Making and baking for a birthday party

BL’s birthday party and celebrations are over. It was great fun and she loved it. I baked mountains of biscuits and two birthday cakes. Sewed yards of bunting and a party bag for everyone. In my excitement, I took only a few photos. Ah well. Living in the moment is good!

To start, I made biscuits for her to take in to school, to share with her class. Cunningly sidestepping the conundrum of whether to follow the pack and send sweets into school, or not. In the process, I have now refined a new favourite biscuit recipe. I added a thin layer of regal icing and painted the number 7 on to each biscuit. The minimal amount of decoration, for maximum effect. Similar concept to our cookie castles.

She disappeared into her classroom, hugging her tin of biscuits, with a huge smile on her face. Oh to be seven!

For her actual birthday, I baked a chocolate cake and iced it with regal icing. For fun, I gave the children coloured icing tubes and let them decorate the cake. They needed very little encouragement. I am reliably informed that the message at the bottom of the cake says “Thank you”. I think the excitement of a blank canvas and icing tube must have hampered spelling, but this activity went down very well.

Next day, she invited eight of her friends over for a bath bomb party. They made layered bath salts, lavender shower scrubs and body glitter, as well as bath bombs. Lots of measuring and mixing. The girls dreamt up good names for each of their potions and labelled their pots.Last time I did this party, we discussed the science, but this party, the girls were more focused on the crafting. They had fun.

In between each activity, they decorated the fabric party bags, that I had made. They used felt tips, glue spots and gems. Each of the girls went home with their party bag full of goodies that they made. I sat down with a glass of wine and a fresh appreciation of all teachers!

The second birthday cake, was for the party. Orange cake, with a woodland theme. Squirrels and toadstools were non-edible, but the rest disappeared in a flash.

BL enjoyed her party. She enjoyed her birthday. She couldn’t stop smiling and bouncing. Seeing her so happy meant all the lists and baking faded into a distant memory. So perfect. I loved seeing her crafting with her friends. Would I do it again? Oh, yes. I had fun too. Although next time, I will be adding ear plugs to my list. For me, not the children.

(Edited: for the sake of balance, I should add that there was a lot of heathly party food as well. Not just icing covered offerings!)

13 comments

  1. The birthday party sounds wonderful, I especially like it when find out mum’s go to the effort to get little people creating. They were always the most memorable parties I gave for my girls when they were small. It was generally messy, but they had so much fun, it was worth it.
    Anne xx

    1. I have had such positive feedback from some of the mothers. I think the crafting went down well. It really is worth the extra effort, just to see them proudly showing their parents what they had made. Perfect!

  2. aahhh living in the moment is the best ;-)) You are a great mummy what a fun party i adore the idea of the girls decorating the cake and making bath bombs etc how sweet and what fun. Both cakes are adorable. dee xx

  3. Seeing the yummy cakes and biscuits, and the fun crafting, what wouldn’t I give to be seven again……………precious memories for you to keep and one very happy birthday girl.

    Happy Birthday BL

    lily x

  4. Your daughter will look back when she’s older and remember these memories and in turn that will make her a good Mum too. Christmas fades into one but I can remember individual birthday parties. We always have a “proper” party for birthdays, your birthday just isn’t the same without one!! Glad they all had a good time.

    1. They all had fun and I hope that each of the girls have gone home with the acorn of an idea that “they can”. It would be nice to think so. 🙂

  5. My son’s birthday is coming up and I love your idea of taking biscuits into school rather than packages of sweets! I will follow this idea! Also as he is the youngest in the year ( turning 6) at the end of the holidays – it will be nice to decorate the biscuits with a 6. Thanks for your lovely blog! Also loving the craft dragons – my son’s party is all about dragons…
    What biscuit recipe do you use? If you care to share 🙂

    1. I’m not keen on sending in sweets, but the children still want to take something in. The biscuits are the compromise. I can’t remember which biscuit recipe I used. It was nothing fancy. Just a plain butter biscuit that doesn’t spread. The dragons are great fun. I hope he enjoys his birthday.

Comments are closed.