It’s another birthday. An expensive party on location is not really an option. Why not organize a cupcake party for the next children’s party? Fun, easy and fairly cheap! Get the ingredients for making the cupcakes and some extras to decorate them. The advantage is that you can adjust the decorations to the theme of the birthday party or to the taste of the birthday boy or girl. You keep the children busy for a while and you also have an afternoon snack or something to take home. Definitely a success!
Cupcakes: tasty, fun and cheap
Cupcakes are all the rage. Children also love them and spend a lot of time decorating them. So if you don’t know what to think of for your kids’ next birthday party, consider a cupcake party! And what’s nice is that you can adapt the party to the time of year, the theme of the birthday party or the taste of the birthday boy/girl. Just think of Halloween, Christmas, Easter, spring, princesses, a certain color, etc. Just adjust the colors, decoration material and cutters!
Supplies needed for making and decorating cupcakes
You can of course buy everything, but if you take a good look around your house, you will see that you already have a lot. You should definitely have this:
- Baking tins, made of paper or silicone
- a number of rolling pins, preferably made of plastic
- some knives
- several large spoons
- a number of cutting mats, preferably made of plastic
- all kinds of cookie cutters
- cookie cutters letters and numbers
- nutritional markers
- eating pearls
- eating glitter
- edible balls, hearts, confetti, etc
- sprinkles in different colors
- chocolate curls
Supplies needed for the dough
You can buy ready-made dough, but you can also make your own dough. A 4/4 dough is very tasty. Simple and done in no time! Take 250 g self-raising flour, 250 g sugar, 250 g softened butter cut into cubes, 1 to 2 packets of vanilla sugar and 4 eggs. Mix everything well, done! This dough makes about 17 to 18 cupcakes. Count approximately two to three cupcakes per child present. You will therefore need one mixing bowl per dough, and a mixer or a few wooden spoons.
The party invitations
Invite the friends with a custom invitation in the shape of a cupcake. You can also have the children decorate this paper cupcake with glitter or beads, with pieces of paper, with flowers, etc. Allow about three hours for the party if you make the dough yourself in advance, four hours if you let the kids do it. have dough made on site.
The course of the party
Of course, not everything is about the cupcakes. Presents also have to be unwrapped and games can be played while baking.
Gifts and drinks
The kids come in and drop off their presents. The presents are unwrapped, with or without an accompanying game. Afterwards there is something to drink. You explain the purpose of the party and let the kids take a look at the baking and decoration materials.
Make a seizure
Then you start making the dough. If you need to make more than one dough, use 2 or 3 mixing bowls. This way every child has something to do. Count four children per mixing bowl. Have one person put the flour in the bowl, another the sugar, another the softened butter and another the eggs. Mix well. Now fill the molds with a soup spoon. This way each child can fill a number of molds. Paper molds are of course cheaper than silicone molds, but silicone molds retain their shape better and can always be reused. Paper shapes can also sometimes deform during baking. You can also place the paper cases in a special baking tin, but if you have to bake such a lot of cupcakes, that is not convenient. Do not fill the cupcakes to the brim, the dough will still rise! Once the cupcakes are filled, everything goes into the oven, about 30 minutes.
Drink and game
While the cupcakes are in the oven, there is time for a drink and a game. You can also pass around copies with models to decorate the cupcakes. There are many books commercially available with ideas. Do not put the books themselves on the table, as they may spill while making the cupcakes. You can make bees out of your cupcakes, you can decorate them with butterflies or flowers, you can make a football field out of it, you can make a cat out of it, a face, etc. Let the children use their imagination, they will find out for themselves a lot of nice things.
Decorating the cupcakes
To decorate, give each child a plastic cutting mat, a knife and a rolling pin. Also some cooled cupcakes. Place the rolled fondant and/or marzipan in the middle, as well as the glitter, pearls and other decoration items. And then they can get to work. Each child takes a ball of rolled fondant or marzipan and rolls it out into a thin slab. This slice is placed on the cupcake, the excess pieces are cut off and placed back on the block. Then you can further decorate the cupcake.
Simple ideas
For a bee, for example, you roll out a yellow slice. Then you make black stripes and a face and antennae. A pig is made with a pink slice, on which a rose ball is placed for the nose. Just flatten it and make two holes. Fold two triangles over and you have two ears. Two pearls for eyes and your pig’s head is ready! If you don’t have certain colors, you can make them yourself by mixing basic colors. You will find many examples of how to decorate the cupcakes on the internet.
The end of the party
Once all the cupcakes are decorated, they can be eaten. If there are too many cupcakes, each child can take their own cupcakes home. Provide plastic bags and/or small cardboard boxes.
Pros and cons of a cupcake party
As with any children’s party, there are pros and cons to a cupcake party.
Advantages
A cupcake party is cheap because you already have a lot of things at home that you can use. just think of sprinkles, a rolling pin, decoration material, cookie cutters, etc. The children are quietly sweet for a long time, you should not come up with fifty games or calm the children down because they are being too wild. You suddenly have something to eat, you just have to provide drinks. So two birds with one stone. And, you already have a present to take home, so you don’t have to worry about that anymore.
Cons
If you really don’t have any baking and/or decorating materials at home, it can quickly become expensive. With smaller children, decorating quickly becomes a mess. So be sure to work in the kitchen or in a place where cleaning can be done quickly. Small children get tired of it quickly.
Have fun and don’t forget to take pictures of the many works of art!