Swan Princess Birthday Party

It's party time again around here and Bubble celebrated with a swan princess party with a pretty mint, gold, white and black theme.

It was a low key event with just a few friends so I decided to have it indoors and turned my creative craft space into the dessert table which worked well and ended up being a great decision as the weather threatened rain as the party was starting.

Party Decorations

OK I know you all want to know it, where did I get that amazing green feather garland 'cause it's pretty gorgeous, and let me tell you even more so in real life. I picked it up at Lark to decorate Bubble's bedroom with and when it arrived it just begged to be used for my party table seeings as it matched the plates I bought perfectly.

Yup, I saw these plates online a little while back and I had to make them mine. They might be some of the most awesome paper plates I have ever seen. No I am not being paid to say this I just like to share this stuff so y'all can have pretty parties too. I bought them from Lark, they are made by Bash Party Goods.

The honeycomb balls were from discount dollar stores they were a couple of dollars each for the large ones and the smaller ones were in packs of 3 for the same price.

I made the swan pinata which involved the (humane) sacrifice of a unicorn pinata, I will do a post with a few progress pictures shortly.

I also made my own glitter dipped balloons by spraying adhesive glue spray to gold balloons and then sprinkling glitter onto them.

A few hours before the party I popped out for coffee with a friend and afterwards found those multi sized gold glitter dots at a discount store down at the local shop which were perfect placed randomly on the wall either side of the garland. The whole pack of dots cost $2.50 and if I don't keep them the kids will use them for craft so it's pretty much win win.

The geometric mint vase holder/ tealight holders were from the reject shop, and the cake stand and candy jars I have had for years.

Party Food with links to my recipes on this blog

We had an elegant mint green colour butter cream cake which was actually a chocolate layer cake filled with cookies and cream (CLICK HERE FOR CAKE RECIPE).

 It was decorated with edible gold edged macarons (including a couple of empty macaron shells on the side of the cake) and some stars of buttercream piped randomly with a #195 tip. I stacked filled and decorated the whole cake in under an hour which was a lovely change for me.

Macarons in a matching mint shade (CLICK HERE FOR MY MACARON RECIPE) for the party table and as I made them myself I was able to make a variety of sizes to decorate the cake with.

Simple swan cookies in mint and white decorated with a little edible gold leaf which once again were quick to make (CLICK HERE FOR MY COOKIE RECIPE and how to add gold leaf to cookies).

We had chocolate covered Oreo's in ombre shades from black through to green with a little edible gold leaf. There was matching candy sixlets and bon bons.

Funny side story the whole reason I went for a swan party was to make choux swans after I got the Retro Baking (The Australian Women's Weekly) and I didn't end up making them or the really cool cake pop idea I had.

Yup this is my creative space room all dressed up to party.

CLICK HERE for details and more pics from when I renovated it

Finally I picked up some bunches flowers from the grocery store for under $30 for the lot and split them up between glass jam jars and one larger vase to fill up the spaces on the table and yay now I have fresh flowers for the rest of the week.



Linda Vandermeer is a blogger, baker, maker and author of the Children's cookbook Sweets on a Stick: More Than 150 Kid-Friendly Recipes for Cakes, Candies, Cookies, and Pies on the Go! Published in the USA in 2011 the book is still available at Amazon and many online bookstores.

Affiliate links may earn me money and contribute to supporting this blog.

Original ideas, photography and recipes Linda Vandermeer please do not reuse without permission.

My Sweet Candy Girl Birthday cake

Sweet had her 9th birthday and I made this 'My Sweet Candy Girl' birthday cake with gold leaf decorated macarons, hand piped butter cream flowers and musk stick lollies.

In the past we have had quite fancy parties for her and some pretty spectacular cakes, and when I say for her, I really mean for me.

Because it seems to make Sweet happy what she really wants is lots of lollies and candy on a cake.

I know this because a few years back I made quite an elaborate cake that I managed to make look like it was set in a mirror on the wall. It was a carved unicorn head and it took quite a bit of work (CLICK HERE for a free video tutorial on making that unicorn cake). I was quite pleased with myself of course and Sweet did love her party and still talks about it now.

However a few months after that party a girl at school brought in a cake covered with lollies (that's Australian for candy), Sweet told the family at the dinner table in detail how amazing it was.

Pretty much because.......lollies. That's right she is a kid, all it takes to impress her is quite a bit of candy. So this year I decided to stick lots of lollies on the cake, we did compromise with some pretty piped flowers but as they were buttercream and therefore creamy sugar Sweet was totally ok with it.

Musk Stix - an Australian icon

Maybe the best part of all was that Sweet and my son The Destroyer got to join in decorating the cake and put the musk sticks around the edge of the cake.

I think if at this stage I had given Sweet a stack of extra lollies/candy and told her to pour it into the top all the kids would have been happy, but I decided to pipe on some flowers and swirls, pop on a few macarons and then add sixlets and soft sugar pearls.

It ended up being a perfect mix of sweet and pretty, although I did only eat one musk stick despite having quite a few on my slice.

If you can't locate musk sticks you might like to substitute pink chocolate covered pretzels or strawberry pocky sticks.

Later in the week I will be popping up the recipe for the strawberry layer cake which has been a favourite in our household for many years.

Linda Vandermeer is a blogger, baker, maker and author of the Children's cookbook Sweets on a Stick: More Than 150 Kid-Friendly Recipes for Cakes, Candies, Cookies, and Pies on the Go! Published in the USA in 2011 the book is still available at Amazon and many online bookstores.

Affiliate links may earn me money and contribute to supporting this blog.

Original ideas, photography and recipes Linda Vandermeer please do not reuse without permission.

Sweet's gardening party with pink and grey party table

Sweet's 8th birthday party this year was a pretty grey and pink dessert table with a garden theme to tie in with the main party activity which was.......gardening.

We purchased some packets of easy grow flower seed and pots that eventually break down and the kids got to fill the pots with soil and plant the seeds. The pots were just the right size to fit into cupcake boxes which made packing up and taking home both pretty and easy.

I was lucky enough to find some little trowels the week before the party for $1 each at the local supermarket which the kids took home along with their little garden boxes.

If your not trying to be as economical as me this would work as well with a few punnets of plants instead of the seeds, but I managed to get enough for 12 kids along with a few of those sunflower and tomato ready to grow pots (that I used as party prizes for other games) for under $20.

All the rest of the stuff I used to decorate the gardening table with I already had (see that pink polka dot fabric it was from Bubble's 5th birthday party I blogged about 5 years ago).

Apron and string in tin - Greengate
Garden pots, seeds - Big W discount department store
Trowels - Coles supermarket
White plant stand with blackboard - Bunnings hardware
Pink polkadot cupcake boxes and pinwheels - Choice discount variety store

Party Table

The party table colour theme was based on the lovely grey with pink rose and white dot fabric I used as a table covering. I picked it up because it was so pretty intending to have dresses made for the girls, it was from Lincraft at around $8 a meter.

I had a fake window/mirror shutter I had from a while back I got in a closing down sale and was part way through restoring an old wooden plate rack I picked up on Ebay, so I added them to the table. The pink riser that the candy jars are on is a bathroom caddy I picked up at a discount dollar store last year and painted pink for another party.

Then when I was out one day I spied those big moss balls and I don't know why but I got them. For some reason I really like them, anyhoo they added some colour to the table and a bit of texture the big one was $10 and the 2 smaller ones $5 each from Vast Interiors.

The day before the party I picked up a stack of flowers to pop in little pitchers and vases scattered around the table. It was a pretty relaxed table.

Overhead are some pink hanging lanterns which don't quite make it into the photo's.

Party table menu

Decorated cookies - royal icing stripe cookies with fondant rose accent and fondant pink quilted cookies with white royal icing dots (Click here for free tutorial to make similar quilted cookies)

Birthday cake  - Ombre butter cream decorated cake in shades of storm and pink sunset - Italian meringue butter cream with strawberry cake. The butter cream was applied with an offset spatula to evoke the feeling of an artist's pallet.

Candy - Chocolate sixlets, marshmallows and bon bons. There were also pink pig sours on top of the white plate rack and I bought out a selection of other lollies for the kids to fill up their own take home loot bags.

Homemade raspberry macarons (Click here for recipe) served in a Greengate Sophie Vintage bowl.

Cinnamon scrolls with pink cream cheese frosting- we are loving cinnamon scrolls at the moment so we prettied them up with sugar flowers, butter cream piped leaves and sugar sprinkles. What more can I say - yum (click here for a cinnamon scroll recipe)

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.

Original Ideas, photography and recipes by Linda Vandermeer do not reuse without permission.  

Ice cream sundae macarons

These neapolitan ice-cream sundae macarons might be some of the funnest looking macarons ever.

I made them for Bubble's 10th birthday party which had an ice-cream bar and they worked in perfectly with the theme. (Ice-Cream Party CLICK HERE)

The red 'cherries' are sixlets which are candy coated chocolate balls (if you're Australian that's like a smaller size jaffa without the orange flavour), the dripping chocolate topping is chocolate royal icing and the white swirl of cream is stiff peak royal icing.

If you don't happen to have any sixlets about you could always just add some extra sprinkles on the top and they still look extra sweet.

I used macarons I made myself but of course you could pick up some from the store and do the decorations yourself

Ingredients and equipment

Macarons *see note below (Click here for recipe)
White Royal Icing (stiff peak consistency)
Chocolate royal icing (add few Tbsp sifted cocoa to 1 cup royal icing or you can just add brown food colour) 20 second consistency#
Red sixlets
pink sprinkles
Round piping tip (eg #2) in piping bag
Star piping tip (eg #18) in piping bag

 *Macarons can be shop purchased and any type you like. However I made mine using the recipe in the link and then coloured them in a neapolitan theme. When making the macarons divide mixture in half and colour part pink and part brown. My filling was raspberry flavour whipped white chocolate ganache with americolor white food color added.
#20 second icing is when you run a knife through the royal icing mixture and the line disappears after 20 seconds :)



Put the chocolate royal icing in the piping bag with the small round tip. Pipe an uneven splat outline on the top of the macaron, going right to or over the edge in some spots. Fill the splat shape (I left the middle un-iced just to reduce the amount of icing I was using as it gets covered with the white swirl) with chocolate royal icing.

Sprinkle a few pink jimmy sprinkles over the top of the chocolate royal icing shape. Allow to set.

Pop the stiff peak white royal icing into the piping bag with the star tip. Pipe a swirl/ rosette onto the top of each macaron by holding the bag upright and piping a tight circle.

Place a sixlet in the middle of each white rosette and allow to set.

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.

Affiliate links may earn me money and contribute to supporting this blog.

Original Ideas, photography and recipes by Linda Vandermeer do not reuse without permission.  

Make Your Own Ice Cream Party for Bubble's 10th Birthday Party

Well that's it. It's over. I blinked and this year Bubble was too old for a pretty ruffly party (#see disclaimer at bottom). It's ok I'm not bitter I did get 5 years worth of adorable parties out of her.

Party Evolution
6yr Fairy Party, 7yr Mermaid Party, 8yr Princess Party (photo's by Alyce Holzberger),  

9 yr pink and green ruffle party/cupcake decorating, 10 year ice-cream bar

Besides, we were never going to have a party this year. We have a big holiday planned so when I booked it in I told the kids firmly 'No parties this year!'

But we all know the parties are really for me, and so I didn't pay any attention to that firm voice. Sadly I also didn't pay enough attention to the passing days.

While I was having my inner debate, would we party or wouldn't we, was I going to cave and pay big bucks for one of those new trampoline-lazer tag superdooper fun places the decision was made. Procrastination was my enemy and my friend 'cause we all know leave it too late and the only time left to book in at one of those party places is early Sunday morning when none of the kids will be able to turn up anyway.

OK decision made do it at home on a budget but the problem was these kids are 10 years old boys and girls. It's a seriously hard crowd to please, I had no idea what to do.

Then while I was shopping I spied a couple of huge bottles of water balloons with 500 balloons in each for $8 and despite the fact it is the middle of winter here another decision was made. We live a few doors down from a park which is pretty quite mostly and it would be a perfect spot for the kids to have their crazy time * see cleaning up note below.

Then the real negotiations started. Bubble was adamant that as there were boys attending the party should not be pink, or pretty or ruffly.

I took a deep breath and decided to go all Disney on her.

Yup I let it go.

We decided to have a make your own ice-cream bar, which was a bit sad for me as no real baking or decorating but good for me too as no real baking and decorating. It was so relaxed in the lead up to the party.

Well pretty much super relaxed until I messaged my SIL about her daughter's birthday party which was about a week and a half away and found out that my niece's party was actually 3 days away and Bubble's party was 10 days away.

Anyhoo it all worked out in the end, Bubble was super happy surrounded by her friends, it was a lovely sunny day warm enough for the water play but cool enough the ice-cream did not melt and everyone seemed to have fun.

Party Food
As I said I was pretty relaxed and mostly everything was store bought with the exception of the macarons and chocolate chip cookies (for making ice-cream sandwiches). 

The most popular stuff was the popping candy and the cream filled wafers.

Menu:
Store bought Vanilla and Chocolate Ice-cream
Ice Cream Sundae Macarons (recipe/instructions to follow next week)
Sprinkles
Popping Candy
Chocolate Chip Cookies
Cream filled wafers
Caramel popcorn
Marshmallows
Waffle Cones
Lollipops (take home treat)
Whipped cream in a can
Maraschino Cherries
M and M's
Chocolate, Strawberry and Caramel sauce
Soft drink (Soda)

Party Table Details

Everything on the table was something I already had or borrowed with the exception of a few discount items as detailed below:

Center table/riser - that's my mint green stand covered in red polka dot wrapping paper.
Red and white polkadot buckets for ice-cream from Choice discount/dollar store $2.50 for a set of 3.
Mason jars with straws - from K-mart discount department store for $2 each. I decorated them with washi tape and chalkboard stickers I picked up from another discount/dollar store. I let the kids take these home if they wanted as part of their loot/treat bag.
Glitter Straws - I alternated straws - see how I made the glitter washi tape straws (See post HERE)

Lollipops - $1 each from Kmart. I stuck them in that pink stand I borrowed from my SIL's party and tied with a bit of red ribbon I had sitting around. They were part of the kids take home treats.
 

White dispenser - this is actually a cutlery holder I've had for a while - I picked it up at Mollegaarden HERE. Then I stuck on some of those chalkboard stickers.
Strawberry treat bags - Oh my how cute are these, they are from Paper Glitter CLICK HERE
White Cake Stands - the stands used were existing ones I have had for quite a few years
Chalkboard stands - $3 for a set of 3 from Shmick available at some discount stores or online
Red and white polkadot bowls - Greengate
Gold spoons - Christina Rae
Red baskets, hanging lanterns and gingham placemats borrowed from SIL similar available party or discount stores

Party Games

Photo booth - We started the party off with a homemade photo booth using an instant/Polaroid camera and dress ups we already had. Although it was fun it was a bit less successful than I thought it would be.  Maybe it's more of an end of the party thing, it took everyone forever to pick what they wanted to wear. It was good however to keep the kids occupied while everyone else was turning up.
Make your own Ice-cream bar - I'm calling this an activity as they kids got to make their own sundae or ice-cream soda or ice-cream sandwich or pretty much whatever.The kids enjoyed this, apparently whipped cream in a tin is big with 10 year olds.
Water Balloon tag at the park. Mr Sweet spent about 4 hours filling water balloons. The kids spent about 10 minutes using them all up. But then they kept playing at the park so it was all good.
*Water Balloon clean up. We gave everyone a bag and told them the one with the most used water balloons would win a prize. Yes we really did that, the kids knew it was clean up but they were super good natured about it and we cleaned the park up in no time.
Lunch -  we headed back home and the kids had lunch of sushi and sandwiches.

#disclaimer I make no promises that it is really, really over I am an eternal optimist.

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.

Original photography by Linda Vandermeer do not reuse without permission.  Note some of the previous party photographs in this post were taken by other photographers, please do not reuse those photos.