My Darlin' Daughter Turns 3!

This month marks exactly 3 years of motherhood for me. I thank God for all the wonderful times with my daughter, may it be 'cleaning up after she throws up when she's not well' to 'cuddly bedtime story-telling in bed under the warm cosy sheets of comforters'. Motherhood can never be a bed of roses all the time but definitely has plenty of fulfilling rewards.

My daughter's 1 year old party was celebrated only with family and her 2nd birthday was a simple party at home with family and close friends. Daddy and I promised her a bigger and more memorable party for her 3rd birthday so we decided to have a poolside bash with family and slightly more friends. We had close to 20 kids playing in the pool, some were nuking each other with water balloons, others were wandering aimlessly around. God blessed us with fine weather (no rain) until much later when everyone had finished swimming and blowing of candles was over, it started to pour. That made the whole alfresco dining so much more inviting.

A month before her birthday, she wanted me to bake her birthday cake. A promise is a promise, rule number one in parenting! I was blogging one night and she stopped me and pointed at cupcakes on my computer screen. So that's what she wanted and that was the birth of her birthday cupcakes! I tried a few recipes and decided to follow the Vietnamese Coffee Cupcakes recipe from chockylit.blogspot.com. It's just marvelous! I substituted coffee with chocolate and some were just plain butter. I also changed the icing to plain lemon buttercream frosting which complimented the cupcakes very well. The frosting was not too hard nor too soft but just perfect.

Recipe for frosting

125 gm butter (room temperature)

500 gm icing sugar

a little milk

juice of 1/2 a lemon

Beat all the ingredients together taking great care not to add too much milk. Consistency must be soft and creamy but does not drop off from the spoon.

Separate the frosting into different bowls and add different colors to each.

Pipe using disposable piping bags with small star nozzle in a circular motion. Next is to decorate slightly with some ready-made red sugar hearts. Notice the 3 hearts.... one belongs to Daddy, Mommy and last but not least the birthday girl. The birthday girl loved it so much that she couldn't wait to blow out the candles and tuck in. Same went for all her tiny guests, even the boys!

As for the adults, there was a spread of the 'must have lobak', some choice sausages, roasted ducks and BBQ pork 'siew yoke' for the wine table. A very tasty dish of 'mee siam' fried by her church friends' mommy ( which I myself had 3 helpings), some hokkien noodles and chicken satay.

At the end of the evening, I was real pleased with the whole party ... weather, food, guests, cake and most of all my little girl was happy and thrilled to have turned 3 with a big bash!