My daughter recently celebrated her 9th Birthday. I was tired of the standard pizza party, miniature gold party, etc. Been there, done that. I wanted to do something at home, I decided. My grand idea:
A CUPCAKE BAKING PARTY!
I must say it was a hit. The girls had a blast! Here is a setup shot. For the party favors I wanted to make sure they stuck with the theme. I used oven mits as gift bags. Inside I included a whisk, a decorative silicone pastry scraper, cookie cutters, a small recipe book and a few other odds and ends. I put that in their large red mixing bowls (which they got to keep), the box of cake mix and measuring cup set. I put the different toppings and icings on the table. Here a glimpse:
The table set-up just before the party
(Sorry the time stamp is wrong….. I just keep forgetting to turn that off before I use my camera….. silly me!)
Here is helpful tip: If you ever find yourself without a frosting bag, take a sandwich bag (or larger), fill it with the frosting, zip it shut, snip a bottom corner off. You now have yourself a pastry bag 
I do have multiple pastry bags, but I had 10 different shades of buttercream frosting so the girls could get creative….. I don’t have THAT many pastry bags!
The girls had a n awesome time mixing and pouring the batter. While waiting for the cupcakes to bake I let the girls decorate their own denim aprons with iron on letter and gems (I did the ironing) and fabric paint pens.
After the cupcakes cooled they got to decorating.
And after the decorating was done it was time for cake. That is when I got to unveil my masterpiece. All my coworkers and family members know that baking is kind of a passion of mine. I pride myself on being able to successfully bake almost anything. So for the munchkins Birthday I went all out. I decided, what better for a cupcake baking party than a cake shaped like a gigantic cupcake. So here it is:
6-layer Neopolitan cake.
This cake was 6 layers, and it was built like this (from bottom to top): I started with a layer of chocolate cake, then a layer of my secret recipe chocolate – chocolate chip buttercream icing, then a layer of strawberry cake, another layer of chocolate – chocolate chip buttercream, a layer of vanilla cake, a layer of regular vanilla homemade buttercream, another chocolate cake layer, chocolate – chocolate chip buttercream, strawberry cake, chocolate – chocolate chip buttercream, and finallly the last layer of vanilla cake. I then shaved down the sides at an angle so it would look as if it were baked in a gigantic cupcake tin. I used colored buttercream to stripe the sides and make it look like a cupcake liner. I smoothed icing over the top then put rainbow jimmies (or “sprinkles” for those of you that don’t speak New England). A dollop of icing on the top finished it off. The girls eyes were huge when they saw it. And I must say that my cake recipe did not disappoint, the cake was moist and flavorful.
So that was my kids Birthday Party Extravaganza.
Anybody have any other great ideas they want to share? Let me know
