Saucer of Sunshine: September 2012

There has been so much happening lately with holidays and birthdays that I haven't had much time to think about weddings but I will get back on to them soon. My beautiful sister is getting married next December and I have already started compiling some ideas for her so stay tuned.

I love this time of year because it is my daughter's birthday and planning parties for my kids is one of my great loves. Amelie has two little friends who were born on the same day exactly a week before her making it one long party week; so not only do I get to create a party but also see what clever ideas my friends come up with!

First this year was Charlie's rocket party. His mum Paula made fabulous jet packs for each little guest - they were a huge hit (thanks Donna Hay for the idea).

You need two empty 1.25L soft drink bottles - stick them together then wrap around some silver or grey paper. Attach red/orange/yellow crepe paper streamers to the bottom (to resemble jet flames) and then some elastic straps so the kids can wear them. So fabulous!

The take home lolly bags were red plastic cups made to look like rockets with a paper cone top and blue fins on the side.

And the rocket cake with heaps of sparklers coming out of the bottom to make it look like it was blasting off (and it nearly did with all that fire power!)

Next on the list - a Snakes and Ladders party for Daniel as it is his all time favourite board game. His mum, Kerryn, uses power point to make her invitations and they always turn out great. And getting them printed at Kmart makes it very cost effective! The snakes and ladders cake was a huge success - even the playing pieces and dice were edible as Kerryn used chocolate moulds to create them.

All the kids got to take home their very own Snakes and Ladders game in very cute bags decorated by the birthday boy himself.

Amelie's party was set for the first day of spring and as she is a huge fan of icecream I thought an icecream party would be great, with a rainbow colour scheme. First stop, as always, etsy. I found a fabulous ice cream party printables pack that I paid about $30 for and they were then sent to me as pdfs with all of the party details already filled in. Off to Officeworks to print some nice glossy invitations, and I couldn't have been happier with the result. Along with the invitations I bought pdfs for a banner, buffet table labels, cupcake wrappers, treat bag toppers, party circles, party hats and more!

This is an example of what I got:

http://www.etsy.com/listing/104652184/ice-cream-party-package-girl-birthday

I love making all my own party food - everyone tells me I will eventually get tired of it, but for now it's a lot of fun and so rewarding.

So - what food do you make for an ice cream party? My super talented niece Danica pointed me in the direction of the creator of cake pops, Bakerella, for some inspiration. Cakes that look like ice creams - genius! To make cake pops you often use pre-made cake crumbled up and combined with something to make the mixture moist (like cream cheese) but I had recently bought a cake pop tin so I used that. The instruction manual said to combine a packet cake mix with an instant pudding mix, use an extra egg, substitute milk for water and use half as much as the recipe calls for - good tips as the result was perfect little chocolate balls.

I was using melted white chocolate for the "icecream" look so put a little bit in the top of the cone to secure the cake balls - this set really quickly and not one of them fell out when I was tipping them upside down to coat them in the chocolate. I found mini ice cream cones at Woolworths - the normal size ones would have been way too big.

I am not kidding when I say these were really, really easy to make and they were a huge hit with the kids. I was anticipating tears when they realised they were eating cake and not ice cream but not a boo hoo was heard! I put mine in a plastic container with holes drilled in the lid, but Jordan Fearney from Oh Happy Day shows you how to make your own acrylic stand here or you could buy one from this ebay store or even etsy.

I also made rainbow striped jelly cups - do one colour and wait for it to set before adding the next colour and so on

And then the usual - "rainbow" fruit, chicken sandwiches, and sausage rolls.

And of course the birthday cake. A simple double layer vanilla cake (recipe from Donna Hay Kids Annual 2012) with rainbow sprinkles in the cake mixture and cream cheese icing coloured pale pink (of course). Then two chocolate cupcakes in the top of a waffle cone trimmed to form a dome shape and secured with melted chocolate. Dip in melted chocolate and then pour the chocolate down one side and make a pool in the middle, putting the "ice cream cone" upside down in the chocolate before it sets.