I just came across this idea for a birthday party and I'm trying to come up with ideas for how I could make it work. Most of the kids will be between the ages of three to five. Anyone want to brainstorm with me?

- how many cupcakes per child?
- what kind of cupcake decorations should I get?
- do I buy the ready-to-squirt icing or get fancy and get cake decorating bags for the frosting with fancy tips etc? there are some ready-made cans of icing that have a selection of nozzle choices - do I go with those?
- are there any cool cake decoration items out there that I should check out? (we don't really eat cake much in our house!)
- what activities / games could we do in addition to the decorating that would flow with the cupcake theme?
- what party favors would you have for a cupcake party? there will be boys and girls, so gender-neutral ideas are best.

It seems that pretty much all of our friends-with-kids plan elaborate very themed parties for their children. Last year our party was very casual and didn't have any theme at all. While I don't need to get crazy Martha Stewart, I kind of like the idea of having a theme (cupcakes) to stick with.

What a great idea! Sounds like a lot of fun. Here's what I'd probably do:


Give each child one cupcake (or two - max) to decorate. If you can do oversized cupcakes, even better!
Put different colored frostings in disposable pastry bags... or simply make your own with zip-top bags with a corner cut off.
Put lots of fun sprinkles, tubes of gel frosting, candies, etc. in colorful muffin cups or muffin tins in front of the kids.
Place the decorating supplies in the center of the table and let 'em at it!
Have the party outside or on a hard surface to make clean-up easy.


As for games and stuff, you could do "Pin the Candle on the Cupcake" instead of "Pin the Tail on the Donkey". Just make a giant cupcake and a bunch of little candles for pinning.

What about some sort of cupcake art project? You could print out images of cupcakes, cut them out and glue them to white treat bags (or let the kids glue them on as part of the project) then let the kids loose with glitter, glue, feathers, crayons, markers, etc. Write each child's name on the bottom of the bag then after the activity take the bags into another room and fill them with favors that they can take home with them.

Your party sounds like it will be lots of fun! Good luck with all the planning! :thumb

We've done cupcake decorating for a party. Not as a theme, which sounds very cute, just as a substitute for cake and as an activity.

I iced the cupcakes with plain white icing and then set out a couple of colors of tubes of icing from the store along with sprinkles. That seemed to make everyone happy. Although ours was at DS' 3rd birthday and all the kids were that age or younger.

I did one cupcake per person, so I guess some of the kids may have decorated their parent's cupcake as well.

Hmm, invitations and themed paper napkins/plates should be easy to find if you want them. Maybe you could do a homemade cupcake or muffin mix for goodie bags? Perhaps, pin the candle on the cupcake as a game? Or hot cupcake (instead of hot potato)?

Catherine

in terms of party favors you could find or make small child size aprons to take home. I just saw some at a dollar tree (im thinking about doing a child messy art party myself) . There are patterns online and it would use roughtly about 1 yd fabric per apron and if you find $1 fabric it would be inexpensive keepsake. YOu could box up their creations in pastry boxes. Wilton and martha stewart line have cupcake boxes (holds 4 reg size) and then they can take home and you can still cut a cake if you want and tie with festive ribbon.

I just did this with 6 6-year-old boys. It wasn't the main event, just the cake part of the party, so I didn't have games or favors in the same theme.

Each guest got one cupcake.
Each guest got a small cup of frosting (think Dixie cup, 2 T of frosting) and a small knife.
The decorations were candy and sprinkles (I didn't think tubes of frosting were a good idea for this particular crew!). Most kids ended up making a face design (think gummi worm mouth and M&M eyes).

One thing to consider is if/when to sing and blow out candles. It might mean some guests waiting to eat their creations while other guests finish. Keep a good tab on the vibe of the group during this activity!

:notes: all the cool ideas!!!! thanks. :thumb

- how many cupcakes per child?
Since it's the theme of the party, and not just one of many activities, I would do 3. One for eating at the party, one to take home, and one to give someone (to a sibling, grandma, whoever.)

- what kind of cupcake decorations should I get?
Look out side the decorations aisle at the supper market. Thin stick pretzels can be spikes or lines. Bunny grahams can hop across a grassy green cup cake. Goldfish crackers can swim around a wavy blue cupcake. The candy aisle is also full of stuff you could use.

- do I buy the ready-to-squirt icing or get fancy and get cake decorating bags for the frosting with fancy tips etc? there are some ready-made cans of icing that have a selection of nozzle choices - do I go with those?
If you have time homemade icing will taste ten times better. I would put some in cups with blunt butter knives for spreading. For squirting you can put some in baggies with a small snip in the corner. Proper decorating tips are an option, but I wouldn't bother with them for that age group, only a small percentage of 3-5 yo will have the dexterity to make much use of them.

- are there any cool cake decoration items out there that I should check out? (we don't really eat cake much in our house!)
Do you have an AC Moore, Joannes, or a Micheals near you? they have stuff, but I would probably mostly just stick with the basic stuff from the super market.

- what activities / games could we do in addition to the decorating that would flow with the cupcake theme?
Make paper cupcake hats or bags.

Find songs with the word cupcake in them, or substitute the word cupcake for other words in favorite songs. "It's fun to eat the C-U-P-cake" to the tune of "YMCA" by the Village People, for example.

Have a cupcake hunt. Similar to a easter egg hunt, but for paper (or felt, or toy) cupcakes.

Play "hot potatoe" but make it "hot cupcake"

Make a cupcake shaped pinata.

- what party favors would you have for a cupcake party? there will be boys and girls, so gender-neutral ideas are best.
Look for cupcake shaped stationary items, such as stickers, erasers, etc.

If you have a lot of time on your hands (haha!) or just like this kind of thing, you could make cupcake party favors out of felted wool sweaters. A friend made a set for my kids as play food, and they love them! The first link is to a book with a lovely picture of this idea on the front:

Warm Fuzzies (http://www.amazon.com/dp/1600610072?tag=betwhifelwooa-20&camp=14573&creative=327641&linkCode=as1&creativeASIN=1600610072&adid=1Z35DKAN7FX6FTK66ENC&)

The second link is to an Instructable about the idea:

Cupcake Pincusion (http://www.instructables.com/id/Cupcake-Pincushion/)

Of course, you would use either small beads for sprinkles instead of pins, or nothing at all. Ours just have a cherry on top and are adorable!

i think skip the frosting decorations. cans are hard to make the frosting come out and bags are complicated for kids. i would give them white frosting (or have several colors available to choose from ) and let them pile on the sprinkles and candy and such.

could you do up something like (http://cuteordeath.deviantart.com/art/Dress-a-Cupcake-Game-39855863)this but with cut and glue or stickers. or even just give them a coloring sheet with a blank cupcake and let them decorate it with glitter, paint etc

here is a craft tjhat seems do-able : http://familycrafts.about.com/cs/makingflowers/a/bltraceccflower.htm

you could give them something like the laight weight modeling clay (crayola makes it, i forget what it is called) and have them make cupcake shaped charms for a necklace.

ok this one you may or may thing is over the top. . . .frost a bunck of mini muffin sized cupcakes with lots of gooey frosting. put a big bullseye target on the side of the your garage or something. have them chuck cup cakes at the wall to see who can stivck on closest to the bulls eye.

pin the tail on the donkey . . .except have a big cupcake on the wall and give them some sort of decoration (cherry on top?) that they need to get close to a certain place.

you can make a giant cupcake floor puzzle with cardboard or poster board. cut out the chape, paint it or use markers, and then cut into peices.

how long do you want the party to be. maybe you could actually bake the cupcakes, play a couple games while they cool, then decorate.

party favors. . . maybe find some cheap chefs hats and aprons. decorate with fabric paint or markers. or even get some iron on transfer paper for your printer, take a picture of the group at the beginning of the party and while your doing yourthing have a helper printing off the picture and ironing it on the apron. you can also have the kids decorate the apron.

I might give the kids some pictures of neat cupcakes for "inspiration", as sometimes without an idea, it can just be a "pile it on" thing, which can be fun, but may only take a minute :o. You know... pictures of cupcakes being faces, rainbows, scenes...

How about adding ice-cream and they could expand to their own sundae too?

Cupcake pinata?

I love the decorating aprons! How about decorating a plate to take them home?