Harry Potter Birthday Party Part 5: The Cake

If you missed our other Harry Potter Birthday Party post, check them out:

• Harry Potter Birthday Party Invitations
• Harry Potter Birthday Party Decorations
• Harry Potter Birthday Party Games and Activities
• Harry Potter Birthday Party - Great Hall and Honeydukes

Such a simple cake but the kids loved it!

It's a simple five layered chocolate and vanilla cake with vanilla frosting.

It's covered with marshmallow fondant. Let me be clear, I dislike regular fondant and try to avoid it like the plague! It tastes awful. When I use it, I make figurines (e.g. on our Plants vs Zombie cake) but would never cover a cake in it. But I had heard rumours that marshmallow fondant is not only easy to work with but also tastes waaaay better. So what the heck, I thought, let's try it.

It doesn't taste like marshmallows but it is sweet and pleasant tasting. More importantly all the kids (and my husband) ate it and liked it - not one peeled it off the cake! That says something!

It was easy to work with. Even though I rolled it a bit too thin, it still adhered to the cake well and it was easy to smooth out.  The ribbons on the bottom of the cake hid a bit of messiness around the edges of the cake!

After it was covered, I added a bit of color gels to pieces of extra fondant. After rolling them out and cutting them into shapes (you can use whatever cookie cutters you have on hand or even cut them free style with a knife), I wrote on them with edible ink. The kids gave me their favorite spells and quotes from the Harry Potter books and movies and I just copied them onto individual fondant pieces. If you rub a tiny bit of water on the cake or the back of the fondant piece it will be easy to adhere it to the cake!

Note: Make sure you make the fondant a day or so in advance - it makes it much easier to work with.

Here are the sites I referred to when making our marshmallow fondant:

Recipe: http://whatscookingamerica.net/PegW/Fondant.htm

Recipe: http://www.craftsy.com/recipe/marshmallow-fondant

Great Video by My Cupcake Addiction: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GaKqSND8sPc

LEGO BIRTHDAY PARTY - recipes, review and ideas!

My baby is now 8. 8! Where has time gone? Yesterday I swear he was a newborn who hated the stroller and loved being held...all the time. Or at most a sweet 4-year old with amazing dimples and a sweet personality to match. But today, I have to accept he is 8. A very determined, shall we say stubborn, little boy who is still sweet...most of the time...when he is not fighting with his older sister. He loves helping me in the kitchen and is very willing to try new things. He also loves building things with his Dad using the tools in his own tool box any chance he gets. He aspires to become a Mountain Man or open an animal rescue centre (Hope for Wildlife has influenced this kid!). I'm a little worried that if I blink he will be heading off to university!

But right now, let's focus on 8. His birthday theme this year is LEGO. I decided to hire a company that offers LEGO parties called Brick 4 Kidz. Deciding factors on hiring them:

• my son loves LEGO
• they entertain ten 8 year olds boys for 90 minutes!
• the kids make a motorized LEGO machine (centrifuge) and then battle it out to see which machine is supreme
• racing cars are also constructed and raced and other activities
• the kids also made a mini LEGO figurine that they can take home...and race them on zip lines!

So basically, all I had to do was take care of the food and cake. This made for a very easy decision!

My son had definite ideas on how he wanted his cake to look.

The LEGO leader showed up 15 minutes before the start of the party to bring in the LEGO (they bring everything) and accessories. I wasn't certain that she'd be able to handle all the boy power in the room because she looked too sweet and too young! But she kept everyone in line and on track! The boys had an absolutely fabulous time. From my point of view, it was the lowest stress party we have ever had....I was able to take pics and even sit and have a coffee while the kids had a blast with the LEGO leader. I highly recommend them for boy and girl parties (why should boys have all the fun?!)

The kids made motorized creations and then battled them against each other!

Oh, the birthday boy also received a special t-shirt (included in the party price) and all the kids signed it.

All of the kids signed the back of the birthday shirt.

Another great thing about a LEGO party is the ease of going with the theme at a relatively low cost! Every dollar/discount store has solid color table cloths, bowls, streamers, cutlery, loot bags, balloons, plates etc in LEGO colours.

Dollar Store finds and cutlery/napkin holders built by the birthday boy and his sister.

I splurged on silicone ice cube trays in the shape of LEGO blocks and the LEGO man.

The LEGO man can be found on the LEGO site but I had to order the brick version from eBay. With these trays we made candy blocks/men and coloured ice cubes for drinks.

Lego men and bricks made from Wilton candy melts.

These were my first try at the making the bricks - I should have tapped them harder while the
candy was still warm to get rid of the air bubbles.

Ice cubes blocks made from fruit juice.

On the LEGO site I found mini figurine lego key chains on sale for $1.50 Cdn! I added a few other non-lego items plus the figurine each child built into the loot bags (which were LEGO colored, of course!)

My kids have a tonne of LEGO blocks thanks to their now adult cousins and their Dad and  uncle's childhood sets. So we were able to build a napkin holder, and cutlery holders. We also used many of their mini figurines on the cake to hold the candles.

Cake

The cake itself is a dairy free/egg free chocolate cake. We actually don't have any dietary restrictions - I make it because it is incredibly moist and delicious.

I made three cakes and cut a bit off of two of them to make two steps to place the mini figurines.

The icing is my go to vanilla icing - it seems less sweet than other icing sugar based icings.

My son decided on how the blocks/LEGO men were put on the cake. Really it was one of the least stressful/least amount of work birthday cakes I've done lately.

Check out my Pinterest board for more LEGO party ideas.

Wacky Woo Chocolate Cake

To replicate this cake - you will have to make this cake 3 times! It freezes well so you could make them over a day or two and freeze them until needed. Between our LEGO cake we had a thin layer of icing and then a layer of seedless raspberry jam. We also cut off about 1-1.5 inch of the 2nd and 3rd layers so the figurines could be placed easily.

Makes 1 9 inch round cake.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups flour
3 tbsp Dutch process cocoa powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 c sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 tsp white vinegar
5 tbsp shortening, melted
1 cup warm water

Instructions

1. Preheat 325 degrees F.
2. Place the dry ingredients in a bowl and whisk until well combined.
3. Make 3 medium sized holes in the dry mixture.
4. Pour the vanilla in one hole. Do not mix.
5. Pour the vinegar in another hole. Do not mix.
6. Pour the shortening in the third. Do not mix.
7. Pour water over the top.
8. Now mix.
9. Prepare pan by greasing/flouring it .
10. Bake for approximately 40 - 45 minutes or until tester comes out clean.

Icing Ingredients
2 cups unsalted butter, softened
4 cups icing sugar, sifted
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 c milk
pinch of salt

Instructions

1. Beat butter until very smooth and creamy.
2. Slowly add icing sugar and beat until smooth.
3. Incorporate vanilla and salt.
4. Slowly add milk and slowly beat until beautifully smooth and fluffy. (5 minutes)
5. If colouring, separate out into bowls and add desired colours.

Makes enough for this three layer cake with a little bit left over.

Swimming Pool Party and Pool Cake

Birthday Pool Party!

My daughter decided to have a swimming party at UBC pool to celebrate her 9th birthday. So we made that the theme of the party.

If you are in Vancouver, I recommend UBC pool as a place for a kid's party. The cost was just under $100 for 10 kids, a party room, and a pool leader. The leader joined them in the pool for an hour as they played games and jumped off the diving boards.

Decorations

The kids spent most of their time in the pool so we kept decorations to a minimum. I found an "under the sea" roll of bulletin board paper at Michael's that we placed on a wall. I also found these pool party cut-outs on Etsy. I printed them on card stock and taped them to wood dowels. The kids LOVED them. We took pictures in front of the poster of all the kids. We also had balloons and blow up beach balls.

We served cake and a few snacks. I put the snacks in beach pails and the kids served themselves using little shovels! I also had a few shell shaped plates for other snacks. We made a balloon bouquet by simply throwing a bunch of balloons on a stick in a bucket! We also had a container of "pool water" as a drink (raspberry Kool-Aid).

Loot Bag

For the "loot bag", I found a great deal on a beach towel that turns into a backpack - normally $22 but on sale for less than $6 at Michael's! I even kept one for myself!

I made cookies for the kids to take home. One was a wave. It's a simple sugar cookie with a design I found on Glorious Treats (see her step by step tutorial) and the other one was going to be a life preserver but I couldn't get the red right so I made them "inner tubes" lol. I cut them out with a doughnut cutter I found at a dollar store.

Cake

The cake was pretty easy compared to my son's Plants vs Zombie cake! After looking on the internet for ideas, I combined my faves for this swimming pool cake!

The figures and slide are made out of fondant. The slide is held up with two straws. The cake itself is  three Texas sheet cakes - vanilla, chocolate, and "strawberry" (ok - vanilla with pink colouring!). My plan was to make a strawberry white chocolate ganache as the filling but sadly it didn't set properly (too thin). It did however, taste amazing! I didn't want to waste it so I "painted" the ganache between the cake layers and then used a vanilla buttercream as the filling on top of the ganache. The strawberry flavour really came through and made this cake a winner. I plan on perfecting the ganache and posting the recipe as soon as I can!

I "fenced" off the cake with Kit Kats!

To work off some of the sugar, we put on the kids' favorite music and let them dance until they went home.

My daughter said it was her best party ever!

Here is the sugar cookie recipe - it's my grandmother's recipe. It has shortening in it which helps the cookies keep their shape as they bake.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup shortening
• 1/2 cup white granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2.5 cups flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• pinch of salt

Instrutions

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (190 degrees C).
• Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
• In bowl; whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt to combine. Set aside.
• In another large bowl beat butter and shortening
• Beat in sugars until light and fairly fluffy
• Beat in egg and vanilla.
• Mix in flour mixture.
• Divide dough in half; flatten each slightly.
• Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour or up to 24 hours.
• On lightly floured surface, roll out dough, 1 piece at a time, to 1/4-inch (5 mm) thickness
• Using 3-inch (8 cm) cookie cutters, cut out shapes.
• Press scraps together to reroll.
• Bake in centre of oven for about 12-14 minutes or until light golden on bottom and edges.
• Let cool for 1 minute on baking sheets.
• Transfer to racks; let cool completely.
• Decorate as you like.

Butterfly Birthday Cake and Vanilla Frosting Recipe

My daughter turned 7 a few weeks ago. I swear we just brought her home from the hospital yesterday! I'm not sure where time goes but my daugther has certainly made the most of it. I don't think a minute  goes by without her posing a question about something she's seen, heard or imagined! But her curiosity

has helped her grow.

I love this time of her life - over the past year she's learned to read chapter books, to write and create stories, learned to ride a bike, almost "mastered" water skiing, tells terrible knock-knock jokes, tries to be nice to her little brother ("tries" is the key word), and has accomplished so much more that it would take pages to list. Of course, she's still my little girl and I don't want her to grow up too fast but I am very proud of her (well...except maybe the time she spilled nail polish all over her bed trying to paint her nails).

For her birthday, she wanted a butterfly theme...butterfly cake, butterfly decorations, butterfly shaped sandwiches etc. And homemade strawberry lemonade, tea sandwiches and watermelon - she leaves nothing to chance! She also wanted outdoor fun - bobbing for apples, the limbo, potato sack races, three-legged contest and more!

 

This is the cake. It's a 9-inch layer cake and a 6-inch layer cake stacked and iced with buttercream. I forgot to take a picture of the inside of the cake which was coloured in pink and purple swirls. I searched high and low for edible rice paper butterflys and finally found great ones on ETSY. They arrived in time even though a postal strike had just ended and I LOVE them. Take a look at her site as she also offers other shapes. The kids adored them and couldn't believe they could actually eat them!

This recipe has been used in my family for a long time but I also found a similar recipe on Martha's site recently! Although basically just butter and sugar, it doesn't taste too sweet or heavy. You can also add colour gels if you want to colour your frosting.

Easy Vanilla Frosting for 2 dozen cupcakes

3-1/2 c - 4 c powdered sugar, sifted

2 c unsalted butter, room temperature
pinch of salt
2 tsp vanilla
1/8c  - 1/4 c milk




Edible butterflys, candy flowers and pastel icing
make a seven year old VERY happy.

 

What to do

• In a large bowl (preferably a stand alone mixer) beat butter until light and creamy.
• In half cup increments add sugar and beat until combined.
• Add extract and beat until combined.
• Depending on the brand of butter I use, the amount of milk I need varies. Start with 1/8 c and add more if needed. Beat the mixture at medium speed until the frosting is perfectly smooth and creamy. I usually beat it for about 5 minutes or so.
• Add colour, if required and beat until colour is even.
• Use imediately or refrigerate (if refrigerating bring back to room temperature before using).