Recipes for a 4-year-old's Birthday

My middle daughter turned 4 last week, and as I mentioned on my other blog, there seems to be at least three birthday treat occasions: school party, family party, friends party. We are always up to a challenge like that.

For the preschool take-in treat we made Martha Stewart's Chocolate Chip Cupcakes. Fluffy Chocolate Frosting, cute rainbow sprinkles and balloon toothpick toppers finished them off. I'm sorry I didn't take pictures; it was a busy morning and I completely forgot.

For the family party, we made a triple layer dark chocolate cake, using this cake recipe but filled and frosted with more Fluffy Chocolate Frosting (and accompanied by chocolate ice cream, naturally.) I took the chance to try out my new Double-Dutch Dark Cocoa from King Arthur, and it was truly dark. There were no complaints, but I think I'll use it a bit more sparingly in the future. (Ginger decorated it herself with mini M&M's.)

And for the friends party last weekend, we had Triple Layer Strawberry Cake with Strawberry Buttercream Frosting (and vanilla ice cream.) It's a popular birthday choice in our house of three girls - so pink! And that strawberry frosting is one of my favorites! She said she wanted "strawberry shortcake" but upon further queries we figured out she really wanted this, and we were right.
A perfectly fabulous run of sweet treats - chocolate chip, triple chocolate, then double strawberry? What more could a 4-year-old want?

P.S. Today is Ed's birthday. And my Mom's. Happy Birthday to them both!