The Madness Continues

Although I have already done a Mad Hatter's tea party blog, that was just about cakes and cupcakes, but this time it's about a Mad party!

To start at the very beginning of the party planning I made these tea pot shaped invitations. I cut all the elements out by hand, which was a time consuming process, but I think they turned out rather cute.

This time for the Mad Hatter cake I was able to try something different as often people just want an exact replica of one they found on my website. It's still topsy turvy as most are with the cheshire cat as one of the tiers but it has the added fun elements of the teapot tier, large teacup and Mad hatter's hat. I also like the addition of the roses and hearts alluding to the red queen which is fun to bring in as this party had a few elements of Alice in Wonderland and not just a Mad Hatter's tea party. 

Many of the Alice elements were seen in the decor used in the party room. I had cutouts of the Red Queen and the Cheshire Cat as well as the Mad Hatter of course. These I made from corex and painted. As you can see in some of these pics I also had pompoms hanging from the ceiling.

I also made a 'this way' 'that way' sign that went next to the door

For the party packs I wanted to make them look like teacups. I used party buckets and added a handle and decorated them with flowers, hearts dots and so on. I then placed each one on a paper plate which acted as the saucer.

The thank you tag was in the form of a tea spoon.

The party table was setup for 10 kids and I used different colour chair covers to bring in the brightness and craziness of the Mad Hatter theme. I used cerise table cloths with white dots to make everything look cute and girly.

I love the way the table centre piece came out. I got this idea online, but I love alice's legs going down the rabbit hole and then again bringing in other Alice in Wonderland elements like the cards and toadstools as well as the Mad Hatter's stack of teacups, which couldn't be left out of a Mad Hatter's tea party.

And so ends yet another mad event and in the words of the novels great author

“But I don’t want to go among mad people," Alice remarked.

"Oh, you can’t help that," said the Cat: "we’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad."

"How do you know I’m mad?" said Alice.

"You must be," said the Cat, or you wouldn’t have come here.” 

― Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

Skylander Take Over

There always seems to be a new theme taking top position in the popularity contest of the kid's world. Recently it seems to be Skylanders. I'm still waiting to do the full event, but I've certainly been making a number of baked goodies for this theme.

I had to do 75 of these Skylander element cookies. I used royal icing for these but it was tricky getting the elements to look right. I'm not sure if we even have stencils for this kind of thing available in South Africa, but I landed up making my own make shift ones just by using paper. I cut the elements out of paper, placed them on the cookies and delicately traced around them. Perhaps not the most hi-tech of ideas, but hey it worked.

 I've also made some Skylander cupcakes recently. The sheep are from the game. As far as I remember you ram them to get jewels. I thought this was quite a cute idea instead of the elements. But I have done those in cupcake form as well...

This is the first of the Skylander cakes I made. I was sent this design by the client who found it online. I think the original image was actually done with a air brush to create all the different colours, but not having one of these I did this by hand with a paint brush and some powder color.

      

 

The client was still going to place the plastic figurines of the Skylanders that she had at home onto the cake.

However for my second Skylander cake I made the figurine topper.

So I've made the cookies the cupcakes and the cake, I guess now I'm just waiting for the full take over of a Skylander party...

Despicable Party

The first time I saw the movie Despicable Me I fell in love and it easily took first place in my heart as my favorite movie. It is one of the few movies I can watch again and again and enjoy it every time. Yes I suppose it's not very becoming that an adult should be so hooked by a movie essentially made for children, but I honestly believe animation, despite the perception people have of it, is actually evolving to be targeted at both children and adults. Or maybe that's what I need to tell myself. Never the less my childish spirit makes me proud to admit my love for Despicable Me so much so that for my birthday last year I had a Despicable Me party.

I was so excited when I heard they were making a second Despicable me, but nervous as well in case I was let down. I should have known by that hilarious promo of the minions that it was going to awesome again. I loved the second movie as much as the first and with all the buzz and hype around the film I thought I should maybe share some of the photos from my party last year, which I never got round to doing. Admittedly the photos are horrible as the party was at night and I was a little pre-occupied so many things weren't photographed, but here are some of the things that were...

 

Unfortunately for my birthday cake I didn't have time to put on the finer details I normally would as I was busy with work and had to squeeze in my own party preparation whenever I could. I still love the amount of minions on the cake though (you can never have enough minions) and I was happy with the way my moon came out, obviously a big plot point from the first film. My favorite part of this cake however was the birthday message to myself quoted from the film, "why are you so old". The irony of me having a kiddies theme for my 26th birthday was not lost on me and there is really no reason not to laugh at yourself in life.

I had other theme related food at my party as well. I used fondant to turn normal choc chip cookies into cookie robots

I also had to have the sweets in the dog bowl just like Gru had for the girls when he brought them home the first time. Don't worry this is a brand new dog bowl bought especially for the occasion.

Then chocolate brownies acted as the mud pie Edith gives Miss Hatty and of course I had to have Agnes' unturned butterflies

    

 

The party food couldn't be complete without some minion cupcakes.

The minions also played an important role in my decor. I hand painted these and had them making appearances all over the party area. For the photos however I just have them in a row to get them all in.

                          

  

My best friend also managed to get some promotional minions from a dvd rental shop. These were great to string all over the place. If you can get your hands on these kinds of things they really make for easy effective decor.

I also set up a gazebo area that acted as Gru's lab and our drinking head quarters. I had all kinds of bottles and test tube looking items to simulate a laboratory environment. I also had posters of Gru's plan to steal the moon, which I drew from the movie, including the one the girl's drew of Gru on the toilet, but unfortunately I never took a photo of these.

                                      

 

My favorite item of all the decor however was an amazing birthday gift my genius boyfriend made for me. A 3D minion! I ended up using him as a table centre piece.

And because we are all big kids at heart I also had to have an activity to keep the restless amongst us entertained. I wanted to have the game from the amusement park in the film where Gru wins the fluffy unicorn for Agnes.

I cut out the alien from cardboard and then found inexpensive plastic guns which shot foam balls. Hitting that alien is harder than you think.

I had an absolutely despicable party and my only regret is I didn't take more photos, but I did have an amazing time. I can't wait to do another Despicable Me party for this second film so to all you Cape Townians out there I'm ready when you are;)

I have subsequently gotten an order for a minion cake, but I'm still waiting to get my hands on a full Despicable me party. However here are some pics of my latest despicable creation.