Pinterest Birthday Party, Part 2- The Food

For more ideas on this Pinterest birthday party go to part one and Heather's post.
Today I thought I would share all the Pinterest perfect food we enjoyed at this party and count it as a "New Meal Monday" post. Each guest was asked to bring a dish to share that they pinned or one they have been wanting to try (if they are not on pinterest). There was so much food, I didn't get pictures of it all. But here is some of the yumminess I did capture.

 And then there are these...

This is my first attempt at them and they may look good only because I hid the messy part of them in the cupcake liners! lol The first thing I did is search Pinterest under how to make cake pops My first tip: give yourself a couple days to make these so you don't rush any steps. My second tip: don't skip any steps. And my third tip: have at least double the melting chocolate than you think you will need. As I found out, what makes a cake pop look so good is 2 coats of chocolate, so back to the store I went!

I will admit this newbie to professional party planning may or may not have overbooked herself. I had this great opportunity the same weekend to publicly announce my new adventure at our local primary school's carnival. They let small businesses set a table to display their business for just $10. The response was awesome and I even got a special order that day. So worth my time!

So, because of the extra business activity I didn't use the made from scratch recipe that I had wanted to do. I also graciously accepted the help that was offered to bake the cakes from 3 boxed mixes for me. It saved me a step! Thank you Mr. Awesome! Once the cakes were done and my table all packed up I picked up these cakes all ready to go. We used 1 strawberry boxed cake and 1 white boxed cake and 1 lemon boxed cake colored turquoise! I don't have every step because I was new to this type of cake making and in a time crunch. So next time I will have a more step by step process for you.

The first thing I did when I got the crumbled cakes home is make up a batch of homemade cream cheese frosting. I will share in another post for you the recipe. Just mix in a little bit of frosting at a time. You want it to stick together but not be too mushy. Once you think you have it right (the only way you will know is to do this a few times). This first time I was just praying I did it right! Put them in the fridge for at least 4 hours. I needed them to turn out (no time for a back up plan) so I did overnight in the fridge.

They look so pretty and colorful! But just keep reading. lol!

The next morning is where it got interesting. And I only have the one picture because I was not enjoying this process.
Because it takes 2 coats of chocolate to make them look so nice I did all of the ones with out sticks in white chocolate to save time and money. (I originally wanted them 3 different colors). I also had to get them in the fridge as soon as the chocolate coat went on. The sticked ones I had in white chocolate for the first coat then colored for the second.
I had to do this crazy karate chopping action on my wrist to get the extra chocolate off the sticked pops. (That was one of the instructions I read up on. Tap your wrist not the stick or you will break the pop off the stick). Aside from all the steps to get them on the stick without them falling off they coated so much nicer than the ones without the sticks. I couldn't get a clean coat with the stickless ones.

Once all the pops were coated a second time, with the remaining  red and turquoise melted chocolate, I put each in a separate sandwhich bag, snipped of just a tiny corner and piped the swirls or dots on all the pops. Some I topped with sprinkles. 

 My honest feelings and thoughts during the cake pop making processes was "I don't like this, way too much work, and I am not impressed." I also may have swore off doing these ever again. Hahaha joke is on me because EVERYONE loved them including my husband, which totally surprised me. He said he loved the dense cake part. ...so I will be trying these again now that I know what to expect.

 Later this week I will share the final part of this party in some things we made for and during this event. For another perspective be sure to check out Heather's post. Thanks for stopping by!

It all started with a box...

 

A Valentine box that is. Sunshine's new favorite animal is the baby black panther. Did you know that a black panther is just a jaguar that is born black? Did not know this until we watched Wild Kratts on PBS. Anyways she loves them and after I helped her make this valentine box for her co-op class party she informed me that she wanted a baby black panther birthday party. WHAT!?
This is the conversation that ensued: "No Sunshine not that for a party theme. Not black! Not black frosting and black party decor. No way!" "I thought you wanted a pony party?" "Well now I want this party, mom!" "Pretty Please!!!!!" Then she, in her first grade hand writing, hands me a letter stating how much she loves/wants a baby black panther party. She wins, after all she did do extra credit in handwriting practice (music to this homeschooling mom). So a mom that loves to create fun parties for their child gets to work. I ended up coming up with what amounts to baby black kitty party. I had intentions of printing more baby panther photos and adding them to the decor but my printer decided to go on strike. So this is what we ended up with and she loved it.

I knew that I would be using lots of black but I did find the cute pink and purple leopard print items at Walmart and they went well with what I had already started. 

For starters we made these adorable cards to invite her friends and family.

I took black card stock and with a black marker put the spots on (Sunshine help with some of this). Then I hand cut the pattern using an oval and then adding 2 rounded triangles for ears. I taped the ears on and this gave me a template to make many more kitty faces. Once we added the eyes and nose Sunshine also enjoyed helping to add the whiskers and smiles to the kitty's. 

Then we added kitty faces to black cups, which we filled with thank you goodies. I added black ears to the large plates too.

I made these cute kitty hair bands too. Will have to do a tutorial on this some day.

For activities during the party we did these fun kitty wands. I actually came across a sale for the printed duct tape B1G1 Free. And look they had a cute leopard print tape! We used this to hold all of the items to the stick.

We also did: 'learn how to draw a kitty' pages. Everyone also made there own mini kitty pizzas to lunch on.

For decorations I made these fun yarn balls for garland. I used different yarn to wrap around foam balls and a dab of hot glue at the top to keep the yarn from unraveling.

I made fringed paper streamers by taking black paper streamer and folding it in half length wise. Then just cut a bit into the open part of the fold.

Then for something new I wanted to try, I taped faces to some balloons. They turned out cute!

My friend from Dumpster Diving Darling lent me the bird cage and some stands that she made (they are the ones with food on them). Her post on how to epoxy items together is here and the 2 black kitty's we found for only 65 cents each at a local thrift store.

the silver and black stands were made by my friend Heather

My hubby rents the cupcake stand where he works so we got to borrow it for the day. And speaking of cupcakes: the cake itself was made from scratch (it was a dark chocolate recipe). I will have to share another time. But the frosting came from a can. I frosted them and cut the licorice for whiskers and Sunshine decorated them herself. She used small Hershey kisses for the ears, pearl green Sixlets candy for the eyes, red jelly bean for nose, and black licorice for whiskers. She had fun creating! 

So in the middle of all this birthday planning fun my mother-in-law asked me what the theme was for this year. I told her and in the conversation she said "you know you should do this for people". And she has not been the first one to say this. hmmm.....I have been praying to the Lord asking Him to give me a vision on what I can do to help with income but also be home with Sunshine as much as possible. So the wheels are turning...



All photos in this post were taken by myself. Copywright Singing Honey Bee Designs 2014.