Party Time Archives - Toddler Blues

Another Mem Fox-Inspired Birthday Party

March 7, 2014 by Cheryl Leave a Comment

Brandon’s Green Sheep Party

Mem Fox’s books make fantastic themes for littlies’ parties, and Where is the Green Sheep is no exception. It seems like yesterday that Audrey was celebrating her first birthday with a Green Sheep Party. Shortly afterward I was contacted by Elisa who was also planning a Green Sheep party for her little boy, Brandon. I was more than happy to help out with the invitations in return for some fantastic photos of her party. I’m so glad Brandon had a good time at his party – here are some photos of the beautiful spread Elisa put on.

It looks like it was a pretty sweet party, with green jello, sheep cookies, chocolate mousse, sheep cupcakes, an adorable green sheep cake and some cute coconut sheep cake pops.

These little sheep cake pops are so cute. I love that the eyes weren’t piped perfectly – it adds a bit of charm for sure. The party bubbles are great giveaways for a one-year-old party. Babies just love bubbles – and they make for great props for photos of the babies too. For any North American readers – I’ll let you in on a little Australian tradition: Fairy Bread. It’s buttered white bread with sprinkles (hundreds and thousands).

Fruit is a must-have for children’s parties and I LOVE the little watermelon heart cutouts! Putting the fruit on a skewer is a nice touch for easily picking a selection.

This adorable cake is actually partly gluten free! The body is a regular cake, but the head and legs are gluten free.

Finally, here is the birthday boy himself! Happy birthday Brandon!

Raspberry and white chocolate cake pops

November 1, 2013 by Cheryl 2 Comments

These raspberry and white chocolate cake pops were such a hit I just had to share: vanilla butter cake with raspberry filling, covered in white chocolate. YUM!

The butter cake recipe is from The Australian Women’s Weekly Cake Decorating book, and the raspberry filling is just made up. Enjoy!

Directions

bake the cake and let it cool, then crumble it in a bowl
add a couple of tablespoons of the raspberry filling, enough to make the cake stick together
roll the sticky cake between your palms to form a ball. Push the stick to the centre, and lay it on a baking tray
pop them into the freezer for 30 mins or so
melt the white chocolate (I find the quickest way is to do it in the microwave in 30s increments. Make sure the power is set at 50% and stir in between.)
very carefully dip the cake pops into the white chocolate to cover it
optional: you have a few seconds while the chocolate is still melted to sprinkle on shaved chocolate or coconut to make your sheep fluffy
optional: you can make some faces out of gumpaste and attach them using melted chocolate

Ingredients

Butter Cake

185g butter
1-1/2 t vanilla extract
1 c caster sugar
3 eggs
2-1/4 c self-raising flour
3/4 c milk

Raspberry Filling

300g package of raspberries
juice of 1/2 a lemon
1/4 c. sugar
1 T corn flour

Directions – Cake

Preheat oven to 180°C/350°F. Grease and line base and side(s) of cake pan with baking paper, extending paper 5cm (2 inches) above side(s)
Beat butter, extract and sugar in bowl with electric mixer until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Transfer mixture to larger bowl; stir in sifted flour and milk, in two batches. Spread mixture in a pan.
Bake cake for the time given in chart. Cover cake with foil halfway through baking if cake is over-browning, or lower the oven temperature by 10-20 degrees if cake is over 20cm.
Test cake by inserting a skewer into centre of cake; if cooked, skewer will be clean, if there is cake mixture on the skewer, bake cake a further 10 minutes before testing again.
Stand cake in the pan for 10 to 30 minutes, depending on size of the cake, before turning, top-side down, onto wire rack to cool.

TIP: the cake will keep well for 2 days in an airtight container, or can be frozen for 3 months

Directions – filling

throw all the ingredients into the thermomix. Set to 100°C for 10 minutes or so on speed 5
strain through a sieve (unless you don’t care about the seeds)
cool

Tulle Skirt and Onesie Applique Tutorial

August 23, 2013 by Cheryl Leave a Comment

Audrey’s Birthday Tulle Skirt and Onesie Applique Tutorial

So in my last post I promised I would send you to the tulle skirt tutorial. It was posted by Amy Huntley of the Idea Room. She has such a beautiful blog and I totally recommend visiting! I couldn’t believe how easy it was to make this skirt, and there was NO SEWING involved! Basically you just cut strips of tulle and tie them around an elastic cut to the size of your child’s waist. Done! Our photographer , Liz Andrews,(who is amazing, by the way) gave me a huge discount on our photos at Audrey’s birthday party in return for the cake-covered skirt, which she thought would be great in future baby photo shoots.

I think if I were to re-do this skirt I would definitely buy more fabric. I think I only bought 0.5 m of each red, orange and yellow tulle. To get a fuller skirt you need more. (Maybe 0.75 m). You could probably skimp a bit on the fabric if you make the pieces a bit shorter. I ended up trimming quite a bit off the skirt because I thought it was too long originally (see photo below). However, it is still not that dear – I think it ended up costing me around $20 – $25.

I learned how to do appliqué for the first time as well! It is actually not that difficult to do! All you need to do is first iron √iseofix to the back of your fabric. Cut out the shape you want. Peel the backing off and iron it to your fabric/onesie.

I tried applique once before but only pinned the shape on. The result was not-so-fantastic. I couldn’t sew it on straight and there were bubbles everywhere. The viseofix sticks your shape to the fabric so that you don’t have to worry about pins. I actually used a stabiliser on the inside of the shirt as well because my onesie is ribbed and very hard to work with. Once you have the shape stuck on all you have left to do is zigzag around the shape and you’re done!

Appliqued shirt and tulle skirt — So don’t look at the terrible letters or the piggy look on my daughter’s face! – this photo is meant to show the appliquéd number 1 on Audrey’s birthday shirt.

Where is the green sheep party

August 22, 2013 by Cheryl 28 Comments

A first birthday party inspired by the children’s book “Where is the Green Sheep”

So much planning for a party that only lasted 2 hours! It was a lot of fun though, and Audrey had a blast! She was so tired afterwards that she slept for 3 hours until I actually woke her up!

The theme of the party was Where is the Green Sheep – inspired by the children’s book by Mem Fox and Judy Horacek. I experienced a few “firsts,” myself! First time doing applique, first time making fondant, first time making gum paste, first time making cake pops! I loved every bit of it and certainly learned a few things along the way!

I tried to stick to the colour theme closest to the book. I made the invitations and the cake match the book cover and then threw in a few other sheep-related items like sheep finger puppets for giveaways and sheep cake pops.

White chocolate and raspberry cake pops with sheep faces made out of gum paste. (Here’s the recipe)

green sheep cake with green sheep fast asleep behind a bush — Here is our green sheep, fast asleep!

I made a little outfit for Audrey – the skirt was SO easy . I did appliqué for the first time on her onesie, which I was pretty pleased about. Unfortunately the ribbing on the shirt made it very difficult to embroider letters (and it doesn’t help that I just have a regular sewing machine) so the letters look a bit wonky. Audrey didn’t mind though, and I think it added a bit of charm!