Tag: parenthood

Previously we shared the planning of our daughter’s Alice in Wonderland themed birthday party. If you missed it, please click here.

One of my favorite things to do for my kids’s birthday parties is to create a fun cake and a beautiful dessert table.

For the first time I really had time to plan ahead all the details. There was just one problem, the whole time I had a feeling that something could destroy all my planning.

If you have a 6 year old at home you are probably guessing it right. I had the feeling that sooner or later she was going to change her mind about the theme and ruin all my ideas.

OMG why do they have to change the theme of their party almost every week???

I guess the fact that she was so involved in every single detail of the party really helped her to stick with Alice’s theme!

My friend from Fêtes de Jardin was in charge of the décor and she did an amazing job!

For the dessert table we used a standard six-foot-long folding table that we already had with a black and white tablecloth placed over it. To display the snacks, we used our barbeque, we covered the grill with a table cloth and placed the trays on it.

We made a platter with cheese, pistachios, peanut, pretzel, some veggies (cucumber, brocoli, bell peppers and tomates) and some fruits (cantaloup, strawberry and grapes). We also had popcorn (the birthday girl’s favourite snack) and some hotdogs.

Yummy Treats!

Now let’s get into the fun stuff, the actual Alice in Wonderland themed treats! Stick with me here, because I’m going to take you one by one through them all.

The Cake

First, let’s start with the cake! The cake is a chocolate cake filled with creamy dark chocolate ganache and frosted with buttercream. We started the prep for the cake 2 weeks in advance and this was very important in order to give all the decorations and the figurine enough time to dry. Alice helped with the easier things, such as cutting the dots for the mushrooms.

To make the vintage key we mixed fondant with CMC to help in the drying process. I always add CMC to fondant whenever I’m doing a figurine or any decoration that needs to be very dry and solid. When the keys were already dried Alice painted them in gold, using edible gold dust. Once the painted keys were dry we stored them in a small cardboard box. Important!! Keep it in mind that you should store fondant decorations in a dark container away from sunlight and humidity.  

For the simpler flowers (the pink ones) we used a plunger cutter. And the best part is the kids can do this task with almost no supervision.

For the red roses, we cut the petals with a special cutter and right away assembled all together to make the rose. The trick is to assemble each rose as you cut the petals because the gumpaste will still be flexible and wont break so easily.

These roses are incredibly easy to make and they will take your cakes and cupcakes to a higher level. So, please comment in this post if you would be interested in a gumpaste flower tutorial.

We did not use any cutter or mold for the mushrooms, the clock, the door, the fence or for Alice’s figurine.

Cakepops

Next we had Arabesque cakepops – They are chocolate flavoured and they are so easy to make. Firstly I mixed some leftover cake with brigadeiro (you can also use ganache, dulce de leche or buttercream).  Secondly, I rolled them into balls. Then I gave a coat of blue chocolate and added a black fondant bow, just like Alice’s.

Macarons

Next we had macarons. I needed a few different colours and very little quantity of each. There’s just one problem, it would take forever to bake all the colours I wanted. So, in an effort to save time (and stress) I purchased them at Costco. It was definitely a huge time saver; it comes in 6 different colours and flavours and they taste delicious.

Brigadeiro

To keep the Brazilian tradition alive, we could not leave the brigadeiros out! Alice and her brother are always volunteering and happy to help with the brigadeiros.

I can almost hear you thinking that it is a crazy idea to let the kids near the chocolate. Yes! They will make a mess and they will eat a few brigadeiros (Sugar Rush!!!). But let’s say it is only for quality control!

If you want to learn how to make the most amazing brigadeiro, click here.

Cookies

The cookies were simple vanilla butter cookies. We cut them into 3 different shapes, a round one for the clock, and 2 different vintage plaques, one we used for the keyhole and the other we used to write “eat me” on it. The good thing about an Alice in Wonderland Party is that everything that you add “Eat me” will match the theme!!

Chocolate

I decided to make these cute solid painted chocolates after I found an old tea party themed silicon chocolate mold. And I’m really happy that they matched the Alice in Wonderland party theme after all.

If you have any questions, please reach out! I will be more than happy to answer!

Don’t forget to visit the first part of this post.

We always wanted to throw an Alice in Wonderland themed birthday party for our daughter! At the same time, we always thought it’s a complex theme for a young age. We wanted her to be able to enjoy the party and at the same understand the theme.

It’s her first year at Primary School and we did not want a big party. We planned to do something intimate and cozy in our backyard. She invited 6 of her closest friends. It allowed us to customize the favors and also focus on the quality of the Goddie Bags. (If you ever had to prepare 20/30 Goodie Bags, you know what I’m talking about! $$$ Cast the first stone those who have never gone through Halloween candies to prepare the goodie bags). 

We did not expect her to get so involved in planning the party as she did. She wanted to participate and brought her opinion in every detail of her party. First of all, she started by helping Mom to choose the cake design. (that one was literally “a piece of cake” since Mom is a cake designer!!) Then, they went through hundreds of Pinterest boards to select ideas for the sweet table and for the decorations. She helped Mom with the decorations for the cake and cupcakes.

Activities

For the activities, we chose:

• 3 colors challenge with Alice in Wonderland coloring page.

• Cupcake workshop

• “Find the hidden key”

The idea to do a game with keys turned out really fun and the girls loved it. As soon as the girls arrived, each one was assigned a colour of ribbon and they received a bracelet with their colour. After the 3 colours challenge, they had to find the keys hidden in our backyard.

For this game we bought a set of vintage keys and tied each key with a different colored ribbon. They enjoyed it so much! I was so happy to hear that the next day some of the girls went to school wearing the key as a pendant.

The Favors

The favors included a bag with “Eat me” cookies, a “drink me” bottle and a UNBIRTHDAY gift. The UNBIRTHDAY gift was a coloring book and Colored Pencil Set.

Literally 5 minutes before the Party started, I decided to make some signs and instead of receiving the girls by the front door, it guided them directly to our backyard. It is very simple. First of all you need to print a big arrow with the words you want. Then you have to glue them into a cardboard box. I used one that was laying around the house for weeks refusing to go to recycling. Then I cut it out in arrow shape and placed the signs outside the house. I believe that with more time this would look so much better! The best part is that the girls loved it and pretty much all the parents played along!

On AliExpress we bought the beautiful Alice’s dress and also the pair of striped socks.

Our friend from Fêtes de Jardins was in charge of the décor and she did an amazing job as always! Thanks Dany

Click here to check the details for the dessert table.

You can find more ideas in our Pinterest Board.