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.