A barbershop for a man is like a salon for a woman.  It’s a place to relax, socialize and be pampered (in a very manly way).  A place where a man can get a haircut,  a close shave and a good dose of guy talk.  Best of all, it can be a meaningful experience shared between father and son creating memories to last a lifetime.  What little boy doesn’t love spending special guy time with his dad?

Dawn Menon of Bee*s Knees Parties drew upon this concept to create the most charming third birthday party for her son.  Inspired by Reese’s love of the barbershop, Dawn incorporated everything from the classic red and white stripes to barber poles, scissors and swirly mustaches.  Featuring an adorable cake by The Hudson Cakery, this delightfully vintage Barbershop Birthday Party is a modern throwback to the golden age of barbershops.

A few thoughts from Dawn about the inspiration for this charming party:

“The theme was based on my son Reese’s love of the barbershop. It is always an outing where it is just he and my husband, and always ends with a lollipop. They go to a vintage style barbershop, which was a wonderland of inspiration. My party design aesthetic always consists of mixing vintage and modern. To help bring a vintage feel to the party, I was able to score some fantastic vintage barbershop decor items on Ebay. The talented Kellie of Two Pooch Paperie designed all of the paper goods, which added that clean, modern feel to the decorations.”

A few thoughts from Dawn about the adorable cake:

“When it came time to choose a cake design, I was excited to give Jennifer of The Hudson Cakery complete autonomy of concept and design. One of my client’s had The Hudson Cakery create a cake for their daughter’s Communion, and the cake was talked about for days after, so I knew my guests were in for a treat.

“When I first saw that cake, I honestly teared up. It exceeded all expectations, which, as a children’s event planner, can be quite high. The detail was amazing from the tiny mustchaces to the barbershop pole. And to bring it all together, Jennifer thoughtfully added little lollipops, which are my son’s favorite. Reese was a bit under the weather the day of his party, however when that cake came out, he was all smiles.”

We are all smiles too!  Love the concept, love the decor, love the cake!!  A very special thank you to Dawn of Bee*s Knees Parties for sharing her delightful Barbershop Birthday Party with us!

Vendors & Credits:
Party Design:  Bee*s Knees Parties
Cake:  The Hudson Cakery
Photography:  Two Girl Phototique
Cupcake Toppers:  Parker’s Flour Patch
Old fashioned Lollies:  Vintage Confections
All Printed Paper Goods:  Two Pooch Paperie

Ooh la la! Today’s party is pure girly fun and fashion-tastic!  The catwalks of Paris are brought to life as the birthday girl and her guests play dress up and strike a pose!  From their little black t-shirt dresses to signature lip gloss created from luster dust, this party is a little fashionista’s dream come true.  And the pink and black dessert table with its adorable cake is certainly up our alley!  Created by Summer Stone for her daughter’s 7th birthday, we’re head over heels for Maddie’s Fashion Fairytale!

A few thoughts from Summer about this posh fashion party:

“My daughter Maddie loves the movie ‘A Barbie Fashion Fairytale’, so this year we decided her birthday would be in Parisian Fashonista style. For color, pink and black were an easy bridge between Paris and Barbie. We built wooden Eiffel Tower puzzles and spray painted them black to stand in as icons of Paris. To bring in the fashion world we placed small decorative dress forms throughout and made dress form mannequins out of foam core board covered in muslin which were dressed up in black dresses.”

More from Summer about the desserts:

“For the dessert table, my sweet friend Jessica Harris of jessicakesblog brought to fruition a gorgeous pink and black cake I had sent her a design sketch for. I finished off the dessert table with dark chocolate whoopie pies filled with pink filling, soft sugar cookies with pink buttercream, pink and black cake vanilla cake pops and strawberry whoppers. The table was also decorated with hat and shoe-style boxes with pink and black fashion decor.”

This cake is absolutely adorable!  I love both the design (created by Summer) and the execution by Jessica.  They are both talented cake designers and agreed to trade cakes for their daughter’s birthdays, freeing up time for other baking and party decorating.  What a great idea, right?  Looks like they make a great team!  I love the bottom tier… a scalloped band of stripes with a thin fondant rope border!  Talk about tricky!  Good thing Jessica put up a tutorial on her blog showing how she pulled this one off!  You can find it HERE.

As if the lovely dessert table wasn’t enough, there were oodles of activities for the girls to enjoy.  Here’s the scoop from Summer:

“During the party, the girls sported little black dresses which were custom made by my mother-in-law, Claudia Stone, from men’s, large black T-shirts. The girls wore their dresses as they walked up and down the runway (which Maddie’s two grandfathers built). The girls also decorated dresses to place on paper dolls which were then put on display throughout the party; and they made their own signature lip gloss using luster dust and disco dust, from my cake decorating supplies, to customize the color and sparkle.”

A few last thoughts from Summer:

“Finally, the girls were given goodie bags which were decorated with Barbie silhouettes, Eiffel Towers and the individual girl’s name. The images were cut from iron-on transfer sheets using a Silhouette digital cutting machine. The bags contained a notepad denoted as their “Fashion Journal”, a pen and jewelry inside a black and pink box tied with pink satin ribbon. They also took home their dresses, cookies and their custom lip gloss they had made.

This party was so much fun. The girls loved walking up and down the runway over and over again and it was a joy to see them shine.”

A huge thank you to Summer for sharing her daughter’s Fashion Fairytale Birthday with us!

Vendors & Credits:
Party Styling & Decor:  Summer Stone
Cake:  Jessica Harris of Jessicakes
Photography:  Sara Shearer Photography

Our contributor, Miso of Miso Bakes, is back with another irresistible cake creation.  Enjoy….

I scream.  You scream.  We all scream for ice cream!

Growing up, ice cream cakes were considered the novelty of all novelty cakes.  Fondant covered cakes were almost unheard of and carved cakes were primarily available in 2-D.

From what I recall, most of the ice cream cakes were decorated in a similar fashion.  They had some form of a clown piped onto the cake with a star piping tip in a primary (red, blue, or yellow) colored buttercream.  The clown always wore a clown hat made of an ice cream cone cut in half. Lastly, there was a generous sprinkling of rainbow-colored sprinkles and a cluster or two of plastic balloons (also in primary colors).  Sound familiar?

I think clowns were ‘the thing’ growing up.  They were everywhere.  A birthday party was not complete without clown-themed napkins, plates, plastic tablecloths, favor bags and cups.  Oh, and I can’t forget the crying kid.  Someone had to cry to complete the party.  The reason?  Plenty. Either someone was afraid of clowns, or there was a shortage in cake and someone wanted seconds.  Or, someone’s party favor bag ripped and she no longer had a bag to carry her party hat and candies in.  Or, someone spilled his fruit punch and it got all over another kid’s new party dress.  Oh the fun childhood memories.

As a child I would worry so much about the ice cream cake melting that I would have my mom take the cake out of the freezer as my friends sang happy birthday and have her stick it back in the freezer right after I made a wish and blew out the candles.  My friends and I would play hopscotch or hide-and-seek until we needed to cool down.

I smile in embarrassment as I think of my childhood worries.  Therefore, I created an ice cream-themed cake that is ice cream free!  There is not an ounce of ice cream in the cake so it’s good for those wanting to display the cake on dessert tables, or for those who have a worry-wort child (like I once was).

To make cake:

1. Bake, torte, fill, stack, ice cake to your liking.
2. Chill the cake in the refrigerator.
3. Melt some chocolate (you can add cream to thin it down) and let it cool slightly so it will not melt the buttercream when drizzled on.*
4. Put chocolate in a cornet (piping bag made of parchment) and drizzle around the side of the cake.
5. Sprinkle rainbow sprinkles on the chocolate before it hardens and on the top of the cake.

*You do not want your chocolate to cool too much (like I did) because the chocolate will harden fairly quickly due to the cold buttercream.  If you do what I did, you will not get pretty drizzles and therefore will have to make faux drizzles like me.

To make ice cream cone cake pops:

1. On the flat bottom of the ice cream cones, poke a hole big enough to insert a lollipop stick.  I found using an exacto knife works best.  A sharp paring knife will work, too!
2. Stuff the cones with cake pop stuffing (mixture of cake and buttercream) up to the rim of the cone.
3. Dip lollipop sticks in chocolate and insert into the hole on the bottom of the cones.**
4. Place cones upside down on a small tray and chill in the freezer for a few minutes.
5. Put vanilla buttercream and chocolate buttercream side by side in a piping bag with a medium star tip.
6. Squeeze the bag until you get both chocolate and vanilla buttercream in the swirls.
7. Pipe swirls on the cones.
8. Insert the ice cream cone cake pops into the cake.

** You can do without the sticks if you will not be transporting the cake or moving it around much. Just be careful because the cones will topple over.

What I forgot to do:

1. In between each ice cream cone, using a tiny ice cream scoop, place a scoop of vanilla buttercream.
2. Sprinkle each scoop with peanuts (optional).
3. Top each scoop with a maraschino cherry.

I hope everyone has as much fun decorating the cake as I did.

Happy Caking!
Miso

Miso is a regular contributor for Half Baked. She is a talented and upcoming cake designer with a big passion for cakes. Read more about Miso on her bio page.