Happy 5th Birthday!!

We are slowly recovering from the crazy birthday party yesterday that we had for our oldest son's 5th birthday.......I still can't believe he's already 5!!!!

We went with a Star Wars/Clone Wars theme....and of course I immediately thought of the cute Star Wars stuff that Williams-Sonoma has these days!  I already had the Star Wars cookie cutters and the Star Wars cupcake kits.....so I was already halfway there right?  Wrong!!

Since I am new to the cookie decorating thing.....I really didn't have any idea how long it was going to take for me to do the cookies......which I thought would be really cute as a party favor.  Well, dang.....it took me forever!!  I made the cookie a couple of weeks ago, using the sugar cookie recipe in the Cookie Craft book.  I've got to say that I love this recipe!  Even on intricate shapes, these cookies do not spread when you bake them.  Plus they taste yummy!  My sister-in-law said that they tasted just like the ones she used to have growing up......to me that's a good thing!  After baking these guys, I froze the baked cookies until this past week, when it was time to start decorating them.

The beginning of Storm Troopers. 

This was the most intricate bunch of cookies that I have tried doing so far, so I gave myself several nights to get through them.

Yodas, Darth Vaders, and Storm Troopers waiting to be finished.

The finished product!

The first night I did my outline piping and flooding.  Then after letting dry overnight, I came back the next day to try to finish these puppies up.

All of the little finishing work is really what took forever.  It didn't help that I was trying to do about 5 dozen of these guys so that we'd have enough for all of the kids at the party and their parents.

I also busted out about 60 cupcakes....all of which needed to be done the night before the party.  So.....I hate to admit it, but I did end up using boxed cake mix!  I was just making simple white cupcakes with a vanilla buttercream frosting....and in all honesty, I don't think there's too many 5 year olds who would turn their nose up at any cupcake (as long as there's lots of frosting on it!!).

A little squirt of frosting using a large open star pastry tip, a little dusting of sprinkles....and then topped with a Star Wars character from the cupcake kit.....and done!

I don't know that I'll be doing these again any time soon....I'm a little Star Wars-ed out!  Am I happy with how they came out?  Yeah, I guess so.....I think my biggest complaint is my outline piping on the cookies.  I need to get it smoother so that when it all dries you don't see the starts and stops.  I pretty much just need to keep practicing and practicing.  But for now.....I just want a nap!!

Happy Birthday to the sweetest little 5 year old around!!!  I love you!!

This post is linked to:

Sweets for a Saturday
These Chicks Cook Recipe Spotlight