As many of you know, these last few days have been quite hectic for me as I have been organising my eldest daughter’s birthday. Victoria turned 4 on July 16th and we had a nice and quite family day. We hid her birthday presents and she had fun finding them and opening them. She loved everything she got: 2 beautiful outfits from her aunties and uncle, toy cupcakes from her little sister Georgia, a Cinderella doll from her nonni and a princess outfit from Mom & Dad.
She loved this one so much that she wore it all day long and wanted to wear it the next day for her party too! Luckily we managed to convince her not to!!! Hehehehe
We had a little party on Sunday and invited some of our closest friends. Victoria had a blast and got many more wonderful presents (thank you everyone!). She played non stop and it was great to see her having fun!
She is a wonderful little girl and has been filling our lives with love and laughter (and stubbornness!) for the past 4 years! We love you so much little angel and we are so proud of you! It is amazing how fast children grow, it feels like yesterday that she was born and I held her in my arms for the first time… she was so small and helpless! I am so happy to see her growing into a beautiful, strong and intelligent little girl! <3 Happy birthday baby girl!!!!!!!
I obviously prepared all the food at home (could it be otherwise??) and you can see some of it on the table.
The food is quite typical of what you would eat at an Italian birthday party, besides the cupcakes, the cake pops and the cake which are not Italian at all.
Both of my daughters LOVE “Charlie and Lola”. They could watch their TV show all day long without getting bored! So I decided to make a “Lola Cake” for Victoria’s party. Also, the pink cupcakes are inspired by the love that Lola has for “pink icing”.
Needless to say Victoria loved the cake! <3
I am going to post all the new recipes in the next few days… but here is a preview of the “menu”:
Triple Salted Caramel Cupcakes
Chocolate and Raspberry Mini Cupcakes
Focaccia
Focaccia con le olive
Focaccia di Recco
Palline di Erice all’arancia
Panini al latte filled with ham & swiss cheese, salame & tasty cheese, brie & balck olive tapenade
Flowery Cake Pops
Lola Birthday Cake
I also organised a little school party for her and decided on “Hello Kitty” as a theme. So I baked a simple yogurt cake for Victoria to take to her pre school and decorated it with a fondant Hello Kitty.
I also made some Hello Kitty cake pops to give to the children instead of the classic goody bags. I was inspired by Bakerella’s Hello Kitty cake pops… isn’t she a genius?
I am publishing the Flowery Cake Pops, the Hello Kitty Cake Pops, the Lola Cake and the Hello Kitty Yogurt Cake in the Cake decoration page, so you can see the details over there.
Now it is back to “normal life”! I am already hungry!!! 🙂
Also, if you haven’t done it yet, take a minute and please vote for Manu’s Menu on Babble! Just click on the picture below! Thank You!!!
Awww so cute! Happy bday Victoria!
Amazing! Love the cakes and the cake pops – very impressive! Happy Birthday Victoria, sounds like she had a great time!
Happy birthday,Victoria! How she is to have such a wonderful chef like you for her mom. The pictures are priceless. Well done!
Wow what a nice party! Your daughter is so cute in her princess outfit too. I love her friends expression in the pics too.
Hi! manu belated happy birthday to ur little angel. very nice celebration! my son also born 7th july. This time we celebrated his 5th birthday.
Awww your kids are adorable Manuela, and food dear you did fantastic job on everything!!!Awesome spread!
I love what you wrote about her arriving on this world, so special and touching, made me think about my kids growing up so fast too! Happy Birthday Victoria!!!
Four already? Gosh, what an exciting party with all these lovely presents and look at that spread!! Manu, everything on that table is incredible: from cake pops, cupcakes to THE cake.
Happy Birthday, Victoria. Mum has given you one of the best presents ever.
Manu, I honestly do not where to start! Ok… prepare for the longest comment EVER! LOL…. 1. You MADE the Hello Kitty cake pops?!?!?!? 2. You MADE those cakes?!?!??! 3. Feel free to send me some focaccia con le olive, if you have any extra! 4. You and your husband are lucky to have Victoria… AND she is lucky to have such a talented and giving mother like you!!!
Happy birthday Victoria! Don’t you have the best mum!
Manu, I don’t know where to start. The two cakes are AWESOME and I just love the Hello Kitty cake pops. Can’t wait for the recipes from the menu.
Give Victoria a big “Feliz Cumpleaños” from this side of the world.
What a great birthday party Manu! Your kids are adorable! Loved everything I saw but a special mention to the Hello Kitty and the Flower cake pops- they turned out sooo cute! Can’t wait for all of the recipes 🙂
Happy Birthday Victoria! She is SO SO adorable and you are such a beauty 🙂 Loved every single thing about the post Manu .. you are a true awsm Mom !
Oh, happy birthday to your precious Victoria!!! She is adorable. What a lovely feast you prepared…I can’t wait to see all the recipes 🙂
mamma mia quanto lavoro! Looks like you spent a month cooking! Anyway everything looks more than fantastic! Happy B-day Victoria!
Very very very nice party! And great food!
Victoria must have been really fond of that cake and those pops! Beautiful! 🙂
So many things to say! First of all, Happy belated birthday Victoria. Your daughters (and you!) are beautiful. I see Victoria entered the princess phase…you will be so sick of that dress in a few month’s time! I cannot believe you made all that and a school cake in addition. How do you do it? Everything looks delicious and I am stunned by the Lola cake. Identicaaaaa! By the way, I voted.
Gorgeous photos! Happy birthday to Victoria, she is adorable. I love the Lola cake, you did a fantastic job. All the food looks perfect.
wow quante cose buone hai preparato! complimenti e tanti cari auguri alla tua bambina. hai due figlie molto carine!
Awesome spread of food on dear Victoria’s birthday party, Manuela! She looks so pretty and her face is so innocent…happy belated birthday to Victoria.
The birthday cakes and the cake pops are really so colourful! Manu, you are so talented!!
Awwwww….awwwww…and more awwwwws!
Your daughter seems to have had a very good time! And i love the cake you made her. Your freehand fondant cutting is very impressive 😀
Hey god bless your daughter and you..she is lucky and blessed to have a mom like you.. Great job will have to take some lessons form your regarding cakes 🙂
Love,
Maria
Wow..your lil’ one looks so cute. 🙂 Happy birthday to her 🙂
What a lucky little girl! She is so adorable and I love that picture of you and her Manu! 😀
Happy Birthday Victoria! I’ve seen the pictures first, but it is much nicer to see on big computer screen. =) You did a wonderful superb job Manu! I’ve never hosted my kids’ birthday party at home… It just seem like a lot of work. You are AMAZING! Victoria’s smile is priceless and she will remember this day even when she gets older! I voted again (my telephone line was gone yesterday by some telephone company working outside (no internet all day!) and today they got it fixed, and guess what I can vote again on myself and yours (I’m your #273)! Who hoo!
Un abbraccio dall’Italia e tanti auguri alla tua bellissima bimba!
Namu, you did such a fabulous job on the party and she looks so happy! Happy belated birthday Victoria.
Happy belated birthday Victoria! She’s beautiful and adorable! Her birthday parties at home and in sch are every kids’ dream! Manu, you’re really so amazing! I won’t be able to make so many food/snacks/everything and all of them are too cute! Esp. the cakes and those cake-pops! 😀
Looks like Victoria and everyone else had so much fun! You are awesome Manu! I just love everything you made for her party! Thumbs up to you!!! :-*
Belated Happy Birthday & God bless you, Victoria! Manu, you’re the best mommy ever!!! Just look at that spread… It’s phenomenal! And that Lola cake is just gorgeous… Did you make that cake topper all by yourself? That’s incredible! Aimee watches a lot of Charlie & Lola too, but I don’t think I would be brave enough to attempt something like this! And your cake pops are fantastic too! You are just amazing… Beautiful post & photographs…
Happy birthday Victoria
many happy returns 🙂
everything looks so beautiful manu..loved the picture of the two of you 🙂