Little Mama Turns One and a Naturally Sweetened Lemon Cake with Strawberry Spread and Italian Meringue Icing

It’s unbelievable how quickly time passes especially after having more than one child.

In the blink of an eye, my Little Mama turned one.

My life has forever changed since the birth of my Little Mama.

She’s my girl.  My little bundle of everything pink and frilly.  She’s nestled herself in my heart and I’m ever so excited to start training her up to be a woman of God.

I want to be an example of joy in the little things.  I want to show her a love of life that can only be found in Jesus.

I want to be an example of a humbled wife that submits and loves her husband through good and bad. I want to show her how much joy can be found in children and family.

I also want to show her to love herself with the body she’s been given and to be empowered to use her brain and her mind to achieve what God desires of her.

Since she’s my girl, I also want to teach her that a good sweat and hard work brings forth fruit.

As you can see this little girl rocked my world and brought on a whole new responsibility for me. One that I thank my God for and will do the very best I can with only the strength that he can provide.

She has brought so much sunshine into our lives. Big and little brother are just smitten with her.

They love her so much! It’s been a blessing to see them tend to her every need.

For her birthday party, I decided to throw her something simple with our immediate family.

We had a small fiesta for our Little Mama where we barbecued carne asada.  (A couple recipes I plan on sharing soon.)

For sides, I made homemade frijoles rancheros, Mexican rice, and pico de gallo salsa.

For her cakes I wanted to make something light and spring-y that highlighted seasonal strawberries.  I decided on making naturally sweetened lemon cakes using this recipe I developed last year.

I then made a simple honey strawberry spread and made a batch of my all time favorite icing recipe from Warren Brown of Cake Love.  It’s his famous Italian Meringue Icing that is just phenomenal – Not too sweet, light, and whispy.

Since I’ve been digging naked cakes, I decided to decorate them just as simple as my Little Mama’s special day.

Simple, yet elegant.

Of course, a party is not a party without a piñata, so I bought her La Chilindrina. She is my little chilindrina after all 😉

The kids had a blast!

Little Mama had a blast as well.  This was her favorite toy from her Uncle Dan.

It was a fun day and so good to reflect on.

Thank you Jesus for my little girl.

Within the next week, I plan on sharing what my family has been up to this past month.  We’ve been having a ton of summer fun!

Also, I have quite a few recipes to share so stay tuned!

What have you been up to this past month?  Please share what you’ve been doing this summer!  Any activities I need to know about??