A woodland-themed third birthday!

Well, the excitement is over, and we survived another birthday party for Regan, who turned 3 this weekend! I started planning the food and decor in August; if you're smiling at this, it's because you know me! Our parties fall into the range somewhere between "pizza and a pack of birthday plates from the Dollar Store" and "we had to take out a loan for our child's over-the-top party"! Really, it was a "normal" dose of balloons, a light lunch, cake and owl goodie bags. And mushroom cupcakes, woodland animal ears and masks, a cardboard log cabin and a log cake!  

Any-whoooo, I served a simple lunch buffet of mini pigs-in-a-blanket (see photo below), tortilla/wrap "pinwheel" thingies (from the deli), a veggie and cheese plate with ranch dip, fruit skewers with a cream cheese dip, "mushroom" cupcakes and an ice tub full of juice boxes and mini bottled waters (because a third of the party guests were kids!).

Mini Pigs-in-a-Blanket are a party staple at my house, we even made them before we had a kid! I follow the directions from the www.Pillsbury.com website; they are soooooo yummy!

Mini Crescent Dogs 

2 cans (8 ounces each) Pillsbury refrigerated crescent dinner rolls
48 cocktail-size smoked link sausages or hot dogs, from two 14-ounce packages

Heat oven to 375.  Unroll both cans of the dough; separate into 16 triangles.  Cut each triangle lengthwise into 3 narrow triangles.  Place sausage on shortest side of each triangle.  Roll up each, starting at shortest side of triangle and rolling to opposite point; place point side down on two ungreased cookie sheets.  Bake 12 to 15 minutes or until golden brown, switching position of cookie sheets halfway through baking.  Immediately remove from cookie sheet. Serve warm.

* I usually make these the day before, or several hours before, and reheat just before serving. And, I serve them with ketchup, mustard or melted cheese dip.

The stars of the party, of course, were the desserts! I made two sizes of cupcakes, from a basic yellow cake mix, and frosted them with canned frosting dyed red, and then topped them with white M&Ms and white chocolate chips.  A few notes about making red frosting; it will take a whole one-ounce bottle (that's the big bottle) of red food coloring, and it stains. Everything. I repeat; EVERYTHING! It did, however, come out of my daughter's shirt...whew! No more red frosting at my house; not even for Valentine's Day! Ack!

The birthday girl after an encounter with red-frosted "mushroom" cupcakes...

The "log" cake received rave reviews and turned out better than I had anticipated; oh how I stress about everything! Best of all, well aside from looking awesome, is that it tasted WONDERFUL! It truly looked harder to make than it was; I am SO making one for Christmas this year!

Chocolate Cake Roll  (taken from www.kraftrecipes.com)

6 squares semi-sweet chocolate, divided

6 Tbl. butter

1 cup granulated sugar

4 eggs

1 cup flour, divided

1/2 tsp. baking soda

2/3 cup water

4 ounces (half of an 8-ounce package) cream cheese, softened

3/4 cup powdered sugar, divided

3 cups thawed Cool Whip, divided

Heat oven to 350.  Spray a 15x10x1 pan with cooking spray.  Line with waxed paper; spray with additional cooking spray.  Microwave 3 chocolate squares and butter in medium microwaveable bowl on on HIGH 1 to 1 1/2 minutes or until butter is melted.  Stir until chocolate is completely melted.  Add granulated sugar; mix well.  Beat eggs in large bowl with mixer on high speed 3 minutes or until thickened.  Blend in chocolate mixture.  Add 1/4 cup flour and baking soda; beat until just blended..  Add remaining flour alternately with water, beating well after each addition.  Spread evenly into prepared pan. 

Bake 15 minutes or until top of cake springs back when touched; sprinkle with 1/4 cup powdered sugar.  Immediately invert cake onto clean towel; remove pan.  Carefully peel off paper.  Starting at one short side, roll up cake and towel together; cool completely on wire rack. 

Beat cream cheese and remaining powdered sugar in medium bowl with mixer until well blended.  Gently stir in 1 1/2 cups Cool Whip.  Unroll cake carefully; remove towel.  Spread cream cheese mixture onto cake, completely covering top of cake.  Roll up cake; place, seam-side down, on platter. 

Microwave remaining chocolate and remaining Cool Whip in microwaveable bowl on HIGH for 1 to 1 1/2 minutes or until chocolate is completely melted and mixture is well blended, stirring after one minute.  Let cool two minutes; spread onto cake.  Refrigerate one hour.

* I opted to frost my "log" with creamy chocolate canned frosting.  When the frosted cake had "set up" in the refrigerator for an hour or so, I ran a fork over the surface to make it look like "bark".