Happy Birthday to a Little Princess and a Special Guest, Plus A Birthday Cake Decorating Idea

It was my Little Princess’ Birthday and we celebrated early this year.  Since Hello Kitty is (still) the Birthday Girl’s favorite character, I have to make sure the Kitty banner was in place before the party started.  Do kids ever out grown Hello Kitty?  If you know the answer, please share!  I was never a fan myself when I was young so I couldn't tell.  And I don’t think I would miss all the pink Hello Kitty items around the house if, one day, my Princess decided she doesn't like it anymore.  Hahaha…wish me luck that it will happen one day!  Besides my Little Girl’s birthday, it was also my Hubby’s Aunt’s birthday on the day we hosted the party.  She happened to be visiting the States from Hong Kong so we celebrated her Birthday as well.  It was our honor to have her at the party. 



In the afternoon, I served up these Adzuki/Red Bean Ice Dessert (紅豆冰, see picture above) , made from the Homemade Red Bean Paste, recipe here.  It’s a very popular Chinese dessert and perfect for hot summer days.  Simply fill a tall glass with some shaved ice (I blended some crushed ice in a blender to turn them into shaved ice consistency).  Then, top with some red bean paste, more ice, more bean paste; last but not least, splash in some evaporated milk and that’s all.  It was so good, refreshing, chilled, creamy, and very satisfying!  You bet I’ll be making this very often this summer!

Next, onto the birthday cake, its a Chocolate Mousse Pocky Cake!  Can you tell I'm quite excited about this cake?  You might noticed that I haven't show you the entree and appetizers and jump right to the cake. You bet that's the way we roll here, always start with desserts first.



Little Princess requested a chocolate cake for her birthday, so I made a chocolate mouse layer cake for her. (Similar to this chocolate mousse cake but in bigger scale.)  This dark chocolate mousse cake started with a chocolate cookie crust on the bottom, two layers of chocolate sponge cake in between the dark chocolate mousse layers, and topped with cocoa powder.  As you can see from the picture below, the sides of the cake wasn't that neat, so I decorated the cake with my kids’ favorite snacks, Chocolate Pocky and Strawberry Pocky!  As you might have guessed, pink is my Little Princess’ favorite color, that’s why I used the Strawberry Pocky as part of the decoration.  If you’re not familiar with Pocky, they are chocolate covered (or strawberry covered) pretzel sticks.  They are really tasty and fun snacks on their own.



I simply line and pressed the Pocky sticks onto the side of the cake.



Then tide it all up with some pretty ribbons.  But if I would do it again, I probably would apply a thin layer of cream on the side of the cake before adding the Pocky so that the Pocky sticks would stay-put when we cut into the cake. 



To go with the Strawberry Pocky theme, I simply decorated the top of the cake with a few strawberries right before serving.  The Pocky sticks are great for cake decorating if the sides of your cake doesn't look perfect.  As you all know by now that I'm not a crafty person, so, this is probably the easiest way to make the birthday cake looks great.  Hope you like this simple cake decorating idea.



Besides the cake, we had plenty of food.  Such as Chicken Cold Noodles with Sesame Dressing as shown in the picture below.  My Parents also prepared tuna sashimi and a self-serve sushi hand roll plates.  And somehow I didn't have a picture of those dishes alone.  They were surrounded by people constantly!  That’s how good they were.  The self-serve sushi hand roll plates was definitely a perfect dish to prepare for summer parties.  I’ll try to post a recipe in the future when I make it again.   I also made fried shrimp balls as appetizers and they were all gone before I had a chance to even take a picture.



I also prepared some Meyer Lemonade for the party.  It was Little Princess’ latest favorite drink.  So refreshing and perfect for any guest.  It was a nice party and we all had a great time.  It was filled with food, laughs, gifts, fun and love.  I hope you enjoy these pictures from the party and the cake decorating idea.  Stay tuned for my next post on more summer treats and recipes.