I wanted to share some photos from Little Mister’s first birthday party. We went with a carnival theme, and for the invite we dressed him up as a strongman/lion tamer! This was my first time planning and hosting a party, and maybe my last! No, it was fun, but I feel I was a little in over my head at times.
The cupcake stand was purchased at a craft store and embellished with carnival themed scrapbook paper. Popcorn cupcakes made from vanilla batter and mini marshmallows snipped to look like popped corn (which I frantically picked off when it was time for him to eat one, choking hazard and all!). I found the carnival rubber ducks online, and used them as accent pieces on the table. At the party supply store we bought dozens of clear plastic cups, and applied the hairy mustache stickers to the front. The red and white paper straws were purchased from Etsy. I made the little straw banners in Photoshop, and put a little piece of double sided tape on the inside to hold them to the straw.
The snow cone cupcakes were baked from the same batch as the marshmallow ones, and frosted with different color icing and sugars. I put the cupcakes inside the snow cone cups, and tucked in a spoon-straw to give the full effect! Turns out it worked, lots of the little kids thought they were real snow cones! And the cone holder? A Krispy Kreme doughnut box covered in gift wrap! The gumball and candy stick tower in the back is part of the Dol Go Im, a traditional Korean decoration for first birthdays.
The food table was mostly sweets, but in the corner there are Saucisson en Brioche, which most people thought were rolls! Everyone got a bit of a surprise! There were two different types of chocolate chip cookies, one flavored with orange zest and the other with toasted almonds. The pretzels were homemade, and super tasty, hanging on my pasta drying rack! We had a section to win a goldfish, which were goldfish crackers in a snack bag! I molded up 3 dozen chocolate mustache lollipops, and set them up as a photo prop and tasty snack!
And finally, at the Doljanchi table, I made a faux carnival spinner to represent the different items Little Mister could choose from. A little background, at the first birthday, a table is set up in front of the child with different items on it. The child sits in front, and chooses one item. Each item has a different meaning, so if he chooses the money, he will be wealthy. The wisk, he will be a chef! We might have modified it a bit to reflect our family, hehe. At the end of the day, we forgot all about it! I kept telling myself we would do it at a later time, but we never did. I’m just secretly going to say to myself he would have chosen the whisk! I’ll have a mini tutorial up soon on how I made the carnival wheel!
A Look Back: 3 weeks before Little Mister was born, I was hard at work making my first croquembouche. I had wanted to make one for the longest time, and had it set in my head that my “Baby Brunch” was the event to try it out. I had made the choux a few days before and froze them, and made the crème patissière the night before. The day of, I mixed sweetened whipping cream in with the pastry cream to lighten it, and give it an airy texture. The caramel was the most annoying part, trying to find the right consistency to hold the puffs together yet still be edible (i.e., not super solid rock hard!) Finally, I cooked the caramel to a hard ball stage and “spun” it around the mini tower. 
