Bake Shoppe Birthday Party

For a baker like me, this Bake Shoppe Birthday Party was a dream to plan and create. It included pizza making, cake decorating, personalized aprons, arts and crafts, and tons of little touches that made the party super special for the birthday girl.

I love kids’ birthday parties. Yes, they can get a little chaotic, but nothing beats seeing your child enjoying themselves on their special day. When my older daughter requested a baking themed birthday party, my eyes lit up like fireworks on the 4th of July. I think I was more excited than she was. Okay. I was definitely more excited than she was. And I loved planning and creating every last detail for this party.

The set up required us moving some furniture around. We cleared out the eat-in kitchen area, and emptied out some of the toys in the great room. We used one of the toy shelves as the main display for the party. It’s such a shame that toys normally live on these beautiful, rustic shelves. But hey, I figure the toys won’t be there forever.

The main display had the towering pink watercolor birthday cake, milk jug glasses, some candy, and mason jars filled with homemade cookie mix. And of course I had to include a chalkboard sign. I sort of loved the way it came out.

The bottom of the main display housed the cake boxes for each of the guests to bring home their decorated cakes. Each box had a tag that matched the chalkboard sign, and I tied each one up with some bakers twine.

There were two tables set up for all of the activities. The first table was for the older girls. Each place setting had a paper chef’s hat, a flower made from cupcakes liners, and their name spelled out in glittery foam letters. It was set up for the girls to decorate their chefs’ hats.

Each place setting also had a personalized apron hanging from the chair. I purchased the white aprons and sewed the applique on myself. It was my first experience sewing, and now I think I’m hooked! They turned out way better than I expected 🙂

There was a smaller table for the Birthday Girl’s little sister and her friend. It had all the same elements as the big girl table, just on a more size-appropriate table.

After decorating their chef hats, the girls made some pizza. I bought the dough and the kids just added the toppings.

The main event was next – cake decorating! I prepared 2-layer 6-inch cakes covered in fondant for each guest. Rather than decorate with frosting and sprinkles, the kids used edible food color markers. It was like coloring all over a cake!

After the cake decorating, the girls made some gumball necklaces. I pre-drilled holes in the gumballs, and using a large metal needle, the girls slipped the gumballs on to the ribbon to create a necklace.

While some of the guests were finishing up their necklaces, I read a story to the girls who were already finished. We read Part Time Princess by Deborah Underwood, which is one of my absolute favorite storybooks about princesses because the princess is anything but the usual. She’s an independent princess with her own ideas 🙂

One of the party games the kids played was a version of hot potato. Each time the music stopped, the child holding the package got to rip off one layer of the wrapping paper. Each layer of the wrapping paper had a small gift, and they were able to keep the gift for themselves. Once you received a gift, then you were out of the game. The last person left not only won the game, but they also unwrapped the last gift – which is also the most substantial gift. Each of the gifts I purchased for the game was $1. I got lucky, and I found baking themed necklaces, rings, notepads, pens, and coin purses at a local craft store. The girls loved all of the prizes 🙂

In the end, everyone had a blast at the party – especially the Birthday Girl. While the party took a bit of planning and organization to get everything done in time, I wouldn’t have done it any other way. Out of everything I created for the party, this water color pink cake was my absolute favorite. It was a 3-tired buttery, fluffy, moist vanilla cake with strawberry frosting showered in pink and silver sprinkles!

This post is linked to these awesome link parties.