March is not over! I say that to make myself feel better about only really posting once a month.

There’s a lot of newness going around right now. Obviously the newness in our lives of having a son is one of the first things that comes to mind.

We’ll also be welcoming FOUR new little cousins into our family this year! My niece just turned 3, and that’s a whole new year for her – but we’ll get to that later. And of course there is the newness we have in Christ as we celebrate his victory over death this Easter Sunday.

We’re so richly blessed by so many things. One of those many blessings is being close to my immediate family. This year was the first in which we were able to be present for my niece’s birthday. It was so much fun to see her face light up as we celebrated her special day. She is all girl and loved showing off her new Hello Kitty outfits & accessories, along with Barbies and toys for her playhouse.

My contribution to her girly-girlness was a cake fit for a princess, or more precisely a cake fit for a princess to live in!

Okay, so these princesses are a little too big to get into this castle, but it wasn’t really for them anyway. I can’t take any credit for the idea for the castle – you can find the tutorial for it here. I did take liberty with the coloring, and had to make a few adjustments because my cake was shorter than the two ice cream cones used in the tutorial. All in all, I’d say it was a huge success.

The “grounds” cake was my absolute favorite chocolate cake with a fabulous coconut filling, and the castle was my absolute favorite vanilla cake with a simple raspberry filling (which I don’t have a link to ;) The tutorial listed above for the castle cake is really great, and has fantastic step-by-step instructions to help even the most unsure of us create something super special (I’m looking at you Mrs. Reed ;) – which is  why I didn’t make one. But here are some pictures of what I did, and maybe you’ll get some great ideas for your own little prince or princess cake :)

A Castle Fit for a Princess

From the Top

Door and Window Detail

Tower & Vine Detail

Ready for the Birthday Girl

The BEST Moment of the Evening!