Kate’s Cake Decorating Party

Kate’s 5th birthday was in March and she had a super fun cake decorating party.  It truly was the perfect party for 8 girls who are 4 and 5.

We decided pretty early on to do a cake decorating party. So we picked up a bunch of undecorated sponge cakes at Nude Cakes so I can focus on the rest of the party. It’s usually in the fall that we start thinking about birthday themes for next year. With Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas all right in a row, our birthday season starts pretty quickly.  I have to be ready because all 3 girls have their birthdays in a 2 month span.

Our kids were kind of “assigned” colors when they were little and things around the house seem to be in their colors.  Kate’s colors are pink and green and so every birthday party has had a strong pink and green theme to it.

We decided to make our own invitations.  This was the front cover and the inside covered all the details.  This was our family party invite.  Our friend party invite said “Decorating cakes” instead of cupcakes.

I knew I wanted to make Kate’s birthday dress and I knew it would also double as her Easter dress.  I also made a matching headband that is reversible.

One thing I love about birthday parties is decorating.  I don’t get to do too much decorating for Caroline and Rebecca’s birthday parties because they always end up being outside so I try to do what I can for Kate’s.  I ordered a ton of colored and printed cupcake liners and not only used them for cupcakes, but made garland with it.  I strung some fishing line through the centers with a needle, tied off the ends, and hung it from our mantle.  It was quite heavy and I ended up needing to use clear packing tape to keep it hung up.  I also took some scrapbook paper and cut it into strips to make the flowers hanging on the sides.

I made this banner for Kate’s 1st birthday and we hang it up every year.  Normally, I tape each circle to the wall.  This year I strung it with fishing line.  Again, it was a bit heavy and we needed to use packing tape to keep it hung.  You can see in the second photo that the words are starting to droop.

I had to make a colorful wreath for our front door.  I love the way it came out.  There are more pictures of it here.

This was our lunch table set up in the dining room.  I used some of my chalk cloth as a table cloth and laid a table runner of oil cloth on top of it.  After lunch we gave the girls chalk and they were able to draw and write on the table cloth while they waited for everyone to finish their lunch.  I also hung some   paper flowers from our dining room chandelier.

This is a view of the table from Kate’s seat.  In the center of the table I layered pink and green jelly beans in a mason jar.  I took large marshmallows, dipped the edge in melted white chocolate, and rolled them in crystal sprinkles.  Then I put them on a lollipop stick and placed them in the jars.  They made super cute centerpieces!

Our menu was pizza and applesauce.  I also made these pretzels snacks.  I laid a ton of Snap pretzels on aluminum foil on a cookie sheet.  Each pretzel got a disc of chocolate on it and I put the pan in the oven at 350* for 2 minutes.  It’s just enough time for the chocolate to start to melt and stick to the pretzels.

It was easy for Kate to decide on a cake decorating party when she heard what my friend Lori could do for birthday parties.  Lori is an extremely talented baker who makes the most amazing cakes.  She came to our house with a 6″ one layer cake for each of the girls.  She brought frosting, icing, sprinkles, and piping bags, and fondant shapes.  She played off of our pink and green theme with all her color choices.  Each girl not only got to take their decorated cake home, they each got a monogrammed apron as their birthday party favor.  The aprons are no-tie and slip right over their heads so that they are easy to put on by themselves.  They’ll be coming to the shop soon, but here’s a close up picture.  We placed each girl’s apron on their chair so they could put it on before they started.

One of the things I liked the most were the milk bottles we used for drinks.  They were actually Target brand coffee drink bottles that we filled with pink lemonade.  I cut circles of fabric to match the aprons and secured them each with a rubber band after we cut a slit in them for a pink and white paper straw.
By the way, can you see how much they decorated the chalk table cloth?  It was completely covered!  It came out clean once we wiped it and I now use it as a table cloth when I do a craft show.  I love it!

Did I mention that we had the friend party and the family party on the same day?  Yep, I was feeling a little crazy about it at first but it worked great!  The friend party was from 11am – 1pm.  The girls decorated their cakes first and then ate lunch and played.  The family party started at 3pm.  We had just enough time to clean up and relax on the couch before they started arriving.  All 3 girls squeezed a nap in, too, which was a bonus.  It turned into a late night.

Thank goodness my friend Lori can work magic.  I LOVE making the girls’s cakes myself but I am a terrible, horrible, no good cake decorator.  Kate decided that she wanted her friends to have cupcakes and the family to have cake.  I melted colored chocolate into round circle molds and decorated the outside of the cake.  The edges weren’t too pretty and Lori generously filled it in for me with her icing.  She made it look so easy too!

For favors for our family party, we had each of the kids decorate cupcakes.  After they were done with icing and sprinkles, I packaged them each up in these cute little pink boxes, tied them with baker’s twine, and attached these adorable green tags.

I should note that I am secretly hoping Caroline wants to do a cake decorating party next year too.  It was such a fun party to do!

xoxo
–k

Day 17