Here is a quick sneak peek of the mounted unicorn head cake that Sweet had at her birthday party on the weekend.
Yes this is the cake,
and it's mounted on a wall and it's really kinda fabulous.
Watch this blog space ;) There are lots of ways to follow me on the right hand side.
I'll have all the pictures of the party which is even MORE fabulous and more about the cake here on the Bubble and Sweet blog when I get more photos.
Edit update 25/2/14 I have uploaded a you tube video of me making the cake
Edit update 2/9/13 we have had the party CLICK HERE for more pictures of the I believe in magic Unicorn Party
Mounted Unicorn Head Cake by Linda Vandermeer @ Bubble and Sweet
Photography by Terri Vandermeer
Special thanks to Andrew McCubbin
Linda Vandermeer is a blogger, baker, maker and author of the cookbook '
Sweets on a Stick': More than 150 kid friendly recipes for cakes,
candies, cookies and pies on the go!. Published in the US the book is
available at most online book stores:
Lilli's pretty pink and mint green ruffle rosette party table.
Sometimes I see awesome catchy titles like 'best budgeting tips ever, see how this person paid off their house in 3 years' and I have to click over. I'm always disappointed. One of the top tips is inevitably to stop buying coffee. I'm not sure they fully understand my goal is to magically save money so I can constantly do the types of frivolous things the post is advising against.
Which brings me to today's post, this year instead of trying to top all the previous year's party and be even more over the top I went the other way and did the party on a budget (disclaimer I acknowledge in advance sometimes my understanding of budget may not be the same as yours, or more relevantly Mr Sweet's, but there are some real and sensible cost saving tips scattered in the post).
And it still looked good. I pretty much decorated this party with 5 pieces of scrapbook paper, a few pieces of ribbon and twine and a piece of material I had left over from something else.
Ok I admit - there is lots of other stuff on the table but I already had those things and this is my magical budgeting fantasy. It's the story I told Mr Sweet and I'm sticking to it.
Of course I made all the cakes and treats myself as well, plus I was also the entertainment as the party was a cupcake decorating party. Oh my goodness it sounds like I'm a super mum, but we all know that is far from true, y'all have seen my most embarrassing ever messy creative space before shots.
Anyhoo as well as doing all the stuff for the party I managed to whip up a couple of you tube video's to show how I made the decorations. Most of it is pretty easy stuff, but feel free to click through and check me out crafting to save money because it's too much fun not to ;) umm craft that is not watch me on youtube....
See me make DIY Easy cheap Paper Bunting you tube video:
Super cute rag ribbon bunting cake topper tutorial:
Make your own Paper rosette's:
Decorating the party table on a Budget
My brief to myself for this party was to use what I already had, thus the pink and green colour scheme, as I seems to already have a lot of stuff in those colours sitting around.
Drinking Jars - I used recycled jars that my friend gave me after one of her parties, which makes them re-recycled. Cute huh! They are decorated with some washi tape I had sitting around and the paper rosette's (see the you tube tutorial link) that I pretty much stuck on everything.
Straw flags - I already had these pink and white polkadot straws left over from a previous party, I added a little bit of green and pink shabby chic floral washi tape from Greengate to the tops and popped them in another tall re-recycled jar decorated the same as the drinking jars.
Bunting - I had been thinking of doing a pretty rag ribbon bunting behind the table but then I would have had to buy fabric - and I was budgeting remember. So I made this paper bunting myself from Tilda and Martha Stewart scrapbook paper I already had sitting around, it was easy, it was cheap, it was really fast to make and it gave the effect I was looking for. It used 3 pieces of scrapbook paper and I saved the offcuts for mini bunting and rosette's. I stuck it to the wall over a piece of ribbon using double sided tape.I did a quick video tutorial on how I made it/
Risers - (these are to give height to the table mostly for visual purposes) this is a bathroom storage box from the dollar store, it was about $9. I painted it pink (with paint I already had sitting around), and then added Tilda scrapbooking paper offcuts saved from the wall bunting above. I used double sided tape to stick on some pink and white twine, added the mini bunting using more double sided tape and finished off with a couple of those paper rosette's. Then in a complete turn around from the famous style tip to finish something and take one thing away - I added a paper doily, adhering it with a little double sided tape. When your decorating with me - 'More is more'.
Tablecloth - this was a piece of Tilda fabric off cut left over from other decorating in my house, it has big chunks cut out the back - but you can't see behind the table so I didn't care - remember I'm on a budget. I cut another strip off (behind the table) to use on the cake bunting. If your fancy you could no doubt finish off the edges with some pretty trim, I'm not that fancy and I always try to avoid sewing. Seriously there was a drink dispenser and candy/ lollies, like the kids were checking out if my tablecloth was finished.
Rag fabric bunting cake topper - Using more of the pink and white twine I tied strips of the tablecloth fabric and a little bit of excess lace trimmed from the bottom of the lace I used on the cake. Note - ok you guys are thinking at this stage I am going overboard using little scraps of left over lace, but there is a method to this madness. By using the little offcuts I am ensuring consistency, it simply matches better. (Link to you tube tutorial)
Hanging lamp frames - Hmmm what can I say, I saw a picture of a naked lamp HERE that I loved and PINNED it inspired these lamps. But remember I was on a budget, I tried checking out some of the second hand stores to find lamps to use but when I had no luck I took my old bedside lamp that I hadn't used for years and made what you see in the picture above. I loved the look but needed another......and I stole Mr Sweet's which unfortunately he still uses. I've been wanting to get overhead wall lamps for a while now so I guess it will be happening soon, and he wasn't upset at all, well not too upset ;)
Pink floral 2 tiered stands - I already had one of these that I had picked up a while back at the dollar store for around $14. When I went back there was only 1 left and it was wonky, they sold it to me for $11 and I bent it back into shape. I was using the other one to hand sugar flowers off each layer to dry so it is totally multi functional and worth it - *double bargin *.
Drink dispenser - I already had the drink dispenser, although it did take me many hours to find it, you may wonder how something that large can get lost, and I would agree with you. Anyhoo I decorated it with paper rosette's to continue my theme. See reverse styling note above, when in doubt add an extra paper doily - it works for me.
Cake Plates and Jars - I already had all of these sitting around. Beg, borrow or failing that hire some. Discount stores also have these types of things available for quite reasonable prices at the moment, but remember you will have to store them afterwards.
Party Food
Pink Lemonade - The kids made up the pink lemonade the day before the party, they thought it was awesome fun of course, were super proud of themselves and I only had to help out a little. It was win win. Plus there is no artificial colour in this baby - it's hand strained (frozen) raspberry :) Note according to the kids - drink dispensers rock. It was the biggest hit of the party after the cupcake decorating.
Ruffle Rosette Cake - The cake was pink and green layers with piped buttercream. Raspberry layer cake and a new pineapple flavour I was trying out - verdict. We won't be trying out that pineapple cake again, but the raspberry layer was delicious. The buttercream was Italian Meringue Buttercream flavoured with real raspberry so once again no food colour. I'm hoping to share how I made this one on the blog soon. Continuing on with my rosette theme I popped a few fondant rosette's all over the cake. The bottom layer was fake styrofoam covered in fondant - we really didn't need that much cake but I liked the extra height.
Macarons - green french almond macaron shells with raspberry white chocolate ganache to tie in with the colour theme.
Cake Pops - White candy chocolate dipped decorated with fondant rosettes in pink and green.
Decorated Cookies - Ruffled buttercream with fondant rosette, still carrying through that rosette theme. And fondant and royal icing decorated sugar cookies.
Candy / Lolly Green apple bon bons, white milk bottle and 'teeth' mix and pink/white swirl marshmallow.
We also had pass the parcel as that is the party girl's favorite party game. The prizes were mostly baking related ie. fondant plungers and cookie cutter sets.
Party favor's consisted of a pink and white bag from the discount store ($2 pack of 10) filled with some cupcake decorating treats like pretty cupcake cases, sugar pearls and a fondant flower or butterfly plunger plus a box of Betty Crocker vanilla cupcake mix.
Where to get stuff or make your own
How to make a paper bunting How to make rag ribbon cake topper How to make paper rosette's
Apple Bon Bon's - The Professor'
Other candy - Big W discount department store
Photography by Terri Vandermeer any especially blurry shot's might be by me :)
Fabric for Tablecloth and rag ribbon bunting - Tilda Rosalie Pink
Scrap paper - Tilda I picked mine up at Sewco in Brisbane
All cakes, cookies and macarons - Bubble and Sweet How to Host a Cupcake Party Blog
Cupcakes at cupcake party and packet mix used for party favours - Betty Crocker
Cake stand's, plates and drink dispenser's bought minimum of one year ago so stockist details are probably out of date sorry. The Cake Stand is Clara French, the Drink dispenser was from Sharnel Dollar Designs (no longer sells to public now party styling services and commercial styling), the white flat plates from Freedom Furniture, the
Linda Vandermeer is a blogger, baker, maker and author of the cookbook ' Sweets on a Stick': More than 150 kid friendly recipes for cakes, candies, cookies and pies on the go!. Published in the US the book is available at most online book stores:
This post is not sponsored. Affiliate links may result in earnings, however will not cost you any more :)
This year for Lilli's birthday party we decided to have a cupcake decorating party and it was a super sweet success.
Lilli is at that in between age where some of the kids get a bit bored with the usual party games we've had in the past. As a compromise we're still having pass-the parcel which is the birthday girl's favourite plus a pretty dessert table (my favourite - make sure to pop back next week to see those pictures) and filling up the rest of the time with cupcake decorating.
The great thing about a cupcake decorating party is that you can go as low cost or fancy as you choose depending on your budget, plus it's great for a wide range of kids (we had 4 years to 9 years olds).
Also, the actual cupcake decorating set up of the party was soooo easy!
I have to admit, I had a little help in the kitchen. I used Betty Crocker cupcake mix, which comes with ready to spread frosting. I also used a couple of tubs of Betty Crocker's ready-made frosting for extra piping. It made the preparation and clean up a breeze. And, because it's so easy, Lilli helped out baking the cupcakes, which gave us some special family time the night before the party and added to the fun.
Lilli and her friends are a pretty crafty and fun bunch so I thought we would set up a few stations with pictures of a finished cupcake at each station along with the ingredients needed. I explained how to pipe a frosting swirl, how to make a fondant flower or butterfly and a quick description of each cupcake on offer and then let the kids go to it.
Cupcake Decorating Ideas (all cupcakes in the pictures are made using Betty Crocker cupcake mix and ready to spread frosting):
Pretty flowers and pearls
Ingredients
Vanilla Cupcakes and ready to spread frosting vanilla or strawberry
Sugar flowers (CLICK HERE to make your own or buy premade sugar flowers)
Candy coated chocolate balls* or cashous *sixlets (candy coated chocolate) from spotlight or cake decorating stores, cashous from supermarkets.
Directions
Put frosting into a piping bag fitted with a large open star tip. Starting in the middle pipe the frosting on working your way out in a circle. Top with pre-made sugar flowers and Candy coated chocolate. Cookies and Cream
Ingredients
Vanilla Cupcakes and ready to spread vanilla frosting
Oreo Cookies
Directions
Chop up a few oreos into small pieces and mix into the vanilla frosting. Put the frosting into a piping bag fitted with a large round tip. Starting in the middle pipe the frosting on working your way out in a circle. Top with a whole Oreo Cookie. Alternately you can spoon the oreo frosting on, smooth into a mound with a knife and top with a whole Oreo Cookie.
Strawberry forever Ingredients
Strawberry Cupcakes and ready to spread vanilla or strawberry frosting
Strawberries
Pink and white sprinkles
Directions
Spread a layer of frosting onto the cupcake and then dip the top in the sprinkles. Put
the extra frosting into a piping bag fitted with a large open star tip. Pipe a swirl of frosting in the middle of the cupcake and top
with a whole Strawberry.
Sundae Best
Ingredients
Vanilla Cupcakes and vanilla and chocolate ready to spread frosting
Jaffas
wafers or half flake
Directions
Put vanilla and chocolate frosting into separate piping bags fitted with a large open star tip. Starting in the middle pipe the vanilla frosting on working your way out in a circle. Pipe a small amount of chocolate frosting on the top. Place a jaffa onto the top center of the cupcake and then push a wafer cookie into the top off center.
Let's go crazy * suitable for all age groups
Ingredients
Cupcake and ready to spread frosting any flavour
Assorted lollies
Directions
Place frosting into bowls with flat knife or offset spatula and allow kids to spread the frosting onto the cupcake and then load lollies on as desired.
In the end the cupcake decoration directions were more a suggestion than a rule and the kids had a fun time coming up with imaginative ideas all on their own.
I loved the Oreo stacks they whipped up - cupcake, frosting, Oreo, frosting, Oreo, frosting and topped with a strawberry. Over the top - no way! They were perfect because the kids made them and had so much fun with each other along the way.
Cupcake Decorating Tips
- Don't skimp on the frosting. Go big or go home. I can not stress how important having enough frosting is. Remember these are kids and there WILL be some consumption loss during the decorating. This was one of the reasons I loved using the Betty Crocker tubs of ready made frosting - I had extra tubs on hand in the pantry just in case.
- Also don't skimp on the decorations - same rules apply as frosting.
- Try to make the cupcake designs age appropriate. Younger kids are happiest just adding as many lollies as they can fit, older kids appreciate a few different designs to choose from.
- Disposable icing bags and tips are available at grocery stores.
- Don't overfill the bags, half full is good, and secure the end with a rubber band. Warm hands will make any frosting a little bit runnier, see above tip re disposable icing bags
- It's a great idea to have some cupcake boxes to pop the finished cupcakes into. Mine were from the local discount store $2 for a set of 3. Make sure you write each guests name onto the box so that their fabulous creations do not get mixed up.
Other Party Tips
The rest of the preparation I did the weekend before. I picked up some cupcake boxes from the discount store and Lilli helped me pop them up and then I added a bit of extra decoration myself (yes because I just can not help myself). If you wanted to you could make decorating the box an extra activity for the kids to do themselves at the party.
I borrowed some kids aprons from a friend for the party guests which
added to the fun. I have seen some tutorials around to make your own
kids aprons from teatowels if you are crafty and can sew a straight
line. Although on the day of the party I completely forgot about the
aprons because I didn't have them in my preparation area - doh!
We had 15 kids so we used 5 boxes of Betty Crocker cupcake mix to make at least 4 cupcakes each. I found the mixes to be generous and we managed to make 16 cupcakes from each box. Each box of Betty Crocker cupcake mix actually comes with ready to spread frosting in the boxes, we used an extra 3 tubs of the Betty Crocker frosting for piping(see frosting tips above).
Lilli picked the invitations, we found these cute pop up cupcake girl ones from Paper Eskimo that were perfect for the party theme they come in a box with pretty matching envelopes and thank you post cards.
Take home party bags - The boxes of cupcakes double as a cake and take home party favour and are really enough. But we did up a little bag for everyone which included some fondant cutters (either flower or butterfly), decorating sugar pearls, cupcake cases and a little bag of lollies. The pink and white spot bags were from my local discount store for $2 or $3 for the set of 10. We popped on a little thank you card that came with the invites that Lilli personally wrote to everyone prior to the party.
Plus everyone took home their own box of Betty Crocker vanilla cupake mix so they could easily whip up their own home baked cupcakes.
Stockist Tips
Cupcake Mixes and Ready to Spread Frosting - Betty Crocker available all supermarkets Betty Crocker Australia Facebook
Fondant Cutters - Sunrise Wholesaler (similar available cake decorating shops online)
Pop up Invitations - Paper Eskimo
Cupcake Boxes and Party Bags - Choice discount store
Disclosure: the ideas, words and opinions in this post are my own however
this post was sponsored by General
Mills.
Thanks everyone for joining me in a fabulous year of baking. I hope you had as much fun reading along as I did creating and sharing my baking journey throughout the year.
I have alot planned for 2013. Remember, you can follow this blog and receive free email updates by entering your details over in the top right hand corner.
For the final post I have compiled a best of Bubble and Sweet.
Best Cakes 2012:
This year ruffles ruled supreme in the big cake stakes. Colorful rainbows and ombre (gradient shades) decorations were just a taste of what was inside with surprising matching or contrasting hues.
Just in time for Halloween and a bit outside of the Bubble and Sweet box was the Monkey Brain cake with jello brain and raspberry sauce. It was gruesomely delicious.
Other favorite cakes included this streamlined ruffle and hand painted aqua wedding cake inspired by a vintage wedding dress with hand painting, a fun candy inspired Christmas cake with gluten free cranberry cake filling, and a fun Ant Picnic cake.
Fun and fabulous party tables for 2012 included a dreamily pretty shabby chic pink and gold princess party with ruffles and bows, a rustic pie table with a fabulous paper pom backdrop by Ah-Tissue and a sweet as can be bird theme party table.
Quirky ant cookies, a cute scary set of babushka halloween cookies, the sweetest teal, pink and white reindeer cookies and valentine inspired bird cookies were my favorite cookies for 2012.
I love cheesecake and hopefully you can share in my love after some of the recipes on the blog this year. Pretty strawberries and cream cheesecake in a jar, photographed in my front garden, delicious mini nutella cheesecakes combining a few of my favorite things and decadent peanut butter and s'mores cheesecakes were among the recipes I shared. I had almost as much fun naming them as eating them. Almost.
Best Sweets on a Stick 2012 (includes best cake pops 2012)
Sweets on a Stick - it's the name of my book and something I think I do pretty well here at Bubble and Sweet. Macarons in divine hues decorated like lollipops and on top of cake pops were a couple of my favorites. A planter box of cake pops and cookies made using the instructions from my book in pastel hues for a party table was loved by all.
Best small cakes 2012 (Includes Best Cupcakes 2012):
Did I go overboard with the mini macarons? - I don't think so. Who could resist the delicious chocolate hazelnut cakes topped with raspberries and mini gold macs or piped butter cream rose topped strawberry cake with delicate pink mini mac? Spiced pear cupcakes were a hit for those looking for something simple. High maintenance decorators preferred high heel shoe cupcakes.
Easy to make army of ghost Oreo truffles was the surprise hit of the year being the second most popular post on the whole blog. More mini macs topped other delicious treats including the fun mini pumpkin chiffon pies with pecan pie bites and the milk chocolate mousse pies (which would have to be one of my favorite pictures ever - thank you Naomi V Photography). Peppermint cookie fudge proved to be a fast, easy and delicious treat to share.
My favorite new find during 2012 would have to be the edible jelly gems. I mostly used them in cookies but found that with not much work they could dress up anything turning simple marshmallows into a treat fit for a princess.
Cake pop and cookie demonstrations at the Bleeding Heart Cafe in Brisbane proved to be even more fun than I thought they would be. The best part was meeting people who read my blog on a regular basis. Another class is being planned for April 2013.
Recipes I created were included in Tickle the Imagination magazine, online and print version, and Peekaboo magazine. Many online newspapers and magazines linked back to my popular posts, and of course many blogger friends linked back to Bubble and Sweet as well.
The absolute best bit
...and the best part of 2012 from a Bubble and Sweet perspective was all the fabulous interaction on the blog, on instagram, on pintrest and on facebook. Truly I still get excited when I receive lovely feedback - it's what keeps me going.
Thank you everyone again for reading the blog and sharing my baking journey.
You helped make my year one of the best yet :)
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Unless stated otherwise recipes, photos and posts by Linda Vandermeer
author of Sweets on a Stick: More than 150 Kid Friendly recipes for cakes, candies, cookies and pies on the go. You can pick it up at all good online book shops including these shops:
