Simran's Birthday

Simran's Bday Snacks

Simran's first birthday is coming up, so we're hosting a small party this weekend.  We don't expect a lot of people to come, but it's shortly after lunchtime since any other hour coincides with naps, so here is what I'm making:

Chocolate Cupcakes with Chocolate Frosting (Sameer and I both find straight buttercream a bit dense and just too buttery on cake, so I'm cutting it with some shortening and only using the recipe in the link as a base.)
Pink French Macarons with Real Strawberry Buttercream (I've already made the cookies and the strawberry puree.)
For beverages, we've got water and soda, but I wanted to make something special too, so there will be
Old-Fashioned Lemonade over ice.  I've already made simple syrup since that seems to work better than mixing sugar and cold water.
For snacks I'm cutting up various mild cheeses, I bought like six boxes of different kinds of crackers, and I'm assembling platters of cut fruit and crudites with homemade ranch dressing (or possibly dill dip instead).