Sweets for the Sweet: Happy Birthday NuNu!

Well folks, it is that time of the week again! Yep, you guessed it: Time for a new post! Before I begin though, I would like to say that I now realize how important it is to write a new post after each event. You know what the problem is if I don't? The problem, dear readers, is that I get super excited about the most recent event, and I want to blog about that, yet, I have events still in queue! I know, I know...not a terribly big problem...but still. For someone as, well, slightly OCD as me, it drives me nuts. And yet, I am still going to blog about the most recent event =D (I guess it doesn't quite bother me that much!)

Alrighty, on to the fun part! This previous weekend, I had the chance to help my sweet friend, Mai, who was throwing an airplane themed birthday for her son, Keanu. The birthday was held at the really cool Miramar Aviation Museum in San Diego. What's also really cool was that the venue was practically free! The museum only asks for donations! Sweet, right? And even sweeter, Keanu (who is one of the brightest and most mature 11 year old I know!) decided that he can forgo personal gifts this year and wished for his gifts to be a donation to the museum. And yes, you did read that right; I did write that Keanu is 11! (Although, he wouldn't take it personally if you decided to donate and give him a gift!) So, sweet Mai gave me control of the dessert table. I was able to tell her what I want to put on the table, how I want it set up, and made her buy everything too. Usually, I try to make all the goods on the dessert table...as it gets too pricey to outsource goods (especially candy). However, in this case, I wanted some of the treats to be airline snacks...you know, pretzels and peanuts. Huh..what do you mean, you don't know? Well, fly Southwest next time and you'll see that not only are the flight attendants much more fun to fly with, they also give you free snacks! I had really loved Southwest's mini pretzels. They are some seriously cute pretzels. And I had wanted to order some online from the manufacturer that makes them for Southwest. And they were really very reasonably priced. Until they charge you for shipping. Then it became very unreasonable. So, out went the cute mini pretzel idea that was supposed mimic Southwest, and in came pretzels from the grocery store. No biggie though...I'd probably be the only one to realize the mini pretzels mimicked Southwest's.

Anyways, Mai decided to help me out by making the labels for the goods, along with cupcakes and the rice krispy treats. I ended up making some bacon caramel popcorn (which were tied in small baggies), cake batter flavored macarons, airplane and cloud sugar cookies, and cake pops! I also rolled up some mini croissants and piggies in a blanket. Those piggies were a by product of extra croissant dough! Oh, and I almost had to twist Mai's arms off to let me bake Keanu a real cake! I mean, really, the thought of the poor kid blowing out a cupcake when all they had to do was give me that task! And Mai and every other baker out there knows that this is true of ourselves: we are superhumans and can handle anything, anything that is thrown our way. Besides, sleep is totally overrated...

Ok, you are probably bursting to see pictures, huh? And for those of you who skipped over all this writing and went straight to the pictures, I know who you are and you better go back and read what I wrote!

Ok, so we had some slight problems. Apparently, we were supposed to get some shade (where we decided to put all the food). However, that Saturday was a pretty hot one, and we weren't able to set up the food and desserts because we didn't get any shade (until much later). But because guests are arriving (around the time we would've gotten shade), we grabbed a canopy to shade the tables so that we can actually start setting up food...hence, weird canopy tent thing in the background. Also, in the midst of all that madness, we seem to have misplaced the blue cloudy background meant to go behind the dessert table. So, we made do with what we can!

Here's the cake! I made a chocolate nutella cake! There is nutella buttercream frosting in the middle, along with wafers (hope it didn't get soggy!) to give it that Ferrero Rocher type crunch.

Aren't the foods incredible? Mai's sisters were also put to work and they did a fabulous job! Mai was a fantastic hostess...Not only was there food, there was also a jewelry making station, airplane folding station (with airplane flying contests at certain times), and even a scavenger hunt! She also set up an area for a photobooth, with all the costumes and accessories known to man! We, of course, had to get in on that action!