Red Robot Birthday Party with a nod towards steampunk ( on a budget )

My cute as can be nephew has just turned one and when his mother asked if I could help out by making a cake I took the opportunity to put together this fun little inexpensive birthday party.

DJ's mum sent me a picture of a red robot that a friend had created for his birth as inspiration and the cookies, cake and cake pops are all based on that design.

Instead of a regular bright primary background I decided to theme the cake and cookies with a nod towards steampunk. The cake is a shimmery battered looking copper with steel and copper cog accents made from fondant.

Anyhoo you might have noticed that the table is a bit low key and that's because I put it together on a budget. 'Cause it's lots of fun to have a big party with all the trimmings, but sometimes fast and inexpensive is the way to go.

Of course as I made all the treats myself I have a little head start on everyone, but I think you could make this party look just as good with a buttercream frosted cake with a couple of plastic robots on top (plus you can play with them afterwards), your favorite store bought cookies or biscuits and just  regular round cake pops.

Red Robot Party Suppliers and Sources 

The table cloth is actually a roll of red polka dot wrapping paper from the local discount/ dollar store.

The candy jars are MOGDEN Jar from Ikea - they are $6.99 (AUD) from the bathroom section. One of the things I like about them (apart from the price) is that they are not overly large so you don't need to go overboard on the sweets. I only needed to use 1 regular bag per jar, normally I need to open around 3 bags to fill a candy jar.

The red and white 'stands' are once again from Ikea - they are candle holders and I just placed the jar on top. You could adhere the jar securely to the stand, however I find for the younger kids it's a good idea to be able to take them off and put the jar at the front of the table so they can easily reach in.

I picked up the robot stickers that are decorating the stands and pail from the local discount/ dollar store for $2 a packet. You could also pop the stickers onto loot bags to tie in your theme if you like.

The red pail the pops are in is from the local discount/ dollar store for a couple of dollars - this one was actually recycled from my daughter's Wizard of Oz party.

For the background decoration you can find similar hanging paper fans from The Little Big Company I had mine sitting around from another party that I recycled. These fans are good for recycling as they fold down flat easily for storage.

Or if your crafty check out this tutorial on how to make your own paper rosette backdrop.

 

The blue round mini  'plates' are actually some coasters.....once again from Ikea.

and the little stand up robot's are very inexpensive DIY ones that come in box of 20 from a toy shop.

and remember my book sweets on a stick has lots of fun inexpensive and easy to make ideas for birthday parties for boys and girls. You can pick it up online here:

Or here at fishpond (Aus/NZ)

Spiced Pear Cupcakes with Caramel Cream Cheese Icing

Did you know it's National Pear Month in Australia. Yup it's happening all around you right now and I bet quite a few of you might have even been participating and supporting local growers by eating a delicious juicy pear. There are also all kinds of exciting pear relating goings on around, including your chance to win for dinner for 2 HERE and lots of other foodie events around the country. You can find out more at rediscover the pear HERE.

We don't actually need to rediscover the pear in this household, despite all the cake and cookies I bake we are big fruit eaters here, and yummy Australian pears are always in the fruit bowl during their season.

OK - these green dot ones look good but that is way too much frosting - 

trust me don't do that, make your swirl smaller like the other pics.

In celebration of the pear, I came up with this light and delicious spiced pear cupcake topped with a swirl of creamy caramel cream cheese icing.

The light and fragrant cupcake was reminiscent of a tea cake and matched the decadent icing well.

But if your looking for something less creamy they were also lovely without any icing, or dipped in butter and cinnamon sugar.

Those cinnamon sugar ones were really good warm so these are the only photo's I got :)

Spiced Pear Cupcake (makes 20 - 24 cupcakes) store in an airtight container for up to 3 days

Note that this recipe calls for Extra Large eggs in place of large eggs, just because that is what I mostly have in my fridge. I use organic eggs when possible and always free range.

1 large pear cut into very small pieces (yield around 1 3/4 cup) I used Sweet William variety
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp all spice
1 1/2 cups self raising flour
1/2 cup caster sugar
4 Extra Large Eggs
250 (8 3/4 oz)grams unsalted butter softened.


Preheat the oven to 180 C (350 F). Line 2 muffin trays with paper cases.

In a medium bowl mix together the pear, cinnamon and all spice.

Sift the flour and sugar into a large bowl and make a well in the center, add the Eggs and softened butter and mix well at low speed using an electric mixer until just combined. Scrap down the sides. Increase the mixer speed to medium high and mix for 2 minutes.

Using a spatula fold the spiced pear mixture into the cupcake batter. Spoon batter into prepared tins filling the paper cases 3/4 full.

Bake for 15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove from oven and allow to cool for 5 minutes before turning out on a wire rack to cool.

Caramel Cream Cheese Frosting

200g (7oz) Cream Cheese at room temperature
100g (3  1/2 oz) Unsalted Butter at room temperature
3 cups sifted icing sugar
1/4 cup caramel (like top and fill) or make your own dulce de leche following the instructions HERE

Place the cream cheese and unsalted butter in a large bowl and mix until combined. Add the icing sugar one cup at a time and mix at medium low speed until incorporated, increase speed to high and mix for 2 minutes until light and fluffy. Add the caramel and mix until well combined. If you are spreading the cream cheese onto the cakes you can use straight away if you would like to pipe place in fridge until the mixture becomes firm.

Alternate Cinnamon Sugar Topping

Melt 125g (3.5 oz) unsalted butter in a bowl. In a separate shallow bowl mix together 3/4 cup sugar, 1/4 cup brown sugar and 2 Tbsp (2 Tbsp 2 tsp US)ground cinnamon. Dip the tops of the cupcakes in the melted butter and then into the sugar mixture.

Pretty Easter Pastel Rainbow Party

I know I say it a lot but my daughter (Sweet) was the inspiration behind this pretty little party.

Her favorite color is rainbow......which suits her personality perfectly.

It's quite a simple party as it was for Easter and there would be lots of chocolate eggs soon to follow.

I made a pretty pastel rainbow ruffle cake (CLICK HERE FOR HOW TO MAKE IT) as the center piece of the party. It is actually also 5 layers of rainbow cake inside to match the outside ruffles and adorably pretty.

Then I made up some Oreo Eggs (CLICK HERE FOR OREO TRUFFLE RECIPE) and dipped them in a rainbow of candy melt colors.

I also made up some simple chick cookies in rainbow colors. The cookies are all about the cute cutter which I picked up at Ecrandal.

I found a pretty Easter printable range at The TomKat Studio which was in soft pastel colors that worked in well.

The Candy are actually Yogurt Gummy type lolli's. I know it sounds totally weird but they actually taste nice. They are 99% fat free, 50% fruit juice with yogurt powder and milk solids - Oh my goodness it's nearly like a health food (saying that mockingly). But I was really pleased I found them as they are a super pretty pastel color and they were so reasonably priced. They came in a huge packet which also had orange and white and I just popped on some gloves and separated them. They are made by vitabite and also come in frog and snake versions. In the US I found some on a site called Yogurt Gums that looked the same.

I filled pretty mini baskets I picked up last year from Sharnel Dollar Designs with jelly bean eggs and chocolate eggs and decorated the baskets with The TomKat Studio printables and a ribbon as thank you gifts.

The pretty mini pom poms are from Ah-Tissue,

and I popped some on hand made card rosettes and some on hand dyed pink paper doilies.

To hand dye doilies pop on some gloves, mix up some food color in water in a shallow bowl. Hold on to the edge of the doily on the right side, dip the left half and then hold on the other side and dip the right side. Place on Viva or paper towels until dry and then iron inbetween a couple of paper towels.

 Suppliers

Cake, cake pop and cookies by Bubble and Sweet (see post for instruction links)
Printables by The TomKat Studio
Mini Easter baskets by Sharnel Dollar Designs
Mini Pom Poms by Ah Tissue