A Peppa Pig Party {& Party Giveaway}

Every time a birthday rolls around for one of my children, I say "I'm not doing a party this year". Or I say "It will just be a small/easy morning tea". Every time I tell a lie.
I have to blame Pinterest. I start off just wanting to find a nice cake. I only pinned two pictures but it was enough to get my feeling creative. Check out the Claire's 3rd Birthday Board

Then I decide that a few decorations might be nice. After a bit of Google-ing I found the Character Parties website. I only wanted a few things so I bought some napkins, a banner and some party bags. They were very reasonably priced and were lovely enough to agree to a giveaway!!! (See below).

Then I see some cute ideas that fit into the theme. Muddy Puddles and Gumboot Cookies.

Balloons in Peppa Pig Colours

Then I won 10 Cookies and 10 Cake Pops from Party with Peggy over on the Mummawoosah blog. I beg her to make them for 3 days later and she said YES!

Before I know it. We are having a Peppa Pig Party.

It was worth it though. Claire was super excited about her cake and had so much fun with her friends.

Maybe next year it will be "A small gathering"

This is not a sponsored post. I loved the Peppa Pig Party Products from Character Parties so  I asked them whether I could run a giveaway. They said YES! Make sure you enter and share, share, share for extra enteries :)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Emily's Princesses & Knights Party

Following the Rainbow party I threw for my middle girl, Claire last year I was chatting my eldest daughter Emily about the type of party she would like for her birthday. I heard her say she would like to have a garden party which I thought was a lovely idea. "No! Mum...a DRAGON party" she corrected me. Now I really like planning kids parties but really, a dragon party for a 4 year old girl. What was I going to do with that?

Then I had an idea. I could make it a Princesses & Knights Party. I hit Pinterest ( check it my inspiration board here ) and here is what I came up with. 

Invitations: Cards & Envelopes from Kmart (very cheap), cardboard from a stationery shop and stickers from the Reject shop.

Dessert table: Dragon Cake( I used my Super Easy Chocolate Cake Recipe, and the designs I pinned),White Chocolate Princess Popcorn  (see pinterest for the recipe), Vanilla Cupcakes, Crown & Star Biscuits, Castle Shaped Fairy Bread, White Chocolate Cake Pops, Musk Sticks & Marshmallows.

Games: Jumping "Castle", Dragon Pinata ($23 from Amazon), Pass the Parcel & Pin the tail on the dragon (made by me using felt and hot glue gun).

I had planned to do a finger food lunch but good sense kicked in and we made up some salads and cooked some sausages which was a million times simpler and also much less expensive. Given I had spent Tuesday to Friday before the party at uni for an induction into my course (while my fabulous friend Nicole looked after my girls) I was glad I made things easier on myself.

It was a really fun day and Emily had a great time celebrating her 4th birthday with all her lovely little friends. 

 
Linking up with Jess at Essentially Jess for IBOT

Weekend Cookbook: Claire's Rainbow Party!

Last weekend, we celebrated my middle girl's 2nd Birthday. I had been debating whether I have a party for Claire as I had been pretty busy with life since baby Alicia arrived three months ago. Six days out from the date of the party, I decided that we should do something. Really, who plans a kids party six days before the event?? Me, obviously! So I sent out the text messages and I was committed to a party. Or what I called a small morning tea :)

I decided on a rainbow party as I was keen to make a rainbow cake. You know the one, the cake that is pinned and re-pinned on pinterest.  It was actually pretty easy and I have included the recipe that I used below.

After looking at various printables for decorations I decided that it would take too much work. Instead I found this tutorial for a Balloon Banner. It looked so pretty that a week later it is still up.

Our Balloon Banner.

Continuing in the rainbow theme, I made cupcakes with little rainbows on them, rainbow jelly, fairy bread, mars bar slice with sprinkles, cookies with  m&m rainbows, and a fruit rainbow.

I also made sausage rolls from the Frost Bite cookbook and my egg and bacon tarts from last weekend's brunch post. 

And now what you have been waiting for.........

Rainbow Cake

 

Ingredients:

2x packet butter cakes (or make your own). I used this butter cake recipe 

Blue, Green, Yellow and Red food colouring

Coloured sprinkles, to decorate

Meringue Icing

 2 cups caster sugar

1/2 cup water

1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar

6 egg whites

 Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to required temperature and grease and line three round cake tins (I only had two so I cooked the first two then made a third later).

2. Make one butter cake and divide into three parts (I weighed mine to ensure it was equal). Colour the first three blue, green and yellow and bake for 20 mins. Leave to cool in the tin for 5 mins and then transfer to a wire rack. Wash and dry your tins and repeat for the remaining colours.

3. I froze the first three cakes and thawed then the night before the party to save time. On the morning of the party I made the icing and assembled the cake.

 

4. To make the icing, place the sugar, water and cream of tartar into a saucepan over high heat. Stir until sugar is dissolved. Bring to the boil, then reduce heat to low and simmer for 3 mins. Place egg whites into the bowl of an electric mixer and beat until soft peaks form. With the motor running gradually add the sugar mixture and beat until thick and glossy (keep beating until it is thick enough to hold to the cake.

5. To assemble the cake, place the blue cake on the bottom and spread 1/2 cup of icing on top. You may need to slice the tops of your cake or it will be giant! Place green cake on top and continue layering with icing and cake. To ensure your cake doesn't fall over insert a skewer into the middle of your cake then smooth icing over the top and sides of the cake. Sprinkle the sprinkles to decorate.

Honestly, this cake is really easy and yummy! 

This little cutie loved it

What have you been cooking this week?

Party Time!

Last week we celebrated my youngest daughter’s 1^st Birthday.  I have had such a fun time planning and preparing for it and it all came together wonderfully over the two days the parties were held. I had a friends party with lots of Claire’s friends who were mainly younger than her so we needed baby friendly food and then a family party where there were only a few other kids. This post is really a bit of showing off (I will admit it!) but hopefully it will give others party ideas and show that if I can do it you can too! I had done lots of research prior to the party and decided on a ladybug theme. Thanks to Smitten Blog Design I got my invites and printables for FREE which was the basis of my theme. I also checked out some other people’s blogs which was very helpful and here is the result. I apologise for some of the quality of the pictures.

Party 1

Party 2 (spot the difference)

I had such fun making the table look pretty. The Banner, labels and tags were all from Smitten Blog Design. The napkins and straws came from Spotlight’s Spartys store and I “borrowed” the idea of the wrapped drinks/yoghurts from The Superorganiser mum.

The cake was based on the Women’s Weekly cookbook cover cake. I baked the cake in a glass Pyrex bowl thanks to the great idea of a friend, and it was perfect. I had to make two cakes, one for the friends party and another for the family party. I made them in advance and froze them which made icing them much easier the night before the party.

 

The Flower biscuits were mainly my own design, inspired by another party I had seen online. It is made of gingerbread and royal icing. The kids loved them! The cheese was totally my own idea and I was happy how they worked out. 

Mars Bar Slice is a "must have" at my parties

I made Lady Bug Antennae for the girls and Ant Antennae for the boys and each child was given lady bug bubbles to take home. 

Claire’s dress is from a pattern I was given at Christmas, and I finally made the time to sew it. The sewing is terrible, but it looks good if you don’t look too closely.

                The party was surprisingly quick and easy to organise. While I was planning for a couple of months, it was generally only one or two nights a week. It was a lot of fun but I think I may have set the bar too high for myself. At least I have until January to think about Emily's Birthday. 

My gorgeous little lady bug enjoyed her day!