Rainbow Birthday Party

Here are some of the details from Miss D's 8th Rainbow Birthday Party. I already described the cake in all it's glory in a previous post.  So now I want to share a bit more.  The bunting for the party was really simple to do with a stack of  rainbow colored felt from the craft store.  I bought two of each color and then a couple of white as

well.  I cut each 8" x 12" sheet in two and then notched out a triangle on the bottom of each.  I cut out the lettering from white felt and just used a little craft glue to attach it.  I then used a hole punch at each top corner to make a hole to thread some ribbon and there you go!

On to the food.  Of course the rainbow theme needed to continue to the food.  I decided to do a rainbow fruit tray in lieu of the skewers.  I knew there would be some younger siblings present and I always worry about those sharp sticks in young hands.  

We also had some veggies and snack mix.  Somewhere along the way it has become tradition to have veggie sushi as well for birthday celebrations.  This recipe is the one I basically follow.  I usually do veggie sushi because it's not as intimidating ( for those that haven't yet tried sushi) and it also holds up well on a buffet table.  

Meringues with rainbow sprinkles.  I love meringues.  They're light and sweet and just fun to have at a party.  The only issue is the weather.  Humid summer birthdays means that they need to be kept in a sealed container until right before the party.  Even still, they may get a bit sticky and soft by the end of the party.  As a side note:  those sticky, soft meringues are perfect with ice cream- trust me :)

Rainbow Jello.  Yes, I realize I painstakingly made the cake with all natural dyes and then go and add multi-colored jello to the mix.  I know.  I really couldn't help myself.  There are many recipes for this layered jello around.  Basically it involves making a batch of each color and layering it with a lighter version of the color and letting it set up in the fridge.  It's not a difficult dessert at all, but it TAKES TIME!  I used small (4 oz.) jelly jars and only used a tablespoon or two of each color to layer.  You need to wait in between the layers until they are set before adding the next, but it will go a bit faster with each progressive layer as it chills. This is the recipe I based it on - minus the alcohol of course!  

I have mentioned before how it has become a tradition at each birthday to have these shortbread cookies. I made two versions for this birthday.  Number eight ones and a "color your own cookie" variety. The eight cookies were frosted and decorated with sprinkles.  I used these for the favor bags.  The rectangle cookies were simply frosted with royal icing and allowed to dry firm.   I placed some food writer marker next to the plain rectangle cookies so that the children could decorate their own (although I think perhaps the adults had more fun with this activity).

And just in case there wasn't enough, I made cupcakes as well.  These were strawberry cupcakes with a strawberry cream frosting.  YUM!

The decorations outside kept with the theme.  I used bandannas folded as pinwheels for each place setting and rainbow pinwheels as the table decoration.

And a rainbow pinata I made with a balloon base and a paper cone attached to the bottom.  Always a hit with the kids - HA!    

Thanks for checking the party out.  If you would like, you can check out the cake I made for the party too!

Spiderman-Basketball Birthday

Spiderman-Basketball Birthday Party

  I am going back in  time to try to catch up on posts.  This was LD's 4th birthday.  Yes, right now I am planning his 6th, so I am a bit late :)  

We had a Spiderman-themed Basketball party.  The kids watched an exhibition game at the college and then got to play around on the court at half-time.  We made little goodie bags with snacks for the game.  Afterwards, we took a break to enjoy some cake and watch an old spiderman tv episode on a projector screen.  

The Cake:  The Bottom layer was 9 x 13 two layer cake with one layer chocolate and one vanilla.  vanilla butter cream. The top layer was a 12 inch oval of red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting.  The whole cake was decorated with marshmallow fondant.  I used a fondant mold to get the "brick" look into the skyline and then hand-cut the buildings.  The mask used fondant for the eyes and a black royal icing for the web detail.  

I made several batches of fondant and colored them in advance to let the colors deepen. In fact, both the fondant and the royal icing for the cookies needed to be made in advance so that the colors would deepen.  I used Americolor Super Red and Super Black.  I think they produce the deepest colors using the smallest amount of product.  

Here are the cookies.  It's a long-standing tradition now ( about five or six years) that I make these shortbread cookies for the kids' birthday.  The recipe is very straight forward.  I use Ina Garten's Shortbread cookie.  I usually ice them with royal icing and sometimes use sanding  or colored sugar to decorate.

Here they are all wrapped and ready for favors.