Liberty's Cake Decorating Party!

Can you believe another year has gone by and Liberty has just

turned seven!!

She had been planning her cake decorating party almost since her 6th birthday!

I made the invitations in a great rush, just before school finished for two weeks holiday, using things I had at home.

                

Welcome to the party!

             

The 'Liberty's Bake Shop' sign was made for  Liberty by Iris who (doesn't have a blog) is just the sweetest person.

I hung it on the front door with a wreath of silk roses.

(I found the roses at an Op shop for just $3!)

                 

Last minute preparations - it seems no matter how much time you have, you will always be working right to the last minute!

The party was held on the last day of the school holidays so we had two whole weeks to get ready.

              

I had a lot of fun making the 'Cupcakery Bakery' sign one evening.

I just used whatever I could find in my scrapbooking pile.

                  

Here's the back of the cupcakery sign. I had been keeping the piece of wrapping paper with those desserts on it for years just waiting for the right thing to use it for.

            

I made the bunting from 'Laura Ashley' fabric scraps given to me by a friend.

          There was a colouring activity for the kids to do when they arrived.

It's always good to keep them busy until the last guest arrives.

                

We printed carnival letters for the 'Happy Birthday' banner and coloured them in.

   

My seven year old!

          

I found a fabulous tutorial here for making the coffee filter balls.

I really wanted to make a coffee filter garland but didn't have enough filters.

The round fluted filters that they use for these balls aren't readily available here in New Zealand. I was so excited when I found a pack at an Op shop!  

          

These little goody bags were for a game we didn't have time for but they all got to take them home at the end of the party.

    

Here's what was inside the goody bags.

      

Party food!

    

The tea cups filled with jelly were very popular!

     

For the second year in a row we had a beautiful sunny winters day for the party.

     

Here's what we used Lamina's beautiful tea towel for.

'Pin the Cherry on the Cupcake'

We used stickers with the kids initials for the cherries.

We also had an egg and spoon race.

    

There were bowls of buttercream frosting. We filled snap lock bags with royal icing and taped one corner before cutting a little 'V' shape in it to pipe with - they worked really well for little hands!

     

Sophie, Holly and Pauline - my three wonderful helpers.

I made them all aprons from pretty furnishing fabric samples.

Pauline took ALL the photos!

    

The sewing machine was busy all week!

I made simple aprons for all the little guests.

The girls apron fabrics are ' Laura Ashley' scraps given to me by a friend!

     

I added some cupcakes to the front Liberty's apron.

  

Yum!

     

Hard at work!

The children all really enjoyed themselves.

  

There were two boys at the party and they had a great time.

They were thrilled with their aprons too!

  

After frosting a couple of cakes each Sophie (my teenage helper) showed the kids how to make a simple fondant person.

Liberty added a scarf to her persons neck.

   

I collected glass candlesticks from the Op shops. I even found six matching little glass dishes (at different Op shops!) and turned them into cupcake stands. I just blu-tacked the dishes to the candlesticks.

   

Here's the birthday cake!

'Hmmm, that looks rather boring', you're thinking...

 

We let the kids do the decorating!

There was complete silence while they were decorating the cake, they were really concentrating.

 

The happy result!

Eight happy sugar filled kids!

One happy SEVEN year old!

The party was a great success! 

Having just eight children there and three extra helpers (plus hubby and myself) made it much easier.

I always find a lot of inspiration from seeing other people's parties, so if anyone's considering a cake decorating party I hope this post helps!

If you need any more information just ask!

Mercedes