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

Max’s Robots and Rockets 1st Birthday Party

That’s Max, 2 weeks off officially tuning 1, hanging out with his little friend Molly (the gorgeous daughter of Jess, the talent behind Rosy Cakes) during his party last weekend.

I thought now that we (FINALLY!) have internet I would share some pics from the party with you as well as some hints/tips for anyone planning a kids party in the near future.

I had a very clear vision of what I wanted Max’s party to be (you guys saw my inspiration collages…), most importantly I wanted it to be a chance to gather with family and friends to celebrate the 1st year of my baby boy’s life but since I decided to theme it I really wanted to follow it through in the form of decorations, food, plates and napkins, right down to Max’s robot t-shirt – which of course all had to be in the same colour pallet. However, this was easier said than done and I may have over extended myself a little!  We moved cities less than a week earlier then I had to go back up to Auckland to use a kitchen I was unfamiliar with, before transporting everything across the other side of town for the actual party.  I also only had a 30 minute set up allowed before the party because of the rental period on our venue.

There were some minor disasters like my blue and red macarons (which more looked pink and green) that never even made it to the oven because they spread so much during the setting process!  Everything else got there in the end after help from Shane who did so many little things as well as cutting out all the robot faces for the shortbread cookies – I think he did an awesome job!  Melissa made some awesome cake pops and delicious meatballs and my Mum calmed me down mid-macaron meltdown and did a bunch of savoury items and delish profiteroles.  I was also helped by Wendy who cut out all the coloured stars for decorations, made up some yummy cheese and cracker platters and spent quite a bit of time in the kitchen at the party getting the savouries into the oven and cutting up cake.  My Dad also spent hours entertaining Max so I could get stuff done.  Thank you guys!  I also have to thank Jess for making Max’s robot cake topper for me.

Max’s Cake

Food from the sweet treats table

Savoury table, Sweet Treats table and Drinks table with goody bags

Decorations

Because of time constraints I have no new recipes to share with you, although I am sure Mel will let you all in on a cakepops ‘how to’ soon.  The robot cookies are shortbread which I flooded with ‘Queen’ royal icing (so easy to use!) and placed the faces and stars (which I sprinkled with edible glitter/shimmer) made of coloured fondant on top.  I made red velvet and vanilla cupcakes and the cake was 3 chocolate cakes layered with vanilla buttercream icing and covered in fondant.

In terms of party planning advice, I would recommend that you pick a theme/colour scheme a couple of months ahead of time if possible, hunt for ideas on the internet and start collecting bits and pieces as you come across them (I got my robot cups, plates and napkins months in advance at the $2 Shop of all places – bargain, and I found the little red and blue wooden robots in Whitcoulls).  Give yourself plenty of time, write a to do list and tick things off as you go, delegate jobs (if you can), make decorations in advance, and bake things like cookies a couple of days before the party and put them in an airtight container.  On the day have a crew of people who will help you set up and then tidy up and get someone to take lots of photos for you (thanks Mel and Imogen!) because you will probably be too busy with guests to do it.  If it’s a kids party have plenty of kid friendly food – think fruit platters, cheerios, sausage rolls.  Also if you are having a party over lunch and there are going to be Dad’s there make sure you have plenty of savouries (mini pies, sandwiches).

In terms of planning my party I spent ages looking on this site (LOVE!) for inspiration and ideas and got the majority of my decorations from this great NZ site ‘Poppyseed’, as well as using the awesome pictures our friend Andie took of Max’s cake smash.

Rosy Cakes

 
My lovely friend Jess has started her own cake making/decorating venture from home. She started playing around with decorating cakes as a bit of fun after having her daughter Molly earlier this year and realised (with a lot of convincing from friends and family) that she has a real talent.

 
Jess is still refining her art but as you can see she has a real flair for what she does. If you have a party coming up and are based in Auckland Jess may be able to help you out with a cake, cupcakes and simply gorgeous cookies, if you are further a field and haven't been able to find the cake topper you are after Jess can do those too. Click here to see the Rosy Cakes facebook page which also has contact details and remember to hit 'like' so you can keep up to date with her latest creations, remember you can also find us on facebook (if you haven't already) here.