Carousel Ombré Ruffle Cake, Cookies & Cupcakes

So I'm one step closer to finally making a carousel cake. I've had many requests for the now super-popular carousel cake (you know, one topped with edible horses, under a tent), but for one reason or another, I haven't able to make one! Ok, so with this cake, it wasn't a full-blown carousel cake, but it was for a carousel-themed party 

pink ombré buttercream ruffle cake with paper carousel topper

For baby Lavigne's 1st birthday, I got to make a pink ombré buttercream ruffle cake, decorated with a paper carousel horse topper. The cake is a luscious lemon-meringue cake, filled with tart lemon curd, and frosted with vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream dyed four shades of pink. I like lemon cakes because it's a change from the usual chocolate, and even though one has eaten a big meal, there's always room to have a slice of lemon cake. It is more of an adult flavour, I find, cuz most kids haven't learned to enjoy sweet-sour tastes yet. My son is an exception though, because he insisted on requested for a lemon cake for his 5th birthday and was even cheeky enough to announce to his guests "to be careful cuz the cake is sour" after he had blown the birthday candle out! 

luscious lemon curd filling for tart lemon cake

I'm totally not a craftsy person, so I always take forever to make anything out of paper. Even the simple styrofoam stands I make for cake pops takes me forever to do! So I knew I had to sit down while I worked on the paper carousel topper for this cake. I cut triangles out of pink paper and used fancy glittery gold letter-stickers to spell out the birthday girl's name, and then strung them up on gold string, using a needle to poke holes and thread the string through. I printed carousel horses on photo paper and covered them with gold glitter to glam them up before sticking them onto some pink-stripey paper straws. I love how the topper turned out! 

carousel-themed paper topper

Since the straws are only 8" tall, the trick to getting them to stand up nice and tall on the cake is to poke skewers into the cake first, and then poke the straws through the skewers!  And to match with the stripey-straws, I made a fancy pink and white striped fondant number one to go on top of the cake too. 

orange-chocolate chunk cupcakes

pretty rose swirl frosted cupcakes

In addition to the cake, I also got to make cupcakes and cookies. The cupcakes are my fave flavour - chocolate orange chunk, frosted with orange-flavoured Swiss meringue buttercream. The buttercream was dyed pink and piped in rose swirls to match the party's colour-scheme. Lavigne's mummy topped them off with some cute carousel-themed cupcake toppers. 

carousel cupcakes

For the sugar cookies, I went with the same design as I did for these glittery star cookies, except instead of the star, I cut carousel horses out of fondant and decorated them with glittery gold dust to give them that extra sparkle. Plus, they match nicely with the gold carousel horses on top of the cake. 

shiny gold and pink carousel cookies

I love the way the gold carousel horses sparkle on the cookies when the sunlight hits them. To keep the cookies fresh for the party, they were individually packaged in cellophane bags tied off with a gold twisty-tie. Not only does wrapping cookies keep them fresh, but it also makes it easier to give to the guests to take home if there are any leftover after the party. 

individually wrapped in cellophane bags

The ruffled cake, cupcakes and cookies joined other treats like custom wrapped candies, chocolates and biscuits on the nice dessert table that Lavigne's mummy put together. Luckily, sweet baby Lavigne was sleeping soundly in her stroller, leaving her mummy and her mummy's family & friends to finish setting up the party undisturbed!  

Lovely carousel-themed dessert table

buttercream ruffled pink ombré cake

lovely cupcake tower

basket of glittery gold and pink sugar cookies

I love the cute little custom wrapped jars of treats, the wooden baskets and crates and the name train spelling "Lavigne" with a little horse behind! Nice details to add to the table. 

our cake, cupcakes and cookies on the dessert table

My fave thing, though, was the customised chalkboard which let all the guests get to know baby Lavigne a little bit more, and boasts all her milestones and achievements at one year old. I did something similar, but simpler for baby Connor's first month party last year.   Great job with the set up, mummy Kelice! Thanks for letting me play a part in Lavigne's first birthday. 

Happy 1st Birthday, Lavigne!