Birthday Baking

Last week Lois had her 5th birthday. I can't believe she's already five! I think everyone who has children can't believe how fast their children grow up and remark on that as they get older, but time does fly. We had a really fun party over the weekend. As soon as I get the party photos on my computer, I'll do a party post. But before the party we had to bake a few things.
On her birthday, I made a one layer chocolate cake, ahem, from a mix out of a box. I can't remember the last time I made something from a mix, maybe a few years, but I was in a hurry. I don't think homemade really takes that much longer than a mix, just adding a few more ingredients, but on her birthday I barely got that done (homemade icing though...I really don't like the taste of pre-made icings). For the party we made cupcakes and two types of shortbread cookies, cardamom and lemon. Lois had fun decorating her cupcakes. We used this recipe for the cupcakes and this recipe for the buttercream icing, which my friend Katie gave me. She made some and brought them over a few weeks ago and they were delicious. I added confetti sprinkles to the batter hoping they'd melt a bit like this, but that didn't quite work out. They still looked fun. The cardamom cookie recipe was from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone, and I used the same recipe for the lemon but instead of adding cardamom added lemon zest and a lemon icing on top. Both were delicious. More from the party later this week!