Emma Turns One!

Last weekend, we had a small family event to celebrate Emma turning one.  Can’t believe it has already been a year since she was born!

We decided to invite our guests to a lunch buffet at Sarkies in the Eastern & Oriental Hotel, so that meant I would only need to work on the birthday cake. 🙂

I’d been researching possibilities for a cake for baby Emma, but only decided after I finished baking Hannah’s cake.  Daddy suggested a cake in the shape of Mommy since Emma is totally attached to me, but I could not bring myself to make such a cake.  In the end, I decided on this adorable cake which had piqued my interest.

It’s a … Cute as a Button Cake! …for a little baby who is as cute as a button 🙂

I had so much fun making this cake, especially crafting those cute lil’ buttons!

Emma enjoyed some fruits from the fabulous buffet spread.

She enjoyed being carried around, and thankfully, she was rather okay with other guests at the party, giving me a little bit of time to fill my tummy.

There was also evidence of trying to tempt Emma with pretty purses! 😛

Some party guests would willingly pose for pictures…

…but some just wanted to eat cake…

Noticed those red boxes behind the cake?  Those were full moon packs which we had ordered for our guests.  Because Emma did not celebrate her full moon last year with full moon packs, we decided to order them for her 1st birthday instead (just like we did for Hannah’s 1st birthday last time).  Actually I think Daddy just wanted to eat the full moon goodies. 😛

After Emma tried to grab the candle/giant button on top of the cake, we sang the birthday song.  One of my favorite parts of the entire party was when our little baby Emma started clapping along to the singing and she was smiling all the way!

We helped her blow out the candle…

…and Emma and I cut the cake together…

It was a very happy and enjoyable celebration, and everyone left with satisfied tummies, I’m sure.  I love this picture I took of Emma and her Daddy, gotta love those adorable matching dimples! 🙂

Later at home, Emma proceeded to open some of her presents.  Hannah helped, of course…

… but in the end, she was more interested in the plastic bags and wrappers! LOL

Then, I brought out a little surprise for Emma.  It has always been my practice to bake a small “smash” cake for my kids on their 1st birthdays.  After all, I had not introduced eggs to Emma yet, and I don’t want her eating sugar or frosting.  Ethan and Hannah had theirs and I had wanted to bake one for Emma too, but I sort of ran out of time, so I decided to bake cupcakes instead for Emma.

The only ingredients used were banana (mashed), organic all-purpose flour and water.  They were so cute and really fit into the whole “Cute as a Button” theme!

They were quite mushy though, because I added too little flour… not that she minded anyway! 🙂

For a fruit lover like Emma (she especially LOVES bananas), this one’s a keeper!

Happy Birthday, my dearest darling Emma!