Chubby Bunny 1st Birthday

Right after our 10.4 lb little lady was born, she quickly adopted the nickname: chubby bunny. Her cheeks were so chubby that she could barely open her eyes for the first week of her life. It was purely coincidental that the gift her brothers brought her in the hospital was a little white bunny. We had bought it months before. For her 1st birthday party, I decided to keep with her room colors and make it a gold, peach and white birthday. The fact that her little bunny from the hospital became her lovey made it really easy to tie the chubby bunny themed into everything. As a mom, I knew her 1st birthday was my one and only opportunity to do a chubby bunny theme because after that, well, it just wouldn't be as cute.

As a food writer and cookbook author, the first thing I did was plan the food. I knew that I wanted everything in theme with bunnies. I made homemade donut holes then dusted them in powdered sugar to be our “bunny tails”. Sugar cookies are my favorite and Utah folk love their “Swig” cookies, we decided to make a copycat gluten-free version but in the shape of bunnies and carrots. We tied the color scheme in by making the tops of the carrot cookies gold and the bottom where orange regularly would be, peach. The bunnies were a clean and simple white. I had these darling gold and white polka dot scalloped cups so it only seemed right to serve “bunny munch” or white chocolate drizzled popcorn in them. We added some gold sparkly gel frosting for pizzazz. I knew from the beginning that I wanted a naked cake. I just adore the simplicity and beauty of that design. Luckily ours was a speckled frosting so didn’t require as much exactness in applying it. While dessert tables are gorgeous, I wanted our guests to also enjoy some savory dishes. In order to keep with the bunny theme, we decided on salad and veggie based items. However, the men (and women) in our family like their protein so we decided to make them a bit heartier. I made up our famous chicken salad filling and served it in butter lettuce leaf cups. The mixed green salad was topped with creamy boursin cheese, fresh cranberries, crispy bacon and caramelized onions made with the bacon grease…yum! My mom even made our favorite cheeseball into the shape of a carrot and topped it with fresh parsley. Our last savory item was artichoke and Parmesan dip served in mini terra cotta pots with carrots sticking out of them. These last two dishes definitely added to the ambiance of the party and were both a huge hit! Everything was gluten-free since that is how I cook but nobody would ever have known.

Decorations were easy thanks to the sweet Teresa Collins whom we met at Pinners Conference. She heard what we were doing for little ladies first birthday and couldn’t resist contributing lots of gold items from her Teresa Collins Designs collection. I used her all gold and white and gold polka dot wrapping paper on the wall as our backdrop. Her paper chain and photo books were great on our welcome table. In fact, we used the photo book as a place for guests to write a card to Lucy for her 18th birthday and place it inside. This coupled with photos & mementos from her 1st birthday party were placed in a box and sealed. We call it a time capsule and love doing this tradition for each of our kids to open on their 18th birthday. Fun was had by all at this chubby bunny birthday and it was definitely a day to remember.

Gold & white banner, photo albums & gold/white chain link: Teresa Collins Studio
Sparkly bunner magnet: Chalk Couture
Fabric banner & Custom onesie, headband and necklace: The Pink Daisy Boutique
Cookie recipe: Gluten-Free on a Budget cookbook

• What People Ate

  For the savories, we served artichoke dip veggie cups in terra cotta cups, carrot shaped cheeseball, chicken salad lettuce cups and Boursin, bacon & cranberry salad. It was delicious and all gluten-free.

• What People Drank

  Citrus infused water

• Desserts

  The sweets consisted of chubby bunny sugar cookies with white chocolate frosting,vanilla speckled naked cake, Italian wedding cookies or "bunny tails" as well as white chocolate and gold drizzled popcorn. Everything was gluten-free and nobody even knew. That's how we like it. ;)

• Activities / Games

  Chubby bunny: seeing how many marshmallows people could fit in their mouth and still say "chubby bunny"

• Tana Besendorfer

  Chef/Co-Author of our book, Gluten-Free on a Budget

  Without her help in making food, and getting everything put together, it never would have been this great. Thanks mom!