Cupcake Social Blog

So I asked my daughter what she wanted to do for her birthday, and she didn’t have any ideas. Six months earlier she had said she wanted a Scooby-Doo birthday but I didn’t want to remind her of that. It was not something I really wanted to do, and I think it was one of those things she just said one day while she was watching one of the movies. So on this particular day when we actually started planning, I asked her what her favorite color was, seemed like a perfect place to start with. Her reply was “all of the colors” I didn’t really know where to go with that. It took me a few minutes, then I realized, duh! A rainbow party! It had all the colors!

I quickly started googling, and boy was overwhelmed by how many people had already done it. Nothing is original anymore these days, something I had learned a long time ago in one of my art history classes in college. So the only thing to do, was to make it my own. One of the things I kept seeing pictures of was this “rainbow cake” made by “Whisk Kid”…. SEE original post here..I eventually found video of the maker on the Martha Stewart show making the cake, and was in total AWW of the amazing array of pretty layers of color. I had one problem though…..there was no pink. Sorry, pink is my favorite color. And it will be in a rainbow cake, if I make it.

So the first thing I did was bookmark the blog and then started looking for a cool tablecloth. I knew that was going to be a main vocal point of the backdrop for the party. I quickly found this amazing fabric, sorry, can’t remember the designer! It was so pretty, i had to get it. I wanted to find some sort of “printables” that i can make myself but that still matched the striped, rainbow theme. I found Chickabug on Etsy and was floored when I saw her rainbow stuff. I knew it would match great.

PHOTOS ABOVE:

Top: One slice of rainbow cake with 8 layers of color, including pink, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple and violet. that’s a total of 8 layers folks! The kids were just SO excited when they watched me slice the cake open. It was a rainbow surprise!

Bottom Left: I used the circle stickers from Chickabug above and put them on punched out paper that I glued onto striped straws. Then stuck them into mini buckets filled with gumballs.

Bottom Right: Custom cupcake wrappers designed by Chickabug. I wanted the icing to look like fluffy blue clouds by mixing the white frosting and adding some that was tinted with blue food coloring into the same piping bag, I also used edible gold stars, so cute!

Top Photo: I made some tissue paper pom poms. I was going to order some from Etsy, but everyone said that there was a wait of weeks and weeks. Sorry, I didn’t have that kind of time. I happened to have a rainbow pack of tissue paper, and  I remember making these things in grade school, although they were a little off in proportion, no one seemed to mind. I also have this problem with my space, in that i have these 3 huge bay window where my table needs to go. Not the perfect place to stage a table to photograph, with the back light, but I think I still got something good to photograph. I used a black piece of foam core to cover one window. I would have bought more, if they were not so expensive. Too bad my favorite art store (Pearl) went out of business so i have to resort to Staples ;(

Bottom Left: I could not wait to cut into this cake, the anticipation was killing me! My friend Dana helped me with the icing, and putting gumballs around the bottom of the cake for a nice border. It’s funny, I made i think 2 batches of the icing, and she made the 3rd, and even though we both used her recipe, they looked different, and tasted different (hers was better) Luckily her icing was the final one for the outside. I learned that the longer you mix, the better whipped it is.

Bottom Right: Water label stickers made and printed by Chickabug. I can’t tell you how much the kids LOVED these bottles. Not only were they little and had rainbow stickers on them, but they loved getting markers, and putting their names all over the label. I think for the next party I will ask to have a blank spot of the back for the kids (and parents) to personalize them. My mom even liked them so much, I saw she kept one in her fridge, weeks later.

So the invitation also designed by Chicakbug, were so cute, and told the kids to wear their favorite color. of course we had 2 girls in pink, 2 girls in purple, one girl in a rainbow and my son in red…I wore blue, although not my favorite color, I only had about 5 minutes to get dressed after all the preparations, even with my friend, and her parents helping.

Top Photo: We had planed on doing most activities outside, including a moon bounce, and sand art, but in March, you never know the weather, and it ended up being crazy windy. So no moon bounce, but the kids still did sand art, and rainbow scratch art, and colored a rainbow with markers, and decorated with various sparkly glitter things, but all indoors instead.

Bottom Left: Goodie bags, designed my Chickabug, again.. yes, she has it all!

Bottom right: Cupcake tower, and empty treat bags for the guests to fill with various sweets I had on the table which included, gumballs, gumdrops, skittles…and the most amazing cookies made by TSCookies, who I get cookies from for every single birthday…or event! i wish I had some right..NOW. Close up of cookies down below.

Top photo: an assortment of awesome paper straws. I used them for the drinks, but also for the cupcake tower, and for the sticks stuck in the gumball buckets in the first part. you can buy these from my shop, of course, along with the rainbow banners, also in the first part

Bottom Left: close up of goodie bags. I found these rainbow crayons that just make me smile…so fun to make a rainbow with one crayon! Buy them here: Oriental Trading

Bottom Right: close up of my pom poms, with rainbow banner in the background…available here in my other shop on Etsy. www.cupcakesocial.etsy.com

The best cookies ever made…Thanks TSCookies!   I can’t believe my little girl turned 6 years old.