Hanabatake

First Birthday Madness

I have two very good friends who had baby girls last year. That means that this year is their first birthdays!!

I made brownies for both Popo and Roo’s birthdays, but this time, I think I’ve finally managed to figure out how to make the mini cupcakes right.

At Popo’s birthday, I made red velvet cupcakes (without the food coloring) and the mini cupcakes were misshapen. I was using a table spoon to spoon in the batter.

For Roo’s Owl-themed birthday, I made brownie cupcakes (large and small). This time, I used a bag to pipe in the batter. It worked out much better, though I still had a tough time if the batter went between the cupcake pan and the liner.
I made a total of 48 large and 48 small ones. I figure little kids find the small ones easier to handle.

My friends Nay and J and their family were up super early to get the party in the park up and running. The owls were adorable and so were the babies. We were at a park in Marina Del Ray (that’s in West Los Angeles, CA) called Burton Chace Park.

It reminded me a lot of San Diego’s marina park area near Seaport Village. We used to go there all the time as kids. This park was much smaller though. It had lovely covered luncheon areas with bbq’s right in the covered area!

I stuffed my face and had tons of sweets so of course I crashed around 3:30 and took a nap like a baby. It great to see so many people out to celebrate Baby Roo’s first year. Or as I like to call it — Survival: Year One for the new parents.