Decorate-a-Cake with Rainbow Colors

We just had a beautiful nostalgic moment this past weekend. One of our clients who had a Bake a Cake Party for her 9th birthday hosted a Decorate a Cake party for her 6th year old daughter at the NY Harmonie Club.
With 45 children, we needed to come up with a great idea so that the kids could be entertained and participating during the cake decorating component of the party. We decided on a rainbow theme where the 7 colors of the rainbow represented different decorating teams. And to enhance the excitement, we created the Ultimate Birthday Cake Challenge where each team had a leader that would teach them how to use a pastry bag and how to decorate with it.

The Harmonie Club has beautiful regal-looking rooms that are perfect for special events, but when you are throwing a 6 year-old's birthday party you need to make it more fun and colorful. That's why we brought in a lot of color and balloons.

We loved the balloon trees and flower pods that brightened up the room. Each cake decorating table was also covered with a tablecloth that represented the colors of the rainbow.

Besides the decorating, there was also a face painter that dazzled all the little girls with her magical designs...

... and the most fabulous balloon artist who created custom jewelry, wands, dogs and other unimaginable creatures out of balloons.

You could see how impressed the party guests were when they entered the colorful room full of balloons and birthday cheer! While waiting for all the guests to arrive they accessorized their outfits with balloons and face painting. They also personalized their chef hat, a very important component that they would later need for decorating the birthday cake.

When the guests had all arrived they gathered in a circle and were told about their very important mission. They were going to be part of the Ultimate Birthday Cake Challenge, because the Pastry Chef didn't have time to finish The Birthday Cake!

In order to start on this mission they had to be sorted into their teams, so they picked a colored paper out of a chef's hat that corresponded to the color of their team. They dawned their aprons and met with their group and group leader around their respective tables. The tables were all set and ready for them. They had a multitude of pastry tips and practice paper, as well as a colored cake and cupcakes that they would decorate individually and take home.


The guests learned how to color frosting and how to fill pastry bags, they then learned how to make a multitude of flowers, and last but not least, their favorite, the clown!

All the while as the children were decorating, a mock TV crew and reporter interviewed the children as they happily decorated away and sneakily tasted a few frosted fingers.

After perfecting their skills on their individual cupcakes, it was then time to decide on how to decorate the team's cake that they would then present to the birthday girl. The children chose their favorite flowers that they had made and transferred them over to the team's cake.

The cakes looked beautiful and so original! The teams were called up in order of their rainbow color and presented their cake to a gleaming birthday girl. The combined cakes made for a beautiful rainbow. The children were thrilled to have taken part in such an important component of the birthday girl's party.

25 punds of buttercream later, it was time for the guests to eat a few savoury nibbles. A beautiful buffet filled with kid-friendly foods, including ice cream, was a great hunger buster for all 45 kids. They all sat down to eat as they viewed the video of their cake decorating that was now broadcasting in the room's TV.

And after all the hard work and creativity that went into this party the final note was singing happy birthday and eating the cakes that the children decorated themselves.  What a celebration it was, and a great big surprise when they saw the rainbow battered cake lying beneath all the buttercream!

It was a memorable party for the birthday girl and a nostalgic moment for the mother, who had once, many years ago also been in her daughter's shoes.

Linda Kaye's Partymakers Talented Team

Book Feature: Ice Cream Cupcakes

We are very excited at Partymakers since we will be featured in a TV Land Segment of the 'Ultimate Birthday Party'. Linda Kaye will be talking about how to plan the best Children's Birthday Party and demonstrating a few items from her Bake a Cake Party Book. In the book there are many creative ways to design your own cake to cater to your specific party theme, we decided to feature the Ice Cream Cupcakes and give you the sneak peak on our blog to show you how easy they really are to make!

The Bake a Cake Party Book features one easy recipe that you can use for all the cake ideas.

Make sure to beat the ingredients well with a mixer to avoid any lumps.

Prep all your empty ice cream cones (note these have to be flat bottomed cones, not the waffle or sugar cones) and place them on a muffin tin. This holds them in shape without risk of toppling over and baking into each other. If you don't have a muffin tin, use a cake pan but be gentle when moving it into the oven so the cones don't tilt.

You can fill the cones with a pastry bag for a clean rim, or you can use an ice cream scoop or spoon.

You don't want to fill the cones up too much or the batter will overflow. Allow half an inch on top.

When baked, the cupcakes will not all be perfectly smooth, they will be uniquely cracked, which is fine since we want to frost them and that way it gives them a more unique ice cream look! If you are a stickler for perfection and want perfectly round tops, don't fill the cups as much, allow 3/4 of an inch of space, and don't bake as many cupcakes at once. Spread them out more in the muffin tin so they aren't close together, this will alow the heat to reach all of them more evenly.

When the cupcakes have cooled (you can cool them in the fridge or freezer) make your frosting and color it with as many or as few colors as you want!

When your army of frosted ice cream cupcakes is done, you can chose to decorate the top. You can write letters as we show in the Bake a Cake Party Book, or you can add sprinkles, flowers, whatever you wish.

Buy the Bake a Cake Party Book Here for more great and fun ideas for party cakes by Linda Kaye's Partymakers.

A Colorful Spring Celebration

As we tire of the snow and wish for warmer weather, we all want to welcome Spring. March 20th is officially the first day of spring so why not welcome it with a Spring party? Here is a great idea that one of our partymakers Sara, Owner of Stardust Cakes, came up with for a sweet and colorful Spring celebration.

She started with  brightest tablecloth she had. She bought a couple of colorful chinese food boxes and colorful pails from the dollar store. She pulled out all her glassware- you don't need fancy items to make great decor.

She grabbed colorful twizzlers and drooped them from the glasses and pails. For the glassware, she bought some fake grass and filled them with it. She also used paper butterflies to give the spring feel that we all look for in Easter.

No guest went home empty handed either. She bought extra pails and filled them with a variety of candy.

She also found some egg shaped candles and arranged them with pastel colored jelly beans.

It's very easy to create a party ambiance with what you have at home. Don't take for granted all the miss matched porcelain or glassware you may have lurking in the back of your cupboard, it just may help you pull together the most creative party!