Let me just start by saying Mountain Man and I have great friends.
Since we moved to Texas we've had the opportunity to meet even more awesome people.
When all the wedding planning began I wanted to try and make it as personal as possible; using the talents of the amazing people in our lives. Of course my girlfriends have been extremely supportive, especially those that just recently got married or are well into the planning phases themselves- it is invaluable to have people like that around you when you're making the big leap or you would be completely lost at where to begin...
I contacted a friend from college who now has his own photography to do our pictures and could not have been happier when he accepted the job...
A close family friend of MM is an ordained minister and my aunt, who just recently became a nun, are going to perform our ceremony...
And a friend in Texas, who is also trying to begin his photography career, agreed to do a few engagement photos for us.
So what does this have to do with an animal birthday cake?
Well, when we asked our friends here to take a few photos for us we did a little bartering. Our friends Richard and Ursula have an adorable little boy who recently turned 1, and in exchange for a small photo sesh, I agreed to make his first birthday cake.
Completely trusting each others creativity, Ursula simply gave me a napkin of the party favors, requested one cake for the party and one little cake for Lucas and sent me on my way.
A Strawberry Cake was requested, with a Strawberry Pastry Cream filling and the Best Buttercream covered the rest of the cake.
I spent the next week coloring fondant, cutting out little shapes and assembling all the little animals for the decorations.
It was all worth it when I got a sweet text from Ursula and saw these pictures all over Facebook...
Playing with his little zebra...
Toooo much cake...
How cute is he?! As for the engagement photos, lets just say I was more than impressed and I can't wait to send out our save the dates now!
Happy Baking!!
ps. If you are having trouble leaving comments could you possibly send me a message (sweetebakes@gmail.com) with the error you're getting? I'd like to get it fixed, but don't have the necessary information! Thanks!
