Pink Paper Doll Princess Party - Sophie's 5th Birthday Party

When I asked Sophie what type of party she wanted this year she told me Barbie......then the next week it was Zhu Zhu pet, and then the next week it was Barbie AND Zhu Zhu pet. I racked my brain which was spinning from all the changes wondering what I was going to be able to come up when I realised that Sophie didn't really want a Barbie party or a Zhu Zhu party, what Sophie wanted was presents....lots and lots of Barbie and Zhu Zhu presents. Really she was kinda relaxed about the whole thing as long as there were friends, presents and cake ;)

Photo of Sophie by Naomi V Photography for Princess Ratbag

Phew, ok with that little issue sorted I still needed a theme. I was looking at some photo's of Sophie where the stylist Candice from Princess Ratbag had pinned up her super long hair and made her look like a little vintage doll and then I remembered a cookie idea that I had floating around for over a year and the theme just worked itself out.

Paper Doll Sugar Cookie

Decorating the Sophie Paper Doll Cookies - see the clothes are stiff and easy to handle

Yup that's right I wanted to make sugar cookies and then fondant clothes that the kids REALLY dressed up the dolls with using royal icing to adhere the edible fondant clothes to the sugar cookie doll. If you follow my blog you might have already seen the photo's of the cookies - the kids had a super time. The tutorial on how to make these super sweet cookies is HERE. Sophie can spend hours dressing up her dolls and I thought it could be a theme we would both love.

Some examples of the cookies the girls made up

I had a custom picture drawn up of the birthday girl made to look like a paper doll by Karen McCubbin. Isn't it the most adorable thing - Sophie LOVED that it was a picture especially of her! By taking a copy of the hand drawn picture I was able to use it as a template for the cookies.

Custom Paper Doll and clothes of the Birthday Girl by Karen McCubbin (details below)

Jordan from Polkadot Prints made up the sweetest pink and white polka dot invitations using the hand drawn picture of Sophie, and then cause she's super talented she made up matching thank you tags and dessert table labels as well!

Invitation by Polkadot Prints

The custom picture was great as I used it for quite a few other things. Each guest received a copy as take home favors and I also used the paper doll clothes to make a DIY bunting garland to top the buttercream pink ombre cake.

Homemade Paper Doll Dress up cake garland

The pink ombre (graduated pink) cake was frosted with Italian Meringue Buttercream. Inside the cake was strawberry butter cake with white chocolate mud cake polka dots which was inspired by an amazing cake on snowy bliss ( click here).... mine needs a little work as the mudcake balls are quite heavy I think they need to be popped in over a layer of batter.

Pink Polka Dot Cake

 I have already posted a tutorial on how  I did the ombre frosting on the outside Click Here

Pink Ombre frosted cake

We also had princess sprinkle macarons and polka dot milk. I tried to come up with fun names for all the party treats to work in with the theme.

The rim around the top of my the polka dot milk was inspired by a picture on pintrest of dark chocolate dipped rim in hundreds and thousands (rainbow non pariels). I just changed the idea to work in with my color theme. Then it was just strawberry milk with floating marshmallows 'polka dots'.

Oh and of course we had lollies (candy)....pink musk sticks, pink and white M&M's and Pink Princess Delight (strawberry bon bons from Sharnel Dollar Designs)

and Ah Tissue made up these Ah-mazing ombre tissue paper pom poms.

Apart from the cookie decorating we also had musical statues, bubble blowing and my kids always ask for pass the parcel. I'm not a huge fan of wrapping up layers and layers of paper 'cause we always stick some kind of prize in each layer and at the end it is huge, then it's just a big 'ole ball of paper to throw away. This time instead of wrapping up layers of paper for pass the parcel, I popped gifts into brown paper bags and wrote a task for each child to perform onto the front of the bag. When the music stopped the child reached into the basket pulled out a bag and had to perform the task to get the gift. I made sure they were age appropriate tasks like singing a song or doing the hokey pokey, the kids thought it was lots of fun.

and a special thank you to my lovely friend Jo who came over earlier in the day to hang all the poms for me as I couldn't reach up due to my recent surgery. Thanks so much Jo Xx

Party Menu

Pink Polka Dot Cake (click here for frosting tutorial)
Princess Sprinkle Macarons
Sophie Doll Cookies (click here for the tutorial)
Fresh Strawberries

Sherbert Icecreams
Musk Sticks
Strawberry Bon Bons
Pink and White M&M's

Fabulous Party Suppliers

The party sweets were made by me Bubble and Sweet  ( http://bubbleandsweet.blogspot.com/ )
Party invitations, thank you cards and dessert labels by Polkadot Prints ( http://www.polkadotprints.com.au/store/pc/home.asp )
Tissue Pom Poms by Ah Tissue ( http://www.ah-tissue.com.au/ )
Cake and bon bon Stands, polka dot straws and strawberry bon bons (princess delights) Sharnel Dollar Designs ( http://www.sharneldollardesigns.com.au/store/pc/home.asp )
Custom Paper Doll drawing by Karen McCubbin ( darkar1(at)optusnet(dot)com(dot)au)
Party Inspiration photo of Sophie by Naomi V Photography ( http://www.naomivphotography.com.au/ ) for Princess Ratbag ( http://www.princessratbag.com/store/pc/home.asp )
Pink and White polka dot treat boxes from Mon Tresor
Flowers from Perrotts florist Brisbane ( http://www.perrotts.com.au/ )
Most of the party pictures are by Terri Vandermeer

Flowers from Perrotts,  bon bon stand from Sharnel Dollar Designs

Just in case you haven't heard I have a book coming out in December called Sweets on a Stick - it's full of fun and easy recipes to make with your kids. Here's a link to Sweets on a Stick on Amazon.