Hot Air Balloon Desserts

I got to make cookies, cake pops, macarons & cupcakes for a pink & white hot air balloon-themed party for a little girl turning a year old. Didn't get to make a hot air balloon cake though, like I did couple years back. 

Hot Air Balloon cookies

The cookies are decorated with fondant. I used a round scalloped cookie cutter for the sky blue background, and added little cloud cut outs too. I used a hot air balloon cookie cutter for the balloon, and added the yellow flag bunting using royal icing. After rolling out some brown fondant and using a textured roller to give it a nice basket-y surface, I used the tip of the arm of a gingerbread man cookie cutter to cut out the basket! I love how these cookies turned out.

Up, Up & Away!

The macarons are French macarons, with the shells in two shades of pink. The dark pink is filled with dark chocolate ganache, while the light pink is filled with smoked salted caramel. 

macarons in two shades of pink

The cake pops are chocolate cake, crumbled and swirled with vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream and rolled into cake balls. The balls have to be frozen before they are dipped into melted chocolate. Do check out my cake pop basics page if you'd like some tips and tricks on how to make cake pops. 

rolling chocolate cake balls

I wish these paper straws came 6" long instead of 8" so I wouldn't have to spend time cutting them down to the right size! Anyway, I dipped the cake balls in two shades of strawberry-flavoured chocolate, and then dredged them in glittery sanding sugar before the chocolate fully hardened. 

shades of pink cake pops

Finally, the cupcakes! The cupcakes were strawberry & vanilla cupcakes, frosted with strawberry and vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream. I used three different kinds of sprinkles to decorate the cupcakes, just to make things more fun: white nonpareils, pearl dragees and flower confetti sprinkles. 

strawberry & vanilla cupcakes

lots of fun sprinkles

big swirl of yummy vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream

The cookies, macarons, cake pops and cupcakes went on this hot air balloon-themed dessert table, styled by One and Only Gallery. I like the neat handmade hot air balloon prop, made out of a paper lantern, some craft paper & washi tape!

Happy 1st Birthday, Carrie!*
(pic from One and Only Gallery)