Cumpleaños de bomberos
With all that polka-dots these firemen look like flamenco dancers, I know

Last week we celebrated Jorge’s birthday. I prepared an ‘UP’ cake for him to bring it to the nursery. To decorate this cake I used the helium balloon kit I had bought to prepare the Hot Air Balloon Cupcakes a couple of weeks ago. If you intend to prepare this ‘Up’ cake, be careful when walking down the street with it in your hands, the balloons won’t let you see a thing! Later in the afternoon, we had a firetruck birthday party at home. All the pics were taken before the guests arrived, that is why you can only see my kids. All along the post you will find different links to pages where I bought or downloaded free the party decorations, hope you enjoy it and find it helpful! I will start showing you the firetruck party pics, and at the end I will share with you the ‘Up’ cake recipe, it is just a plain cream cake decorated with some royal icing and lots of helium balloons

Cumpleaños de bomberos
Now that Mom is crazy busy taking pics, let’s taste the potato chips!

As after preparing the Up cake and the hot air balloon cupcakes I still had balloons and helium left, I decided to decorate our ceiling with a few more helium balloons for the party. You just have to fill the balloons with helium following the kit instructions, tye them using a long ribbon, and let them fly to the ceiling, so that the little ones can easily pick the balloons whenever they want.

You cand find the chocolate birthday cake recipe here, as well as some online shops where you can buy the bunting topper, or download some DIY bunting toppers for free.

Cumpleaños de bomberos
Kids with a cruel Mom keeping still whilst starring at delicious party food

I downloaded the treat bags and cone bags for free here and here. I printed them using common paper, cutted with a scissors and glued them (you might want to decorate some using some twine). The bottle labels, different firetruck decorations and big Happy birthday banner I got them from the Tom Kat Studio. You can buy them in their new shop, print them and cut them using scissors or a scallop punch

Cumpleaños de bomberos
Shooting finished, Mom is not acting like possessed anymore, now the party can start!

Finally, I got fireman helmets, dishes, spoons, paper straws, etc from here. I decorated the sandwiches using cupcake cases, and red twine (after an idea I saw in Un plan sencillo)me for the UP cake recipe! (please scroll down for the English version of the recipe)

tarta up 4

tarta up 5

{Up cake}

Summary: Cream cake decorated with helium balloons, inspired by ‘Up’ movie

Preparation time: 30 minute(s)

Cooking time: 30 minute(s)

Number of servings (yield): 24

Ingredients

For the cake:

  • 4 eggs, medium size
  • 250 g butter, room temperature (2 sticks)
  • 400 g flour (3 and 2/3 cups)
  • 300 g sugar (1 and 1/3 cups)
  • 200 ml cream (can round to 1 cup)
  • 16 g baking powder (1 tablespoon)
  • 1 pinch of salt

For the royal icing:

  • 1 egg white
  • 200 g confectioner’s sugar (2 cups)

To complete the Up decoration:

Directions

  1. Let’s start preparing the cake. You will need this kind of mold, I used this gingerbread cake mold from Nordicware which is perfect for this recipe as it has a hole in the middle, and you can introduce the balloon ribbons through the chimney (just as in the film!), and knot them under the cake, so that they won’t fly away
  2. Preheat oven to 350 ºF and prepare the cake pan (butter and flour the bottom and the sides of the pan carefully, or use a baking spray)
  3. In a large bowl, place sugar and eggs. Whisk until light and fluffy (about 5 minutes at maximum speed). Add cream, butter and keep on beating until well mixed. Add in the flour and baking powder, and stir with a spatula until all ingredients are well mixed
  4. Pour batter into pans and bake for 30-40 minutes. Leave the cake in the pan
    on a wire rack for 15 minutes and then turn out to cool.
  5. Cut as many ribbons as balloons you intend to use (20 is a good number) and tie them together on one end. Pass this end through the chimney of your cake, and hide it under de cake, so that the weight of the cake keep the balloons attached to the cake.
  6. Now we are going to prepare the royal icing.
  7. Add sugar gradually to the egg white, whisk together well with an electric mixer until smooth , thick and shiny.
  8. Use a piping bag with a small round piping tip (as the ones used to decorate cookies) to decorate the cake.
  9. Let the icing set for a few minutes, and dust with some sifted confectioner’s sugar
  10. A few hours before the party, fill the balloons with helium following the manufacturer’s instructions, and tie a balloon to every ribbon on the cake. Enjoy, and let your imagination fly away!

tarta up 2