I think a "happy birthday" banner may be next -- or maybe I'll just copy my pom pom garland and make "celebrate" so that I can use it for any occasion!

I used scrap burlap that my mom had left after making candy corn garlands.  I made a template on wrapping paper (card stock would be even better) and traced seven flags onto the burlap.

I cut out the flags and flipped them over in case any marks were left from tracing.  Permanent marker did not bleed through.

I drew some letters then decided I would rather draw them backward instead of cutting them out, flipping, tracing, and cutting again.  I was afraid cutting out the centers would ruin my work, so I left them without holes in the middle.  These letters are pretty tiny, and I didn't have a knife blade/razor handy.

I hot glued the letters onto the banner, using tweezers to place on the smallest pieces.  Once dry, I flipped them over, reversed them in order (important!), and hot glued onto twine.  I used fray check to attempt to keep the ends of the burlap from fraying and shedding onto the cake.

I tied the twine around bamboo skewers and slid them right into the cake.

The chocolate pound cake with Mom Mom's icing will be up soon!

How do you like to decorate cakes?  What's your favorite cake recipe?