Max’s Dinosaur Party

 

Max turned 3 a couple of weeks ago, which of course meant a birthday party. He loves dinosaurs so we went with that as this year’s theme. Max was really into the planning this year and spent ages trawling Pinterest with me looking for ideas. He decided on the green and orange colour scheme, the decorations and insisted on a pinata as one of the games (we also had a very cool pin the tail on the dino made by my talented little sister).

 

 

 

Max also chose chocolate cake for his birthday cake, asked for dino cookies (I used our shortbread recipe and then also covered some in sprinkles to make them more attractive to the kids), jelly, vanilla sprinkle cupcakes and popcorn (which I served in cute cupcake cases that I decorated with dinosaur stickers) along with the usual cheerios, sausage rolls and fruit platters. As has become tradition drinks were served in my gorgeous mini milk bottles from The Pretty Baker, it wouldn't be a party without them.

 

To thank all our guests for coming Max and I recycled some of his baby food jars by adding dinosaurs to the lids, spray painting them and adding jelly beans in cool or warm tones.

 

Max had a great day and is already talking about his next party, at present he thinks he'd like a superhero party! I can’t wait.

A Very Dr Seuss 1st Birthday Party

You might remember back in 2011 I blogged about our gorgeous friend Jess and her cake making venture 'Rosy Cakes', since then Jess has been very busy baking and decorating countless cakes, being Mum her nearly 3 year old Molly and Solomon who turned 1 this week - and was the reason for the amazing Dr Seuss themed party Max and I went to last Saturday!

As you can see Jess not only has a flair for making and decorating amazing cakes but for creating fabulous parties! I loved how balanced everything was, the different heights of everything on the table and how the colour scheme of red, white and blue ran through everything from the blue lemonade to the families co-ordinated outfits. The backdrop for the food table was simple but so effective!

Jess made delicious chocolate cupcakes with bright blue buttercream, cake pops and marshmallows (dipped in white chocolate and covered in blue sugar crystal) on gorgeous blue and white paper straws, there were also some healthy choices with popcorn and grapes served in paper cupcake cases with Dr Seuss stickers on the front. I also loved the mini milk bottles which were jazzed up with some bakers twine, paper and more Dr Seuss stickers!

My Max and Jess' Molly will be turning 3 in a few months time and this party has me feeling inspired to get on with planning Max's next party - which I have been informed will be dinosaur themed! What are your favourite kids party themes?

If you want to keep up with what Jess is working on check out her Facebook page, I am constantly blown away with what she comes up with!

If we didn’t have birthdays,
you wouldn’t be you.
If you’d never been born,
well then what would you do?
If you’d never been born,
well then what would you be?
You might be a fish!
Or a toad in a tree!
You might be a doorknob!
Or three baked potatoes!
You might be a bag full of
hard green tomatoes.

Or worse than all that…
Why, you might be a WASN’T!
A Wasn’t has no fun at all.
No, he doesn’t.

A Wasn’t just isn’t.
He just isn’t present.
But you… You ARE YOU!
And, now isn’t that pleasant!

- Dr Seuss

A huge thank you to Jess for sharing her photos with us and a big happy 1st birthday to wee Solomon xox

Funfetti Cookies

These Funfetti Cookies are so much fun!  Just look at them; don’t they just make you want to smile?  The recipe is for a simple refrigerator cookie – mix, refrigerate, slice and bake.  I actually just tweaked the recipe I used for the Chocolate Sprinkle Cookies I made not so long ago.  Why not make them too?

Ingredients:
300g butter, softened
1 cup icing sugar
2 ½ cups flour
¼ cup sprinkles (the ‘stick’ variety)

Method:
Beat the butter and icing sugar in a large bowl until light and fluffy.  Stir in the flour in two batches.  Mix through the sprinkles.
Knead the dough on a lightly floured surface until smooth.  Divide the mixture in half and roll each half into a 25cm log.  Wrap in cling film and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 180°C.  Line baking a couple of baking trays with baking paper.
Cut the logs into 1cm slices.  Place about 2.5cm apart on the trays and bake for 10 minutes.  Leave to cool on the trays for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. 

*If you are having trouble getting the mixture to stick together to roll into the logs, soften and beat through another 50g butter.  The butter needs to be quite soft.

It’s A Party Y’all!

If you have been following our blog for a while you will know that I am big on parties, I love birthdays (Christmas, Easter – anything that calls for gatherings, decorations and food!) and having Max makes birthdays so much cooler. It wasn’t long after last year’s ‘Robots and Rockets’ party that we decided on a cowboy party for Max’s second birthday, I pinned up lots of cute ideas which helped me put the party together.

I decided on a red, blue and bright green colour scheme – these colours come out of the tee-pee we got Max for Christmas which was at the centre of our ‘campsite’ area and was surrounded by hay bales which helped to set the tone/look of the party. Other decorations included some balloons in our colour scheme with the addition of a cow print balloon with each bunch. I made two buntings, one to go along the railing of our deck out of red and blue bandanas and one made from an old coffee sack which I painted Max’s name onto and placed on the food table. I also made some cacti and directional signs made from old moving boxes and painted with test pots from our local paint shop.

In terms of food I made cowboy cookies, red velvet cupcakes (the cute gingham cupcake cases are from The Pretty Baker, which is also what was used to make the bunting on the cake – they have an amazing selection of things that will make your party that much more special) and smores pops, we put together fruit platters, made fairy bread shaped like cacti and Marmite sandwiches in the shape of cows. We served savouries in the form of cheerios, sausage rolls, chicken nuggets and wedges with sour cream and bacon. I served popcorn in cute recycled wood cones, they are from PopRoc Parties as are the crates. Drinks were all served out of mini milk bottles with stripped paper straws and wrapped with bakers twine.

The cake was a four layer easy peasy chocolate cake sandwiched together and covered with vanilla butter cream. I used black fondant to cut out splotches so it created a cow pattern and placed M&M’s around the base.

We decided on a pick n mix your own loot bag station it was fun for the adults and the kids and much more cost effective than buying little toys to thank each of the kids for coming.

For fun we set up a photo booth using a cheap white sheet and our clothes line, there was a shooting range where the kids used a water gun to shoot tin cans, a watering hole for paddling in and some home made hobby horses using this template.

Max seemed to have a great day which is the most important thing and I as happy with how everything turned out. Now I’m thinking about next year! What are your favourite themes for kids parties? Leave us a comment here or on facebook to let us know.

Hidden Treasure Muffins

Ahoy matey!  I thought these Hidden Treasure Muffins would be a bit of fun for kids, or those young at heart.  When I was younger I used to save all the gummy lollies until the end of my bowl when I had Goody Goody Gum Drops ice cream.  It was kinda fun seeing how many you’d get (and a bit of a competition between my brother and I).  I had an idea to do something similar with muffins.  Inside, these muffins have jelly beans and gummy lollies or, what I like to think of as ‘hidden treasure’.  How many of hidden ‘gems’ can you find? 

2 cups self raising flour
½ teaspoons cinnamon
¾ cup sugar
300g sour cream
1 egg
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
3 bananas, mashed
⅔ cup jelly beans
12 jube / gummy lollies

Preheat the oven to 200°C.  Grease or line 12 muffin tin holes.
Place the flour, cinnamon, and sugar in a bowl and mix.
Put the sour cream, egg, oil and mashed banana in another bowl and mix together.  Add to the dry ingredients, along with the jelly beans, and stir to combine.
Spoon the mixture evenly between the prepared muffin tins until they are half full.  Place a gummy lolly on top of the batter in each tin, then cover with the remaining mixture.
Bake for 25 – 30 minutes or until golden brown on top.

Aye, shiver me timbers! They look jolly good!

Mars Bar Slice

A few people I know lately have been speaking about or making Mars Bar Slice.  I had never had the privilege of tasting Mars Bar Slice before so decided to give making it a go.  It is super easy and super quick, the perfect thing for kids parties – I will definitely be adding it to the food list for Maxie’s second birthday next February.

Ingredients:
3x 50 gram Mars Bars
80g butter
3 cups rice bubbles
200g milk chocolate

Method:
Line your slice tin with wax baking paper.
Melt Mars Bars with butter over a medium heat, stirring to combine.  Combine melted mix with rice bubbles.  Pour mixture into prepared tin and spread it out evenly.
Melt milk chocolate and pour over slice.  Let slice set in the fridge.  Remove slice from tin and cut into pieces.

Is it good? Take a look at Max’s face and judge for yourself…

Kiddy Cupcakes

As some of you may remember I have been on the hunt for a vanilla cake/cupcake recipe that is as good as the Betty Crocker Vanilla Cake mix, these aren’t quite as moist or quite as sweet as the Betty Crocker ones BUT the mix makes about 26-30 cupcakes depending on the size of your cupcake papers and kids seem to love them – making them perfect for kids parties, school bake sales or cake stalls.

Ingredients:
250g butter, softened
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
2½ cups flour
½ cup cornflour
4½ teaspoons baking powder
1 cup milk
2 teaspoons vanilla essence

Buttercream:
250g butter softened
5 cups icing sugar, sifted
4-6 tablespoons hot water (warm icing makes the colour take better)
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
food colouring

Method:Pre-heat your oven to 180°C and line your baking tin with cupcake cases.
Cream the butter in sugar until light an fluffy, add in eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
Sift the flour, cornflour and baking powder into a separate bowl.
Alternate adding the flour mix and milk & vanilla essence to the creamed mixture, beat on a low setting to combine.
Spoon the mixture evenly into cupcake cases. Bake in a pre-heated oven for about 20 minutes or until a skewer can be removed cleanly or they bounce back to the touch.
Leave cupcakes to cool for 5 minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool.
To make the buttercream, cream butter in or with a mixer until pale. On a low speed add icing sugar alternating with hot water and vanilla essence. Continue to beat until light and fluffy or until it’s reached a consistency you are happy with. At this stage you can either add the colouring to your mix and beat it in or divide your mix and colour so that you end up with a variety of colours.


Tip: When you ice your cupcakes you can spread the buttercream with a knife or pipe it like me, I used a Wilton 2A round tip on the blue cupcakes and 2D tip on the pink cupcakes iced like roses (the effect is achieved when you frost from the centre and move out).  The swirl effect (like the blue ones pictured below) is achieved when you start from the outside and move in to the centre in an upward motion. You can then top your cupcakes with all types of sprinkles, edible glitters or cupcake toppers.