Simran's 2nd Birthday

Simran's second birthday is coming up, and I'm planning to throw another little party at home like we had last year.  We're doing a teddy bear theme because bears are her favorite.  The menu will closely resemble last year's with some small variations, such as changes in icing flavor and the addition of fresh ice cream.

The problems with last year's food were too-thin chocolate buttercream (I stopped adding sugar when it tasted good instead of fixing the texture and taste at the same time -- my frosting-making ability has improved significantly in the last year, thankfully) and too-sour lemonade (should not have brushed my teeth before making the lemonade -- made it impossible to tell when it was sweet enough).  Easily correctable mistakes, but I'm not planning to use either of those recipes this year anyway.  Here is what I'm planning to make:

Chocolate Cupcakes with Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

Dark Pink Macarons with Strawberry Buttercream Frosting
To preserve freshness as well as my sanity, I plan to make the macarons a few days in advance and freeze them until Friday night or Saturday morning.  According to the internet, they will be better that way than if I try to refrigerate them for 48 hours.

Vanilla Ice Cream and Chocolate Ice Cream
I might only end up making one of these, but I think I can make both without much ado if I make them a day in advance.  I've made the chocolate ice cream before and it was the best ice cream I've ever had.  Even the stuff sold "fresh" from creameries doesn't taste as fresh as homemade.  The chocolate ice cream also provides an outlet for all those egg yolks leftover from the macarons.

Fizzy Fruit Punch -- I kind of have to make this up.  My mother used to mix equal parts Hawaiian Punch and 7up for party punch, and I'd like to make something with a similar flavor but with actual fruit juice.  I haven't found an applicable recipe, so I plan to try a couple 100% juice fruit punch blends (maybe something featuring cherries) from Whole Foods, choose the best, and mix it with an equal amount of sugared lemon-lime soda.

We'll also be having a variety of cheese cubes and crackers, cut fruit, and crudites with Homemade Ranch Dressing.