Shirley's party advice thread part 2

[stealthsquiggle]

...can I take the liberty of starting another thread, since the other one filled up?

OK - Castle cake - will be plenty as an 8" square - it's quite tall, and people only eat/take home small bits. The only reason I might consider making it into a rectangular castle is to have enough towers to match birthday age - when I did it DS was 4, conveniently! I would typically bake on Wednesday, decorate Thurs/Fri for a Saturday party, but madiera will keep for at least a week after that.

Food - I agree you don't need pizza, but if you have the means (and the manpower) to do it then it might be nice to have something warm, given the temperatures. My only other comment would be that you can never have too many mini sausages!

Craft activity - if you can afford it, would be good, as they won't all be on the bouncy castle all the time. Also if you print a load of random knight-and-princess related colouring sheets, there will generally be one or two DC who just want to do that.

I wouldn't bother decorating the bags - unless you fall across any suitable stickers. You're right - bag-decorating would mean you would have to have contents ready-bagged to just drop in, which would be a pain.

Pass the parcel - I would opt for 1 circle, 2-3 parcels, sweets in the layers and a stock to give to those who didn't get a go at the end. Books or paint sets sound fine to me for the prize in the middle.

Music - Disney CDs are guaranteed safe, if you can stand them!

Colouring sheets - genius idea! Will do that, if nothing else.

Bit worried Disney CD's might be seen as a bit babyish, given the age range of the kids (he's in a mixed infant/jnr class so age range from 4-8. I have no idea what kids are in to post 5 years old, and Disney may well be fine!)

Cake again...Grey sugarpaste..Is it best to colour white with dabs of colour paste or get some black sugarpaste and colour the white with small amounts of that (so as to avoid having to colour the white black for the black bits IYSWIM?)

How long did it take you to decorate the castle with all those little bits of sugarpaste? My DH has suggested covering the walls with a sheet of grey sugarpaste and then just adding stonework 'accents'. Would that look rubbish or not?

Are my brown paper bags going to look a bit rubbish as party bags, or will they not care, as long as there's chocolate in them?!

Colouring sheets went down a storm at DD's party. I left out a load of sheets, crayons and a few stickers and the children loved it.

The children won't care about the bags, they'll care about the filling. Brown paper will be fine - it better be, I just bought a load of white paper bags for DS's party!

Thanks, Blathers. Wish I was as organised as you...I always start planning things with ages to go and then it all falls by the wayside so I end up in a blind panic with less than a week to go!

Not so much organised as over-excited :)

The stone effect walls are actually a lot more forgiving of wobbly walls than plain icing would be. That said, your DH has a point. Look closely at the pictures in the book - the stones are a lot bigger than mine were. I realised mistake part way up the first wall, but it was too late and it did indeed take hours and hours to do!

Oh, and given that you will need black anyway, I would get some of each and then blend them in different proportions for the different shades of grey.

Can anyone suggest a cake recipe that would make a nice, moist yet wide and shallow cake for the pizza cake?

I've got a huge cake tin from when I made our wedding cake but have only ever done fruit cake in it. I'm getting a little worried that a sponge cake might burn on the outer edges before the middle cooks.

I need it to be moist too as there will be no filling in the middle, just topping.

It obviously needs to be crust coloured too so probably plain Vanilla that will go golden as it cooks.

It would be trial and error, but I would suggest Nigella's buttermilk cake, cooked very cautiously (low heat) might be the safest bet?

I'm off to get me a baby. X x x

Good Luck DW.

We'll await the photos :)

Funnily enough Stealth, I was thinking a Nigella cake. I made the 'Spruced Up Vanilla cake from the Christmas book for Christmas at MIL's and it went down really well.

Got the jelly pizzas for 40p each on the market this morning and have a cheap pack of felt tips to do the badges with.

Still 5 weeks 'til the party

you are so overexcited, Blathers

I know. It's cute not sad right?

Of course. I suspect RL people might not think it was quite normal, but who am I to judge - I am already considering options for DD's next party in October.....

DW, hope it all went well - it's making me feel broody

well, my baby was 5 today! Party went well (I think) although it was quite chaotic with so many people (about 11 parents stayed!) I must admit I didn't really get to enjoy it very much as was too busy running around like a headless chicken. DD had a lovely time though which is the most important thing.

stealth I had a cake disaster!! Had to go for plan B as didn't order brown sugar paste in time and couldn't find any in the shops and no brown colour to dye the white either. So the cake I made went in the bin and we had a quick trip to the supermarket about an hour before the party started .

teddy bear biscuits were tasty though and they all enjoyed decorating them.

Oh dear sitsyou - the good news is that no-one else will have noticed. DIY parties are, undoubtedly, hard work - but I bet DD had a lovely time and her friends will remember it.

Oh no sitsyou!

But as Stealth says, no one will have noticed so no harm done and as you said, as long as your DD had fun then that's all that counts. We were having a lovely chat on my old antenatal thread the other day about the lovely memories that everyone had from the parties and dress up things that their parents had done for them when they were little. It was really lovely. We may all be a little crazy but the memories we're making for them (and us) are magic :)

the kids really enjoyed it. I think if we have that many people again we'll hire the local church hall or something. It was hard to keep an eye on people and I missed a lot bec I was in the kitchen. Still glad I did it though

and I AM going to make that party bag cake on day, maybe for DD2's bday as I have half the ingredients now!

On dh's iPhone. Still in hospital. Lucie Lydia born 2pm on Monday. I know I know alliteration but I liked both names too much not to use them. She is an absolute angel. Haven't heard her cry and feeds a dream. Total opposite to dd1.

Lovely to read of parties. Great bargains blathers. Feel free to look up christening ideas on pinterest.

Oooooooh. Congratulations, DrsW, and welcome Lucie Lydia...

Buried, stupidly so, in work right now, but will definitely start vicarious Christening planning when it calms down a bit.

Congratulations DW, and it always makes me laugh when people say 'oh I bet it's different having a boy', the biggest difference in our family is between dd1 + dd2, ds is a combo personality wise of the two of them.

Two days till our first fairy party, fairly relaxed organisation wise, going to make rainbow cake tonight, just got red jelly to add to rainbow jellies, making rainbow marshmallow krispies on sat am, and mini pizzas they will do at the party. Just wish people didn't keep messing the house up, at least with a hired hall it is tidy to start with and tidy at the end, but would be excessive for just 5 girls!

Congratulations DW! What a beautiful name.

Oooh a baby! Congratulations TheDrsWife!

DS's birthday tomorrow, Party on saturday. Still got loads to do (icing the cake not panicking, should only take a couple of hours...wrapping pass/parcel, deciding on games/prizes...) Everyone bar 4 children have accepted (2 no's and 2 no replys) which makes 29 .

Hoping this snow forecast is completely wrong as if my bouncy castle man can't get here I'll have a lot more work to do! (Would still expect majority of children to show, even in snow as most are very local)