Fiesta, Fiesta!

Happy Monday! This has been quite a relaxing weekend and I was able to enjoy some delicious meals, pool time, nights out with friends, the world cup game and finally got in some blogging. Last weekend we had a surprise party for my boyfriend's 30th birthday and it was such a blast! Shockingly we actually pulled off the surprise - including his fam flying in from out of town - which was the best part (although quite stressful since I am the world's worst liar)! Since he looooves Taco Bell Mexican food we had a Mexican-themed bash aka Fiesta de Blannin, complete with a margarita bar, taco station, a nacho cake, and costumes - party shirts, sombreros and fake mustaches. A huge thank you to all of the family and friends who helped make this party such a blast! 

The Birthday Boy!

Making the fiesta desserts was quite an adventure! I found a pretty great tutorial for Chili Pepper Cake pops here and used a recipe for Mexican Hot Chocolate frosting and cayanne pepper chocolate to add an extra kick.  Continuing my foray into cake decorating, I made a cake that looked like a plate of Taco Bell nachos! Since nachos are supposed to be a big cheesy mess, this was great since it was pretty difficult to mess up. 

For the cake and the frosting I used one of my favorite recipes from Rachel Ray, Lime Margarita Cake which tastes like a delicious and refreshing margarita. (I cheat this recipe just a bit and use white cake mix out of the box as a base, which is MUCH faster and tastes just as delicious!)

Nacho toppings

Tomatoes: Swedish fish

Lettuce: Shredded coconut tinted green

Tortilla chips: Yellow fondant mixed with crushed oreos

Cheese: White chocolate colored yellow, melted into a block and shredded

Sour cream & guac: Frosting

The awesome dude at Taco Bell gave me some extra burrito wrappers to make this look extra authentic!