Cake Decorating Party

My oldest turned 8 in April.  

EIGHT!  

I really cannot believe that she is 8 already.  

Stop.  The.  Clock.  Please.  

Anyway, I love celebrating my girls' birthdays!  They get so excited when it's their birthday & I get so happy to make them feel extra special as they turn another year older.  Kaylee, had been talking about her birthday party since she turned seven.  Yes, she loves a good party & loves to help with the party planning too.  As her birthday got closer we told her she could have a small party at our house with a few friends.  She quickly decided that she wanted a crafty party.  A girl after my own heart!  When I asked her what crafts she wanted to do she told me cake decorating & jewelry making.  Ok then!  

Kaylee & I went to Hobby Lobby one day & shopped for everything for her party.  I think we got just about everything for her party at Hobby Lobby!  She chose some zebra print & pink invitations & we just took that theme & went with it for the whole party.  It was a lot of fun!  Since her birthday was on Easter this year & the weekend before was already booked up, we decided to do her party on the Tuesday during Spring Break.  And it worked out great!  I think the girls liked getting together during their break from school too.  It wasn't a fancy party, but it turned out well & the girls had a lot of fun which was the most important thing!  Ok, enough chatter from me, on to the party details.  And thanks to my friend, Jill, for some great cake decorating party tips!  She had just done a similar party for her daughter that was super cute.

We set everything up in the backyard:

 Luckily it was a nice warm day!  It looked pretty cute too & then it made for easy clean-up after the party.

We hung a simple banner on the fence:

We bought these plain white aprons at Hobby Lobby for the girls to decorate as their first craft & then to wear while decorating their cakes.  We even found zebra & pink iron-on letters that I ironed on with each girl's first initial:

 To decorate the aprons we had a bunch of fabric markers & then we hot glued some flowers & gems on as well.

Yes, Hobby Lobby even sells these convenient bakery boxes:

 We figured these were necessary for each girl to transport her cake home safely.

I just added a simple card stock scallop circle with their name on top of each box:

The best part about this party was that there was a lot that Kaylee could help with in preparing for it.  We had so much fun together!  The majority of the preparation could be done ahead of time too which was great.  We baked the cakes about a week before & then kept them in the freezer.  We also made the buttercream frosting a few days before & kept it in the fridge.  Then the day before her party we frosted the cakes in plain white frosting & kept them in the fridge for the next day.

Good thing we have a spare fridge in the garage:

 We made 10 little cakes & then one larger cake to eat during the party.

The morning of the party we put the frosting in the frosting bags with tips of various sizes & designs.  We also put the edible decorations (sprinkles, flowers, etc.) that Kaylee picked out into foil muffin tins.  Again, I was thinking about easy after party clean-up!

  I love the bright frosting colors she picked out:

 After the girls decorated their aprons they took a snack break (Cheez-Its, pretzels & Capri Suns) while we got out all of the cake decorating supplies.

These girls had so much fun decorating their little cakes:

 Oh yeah, I also started them off with a few simple tips for decorating a cake.  I gave each girl a paper plate too for them to use if they wanted to try out the different frosting tips before using them on their actual cakes.  But I didn't give them any direction because I wanted them to decorate their cakes however they wanted.

They really got into it:

I was a little surprised by how seriously they all took it & how much attention they paid to detail.  The cakes turned out so great! 

I took a picture of each girl with her apron on & her finished cake.  Kaylee included the photo with each girls' thank you card.

Here's Kaylee with her cake:

And my 4-1/2 year old, Aidynn, with her cake:

So being that this was a cake decorating party I wasn't sure what to do as far as serving a cake or some treat that we could put candles in & sing "Happy Birthday" to Kaylee with.  I ended up just making a cake to eat at the party since the girls were going to take their little cakes home to share with their families.

It had bright pink frosting of course, with these cool zebra print candles:

 Make a wish, birthday girl:

 The inside of the cake had a surprise too:

It was zebra print!

I have seen cakes with zebra print inside online many times & I thought it would be perfect for this zebra print party.  I just layered chocolate cake batter & white cake batter 1/4 cup at a time into my baking pans & baked them normally.  I was a little nervous about how it would look when we cut into it, but it looked so cool!  The girls loved it!

It got a little wild on our coordinating zebra print plates too:

After we had cake then my daughter opened her presents & then the girls finished the party by making beaded necklaces & bracelets.  The party was 2 hours long & it was the perfect amount of time to get everything done.  I would say this was definitely another successful party!

Happy 8th birthday, Kaylee-girl!