Hockey!

You've heard about our exploits on ice...  This week we celebrate the start of NHL hockey playoffs and our favorite team (Detroit Red Wings!) plays tomorrow night.  My youngest brother starts his spring hockey league tomorrow and my mini-me's start their first ice skating lessons on Saturday morning.  So what better way to kick off all this ice time than by sharing with you our hockey birthday party!

This cake is very easy and fast to make for any hockey occasion - the guys loved it!  

Try making your team's logo for center ice.  Just print off an enlarged color logo and use self-laminating sheets you can find at the craft store or photo center.  Trim it into a circle and pipe your face-off circle around the edge.  Great for celebrating the playoffs or end-of-the-season parties for kids' hockey teams!

My son is totally obsessed with hockey.  It's been that way since he was born - literally.  I have video of him at a couple of months old laying on the floor watching a hockey game and following the action with his eyes.  When we watch a game on TV, he uses his mini hockey stick and plays along with the action as soon as the puck is dropped.  The kid is only 3.  I see a lot of time in a hockey rink in my future - good thing I have a snowmobile coat...  He starts skating lessons soon.  This year he picked "hockey" as his birthday party theme so we had a lot of fun finding things.  Of course, as Michiganders we are huge Detroit Red Wings fans.

First, I found this cute tablecloth, Detroit Red Wings napkins, temporary tattoos and plates through Party City.

Then I found chocolate hockey molds for making chocolate sucks that say "I love hockey" and the candies that are hockey players, ice skates and "Goal!" shout-outs.  Great prices for these at Country Kitchen Sweet Art.  I had these collector glasses that worked perfectly for candy holders and the M&M's are his favorite.

A basic chocolate sheet cake with white frosting.  Then I took blue and red piping gels and copied the lines for a hockey rink.  The goal area is just more blue piping gel lined with the red.  The helmet, candles, hockey players and goals were also ordered from Country Kitchen Sweet Art.