Well Keira’s party is over for another year. I normally have her parties at home and work myself into a tizz getting ready for them. This year I decided to have a stress free one by having a gymnastics party. Gymnastics because Keira loves it so much. The party was a-mazing and almost everything was done for me. All I had to do was make the lolly bags, pay the bill and of course make the cake. The lolly bags were easy. Cute cello bags and striped ribbon from Spotlight filled with pretty white, pink and red lollies.
The cake was going to be a dolly varden. This is where things got seriously stressful. I’ve made the dolly varden before for Keira’s first birthday so I wasn’t too nervous. But my first cake turned out tiny. OK I thought well that is odd so I’ll do double the mixture of butter cake in the tin. But the second cake took forever in the oven and then turned out to be still low and wider this time. Ready to pull my hair out and cry at this point – there was nothing left to do but make it again with a simple butter cake from scratch. Third time lucky? But yet again it turned into a dense little dome of a cake. I have never experienced such failure before in my kitchen and have had to put it down to my oven.
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh why oh why didn’t I tick the ice cream cake option at the party venue. But at 7am and fresh out of the shower I made an early morning dash to Coles for cupcake wrappers, betty crocker vanilla cake mix and a bag of smarties. Cupcakes it was going to be. My pink frosting, marshmallow flowers from 2 marshmallows cut in half topped with a smartie, stacked on a cute cupcake stand from Target and all topped off with a littlest pet shop Blythe.
and I love Keira for telling me it was the best cake ever and she wants it every year. Phew. Meanwhile we’ll be eating butter cake for the rest of the week while I try to live down the shame of baking failure. But I felt better once I saw how pretty the replacement cakes had turned out. And once the party started I was just like ‘ Dolly Varden who?’ I was always going to make the cupcakes.
Anyway, the party was a huge success and so much fun. 15 girls jumping, swinging, climbing and laughing for one and a half hours.
then it was time for party food, cake, presents and pick up. The easiest party I’ve ever had to do and Keira has decided she wants to go there every year and that it was the best party – EVER! I must say I’m gone from someone who always wanted to do the home party to now seeing the benefit of having the party somewhere else! Another benefit was that I had left my house in a state of absolute chaos but no one would ever know.
And retro daddy has kindly ironed uniforms for tomorrow so I am going to put my feet up, have a slice of plain cake with my coffee and do some knitting. Normally it takes me a week to recover from one of keira’s parties but I think I just need a night and I’ll be back on track.
Oh I need to get over my “home party” stance. I can’t believe the stress I feel leading up to the parties. This year I refuse to call it a party. James is having a birthday afternoon tea for 5 friends (and their brothers and sisters, and Mums….argh make that 18 people) this Friday afternoon. I will breathe again on Friday night.
This year both boys had parties elsewhere. Best decision ever! I still made cake lollibags, but no clean up, no games to manage, no tantrums to deal with.
Loving those cupcake flowers…!
We just had Lily’s party too Corrie! I also had a cake failure moment (though I made the cake ahead of time) with it falling to pieces – so I made that one into cake pops! The second butterfly cake came out ok (in the end!) though 😛
Oh, Corrie! I’m so relieved you tried a different way this time and that it worked so well for you. Hmm, I wonder what your oven is up to? That sounds most peculiar. Has the element gone or something? J x
wonderful party. I’m sure Keira was happy
I did the party at home 2 weeks ago. I agree very stressful. I had so much trouble with the cupcake rather than the cake, Used cupcake cups so hard to get it right made 2 batches before they worked. Rather expensive when they don’t work out. will def think ahead next year.
http://veryspecialcreations.blogspot.com/2011/05/happy-birthday-stephanie.html
Those cupcakes look great and what a great idea to have a gym party!! I’ve never heard of it before and so much easier to have someone else do all the hard work for you!! Enjoy your feet up and cake!!
Good on you Corrie
My 1st 2 always had a home party with all the trimmings. My 3rd had me slacking off on the party front. this year there is rock climbing, and ice skating booked and i can’t wait to pay my bill and go home for a cup of tea!!
Nice work Corrie!!!!
Looks like a cracker of a party!
xx
Good work! I always have them at home too and make everything from scratch-well this year I bought everything pre made (sausage rolls etc) and it was so much easier! Now why haven’t I done this before???
Maybe you could make a trifle to use up some cake!
Great cup cakes. I make Betty’s cup cakes too when i’m in a hurry.
Looks like lots of fun and yay for you avoiding most of the stress
I can very much relate to the recovery time after the kid’s parties. I’ve only had to do 3 so far and they were hard and stressful. I can understand the decision to hold it elsewhere.
You poor thing, baking failures are terrible. All that effort and nothing to show for it. The cupcakes look gorgeous though and sounds like Keira was a very happy birthday gal. So sweet ;o)
The great thing about cup cakes too is that you can just hand them out without all the knife fuss….I think you did a super job with them.
A beautiful save – the cupcakes look fantastic! Marshmallows really were the best party saver ever invented. I’ve had many a cake flop – I find it the most stressful part of parties.
It’s a lot of fun to read the old postings you’ve linked to your latest ones. Your “LittleONE Baby” took me down memory lane back to 1979 when I bought my first ever patchwork book in Humphreys newsagent in Manly for 99c. Still my favourite.
Aaah memories. My first boyfriend lived above the shop a few doors down from Humphreys. We’d listen to LPs (does anyone remember those?) and I’d hang over the balcony and watch the tourists. (I was too young to know what else to do with a boyfriend. LOL.)
Birthday parties – I think the stress is transferrable. Most of ours have been at home but after three children I really made friends with Betty and Duncan. Now both kids have allergies – one is to peanuts and one has celiac disease so I am back to making my own. But they are older so no more parties.
This looks like such a fun party! Great idea with the cupcakes – much easier and so pretty! Glad to hear that Keira thought it was the best cake ever xxx
Don’t you just love it when the kids think a packet mix is better than anything made from scratch!!! I do love Betty as my stand-by too! I didn’t realise how much the oven mattered until we moved 7 weeks ago and the 3 roast porks in that time have had perfect crackling each and every time… for the last 3 years I have been so frustrated at miserable crackling and other unexplained baking flops…
Oh yes I surrounded this year too. It was the first time we had a party out of the house but I’m so glad I did. Cooper had a bowling party and I didn’t even have to do party bags, just the cake. I was very happy with how it turned out and even happier to walk away from the clean up and not be as stressed as I normally am before, during and after his parties.
In saying that I’ve already starting thinking about Blake’s 3rd birthday in September and because I’ve never really done the big party deal for him I’ll go all out this year. Stress and all.