Mixing It Up with KitchenAid!

This post is spon­sored by KitchenAid, but as always, all ideas and opin­ions are my own!

As if it was­n’t enough that our home was slow­ly being tak­en over by bak­ing and dec­o­rat­ing sup­plies from my own col­lec­tion, Amer­i­can Girl had to announce that their 2015 Girl of the Year was a girl named Grace who is obsessed with all things bak­ing and Parisian, undoubt­ed­ly caus­ing our assort­ment to grow! Upon hear­ing the news and check­ing out the new toys for our­selves, my daugh­ter, Anabelle, imme­di­ate­ly decid­ed she want­ed a Paris Patis­serie Bak­ing par­ty this year. Thus, we cel­e­brat­ed her eighth birth­day this year with An Amer­i­can Girl in Paris theme!

It’s no secret that I am in love with KitchenAid and espe­cial­ly their col­or­ful stand mix­ers! Last Fall, Anabelle and I put togeth­er an Apple Cider and Bake Sale Stand, inspired by the GORGEOUS Rasp­ber­ry Ice mix­er that I had been eye­ing for­ev­er! Then, in part­ner­ship with their Cook for the Cure® ini­tia­tive, I was thrilled to share the recipe for some Think Pink push pop cakes and cup­cakes, while pro­vid­ing a sneak peek of the coor­di­nat­ing pink pol­ka dot ceram­ic bowl com­ing out in Sep­tem­ber. So, when the Amer­i­can Girl dol­l’s bak­ing acces­sories includ­ed a stand mix­er that matched per­fect­ly with the Aqua Sky col­or­way, we just HAD to have it for our par­ty!!! Not only did we uti­lize it to bake up so many good­ies for the par­ty, we actu­al­ly used it as part of the decor in the patis­serie we brought to life, along­side the dol­l’s toy mix­er and the super adorable mix­er cook­ie made by the fab­u­lous Case Bakes!

In prepa­ra­tion for the par­ty, I baked over six dozen cup­cakes with the KitchenAid mix­er… the first time around. What do I mean by the first time around? Well, the day of the par­ty, we had trans­port­ed all the tables and chairs, decor and food to the park to begin set­ting up. All the week, the fore­cast had threat­ened pos­si­ble rain and high winds, but espe­cial­ly since we had many guests that had flown in from out of town, we decid­ed to press on and ignore the warn­ings! A few hours lat­er, it was abun­dant­ly clear that the par­ty was not going to take place, as the wind start­ed pick­ing up, tem­per­a­tures began to drop and dec­o­ra­tions were fly­ing every­where! It was not an easy thing to do, but much to the birth­day girl’s dis­may, we end­ed up hav­ing to can­cel and re-sched­ule. So, I guess we can con­sid­er this first batch a test run that my hus­band’s co-work­ers had the plea­sure of taste-test­ing! By the fol­low­ing week­end, the mix­er and I were very well acquaint­ed and were ready for attempt #2!

The six dozen cup­cakes con­sist­ed of pink straw­ber­ry, triple choco­late and vanil­la fla­vors. When bak­ing, I often go between recipes from scratch and boxed cake mix­es, depend­ing on the occa­sion and my time frame. In this case, because I was bak­ing up a storm in addi­tion to all the par­ty prepa­ra­tions, I knew I need­ed sweet and sim­ple recipes, so I went with the boxed cake mix with slight alterations!

As far as bak­ing cook­ies go, I have to admit I am far from an expert! So, when I decid­ed to make sug­ar cook­ies for the kids to dec­o­rate at the par­ty, I depend­ed on my friend, Cal­lye from The Sweet Adven­tures of Sug­ar­belle and her per­fect sug­ar cook­ie recipe, which was superb! The first time around, I pre­pared the dough in the mix­er, but then had to step out, so I stored it in the fridge. I went ahead and rolled the refrig­er­at­ed dough, cut out my shapes and baked them upon my return and had no issues at all! Though the cook­ies could have eas­i­ly been frozen for the resched­uled par­ty date, I went ahead and made new, fresh batch­es the fol­low­ing week (avoid­ing refrig­er­a­tion in this case) and they were just as perfect!

My daugh­ter, Anabelle, and all her friends had an absolute blast dec­o­rat­ing the cup­cakes and cook­ies I baked up for the party!

I’m super excit­ed to take advan­tage of my new KitchenAid mix­er to fur­ther future moth­er-daugh­ter bond­ing expe­ri­ences with Anabelle and her coor­di­nat­ing Amer­i­can Girl bak­ing acces­sories! These are mem­o­ries that I will undoubt­ed­ly cher­ish for­ev­er and hope she will, too!