Cupcake Wars Party Details

Here are the party details for the Hannah's Cupcake Wars party

Here was the entrance when the guests walked through the door.  I loved the way my awning turned out.  I got a large canvas cloth from Joanns, used a plate to trace out the scallops, cut them and measured lines and used painters tape to paint the lines.  I also used two tension rods i got at Target to put the awning in place.   And the balloons to add to the celebration.  I love it!

The entry table was decorated with some fun baking items.  

Some of the details of the entry table.  I used cupcake liner garlands all of the house.  They were the main decoration and added so much fun to the decorations.  I used all sizes, big white jumbo liners, regulars sized liners and mini liners.  The different sizes created a lot of dimension and interest.

I got the cute cupcake holders at the Dollar Store (2 for $1) and used those as the favors for the girls to take home. I  used vinyl to personalize them with the girl's name and filled them up with Jelly Bellies.  I created a recipe card to attach to it that says "You are the frosting to my cupcakes.  Thanks for coming to my party!"

I had cupcake carrying boxes ready for the girls to put their finished cupcakes in at the end of the party and take home with them.  I attached a label with each girl's name on it.  And then the cute and perfectly coordinated baking utensils that I got at Walmart.

I had another small table decorated with the awards for the different baking categories and some other goodies for the girls to eat.  I filled cupcake liners with yummy treats the girls could eat.  Then I had some cute jars filled with salt water taffy. These were some of the prizes along with a fancy cupcake kit (wrapped) as the award for the grand prize winner.

Each girl was given an apron to wear.  I made these aprons starting with a basic canvas apron I purchased here.  And then followed these instructions to add the ruffles (and changing some things to fit my style and needs).   I absolutely LOVE how these aprons turned out.  

On the table at each placesetting, each girl got a chef's hat with their name on it (vinyl), a cupcake stand that they were going to decorate as part of the competition, sprinkles for the decorating of their cupcakes and a glass bottle dipped in sprinkles for milk.  

For the hats, we started the party by decorating them with cupcake liners made to look like flowers.  I got the idea from here. 

The rules for scoring and how the competition was going to take place was displayed.  This is how we ran the competition:

First Round was making the cupcakes.  We separated the girls into 2 teams.  One team was to make chocolate cupcakes and the other team was to make vanilla cupcakes.  I had secret ingredients that the girls had to include in their cupcakes.  Now these secret ingredients weren't as bizarre as the shows... they were sure things like: toffee bits, crushed oreos, crushed nilla wafers, fruity pebbles cereal and crushed Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal.

The girls had a blast baking the cupcakes.  I used some altered cake mix recipes.  Using the cake mixes make it simpler for the girls, but the added ingredients to make them super yummy made the activity more fun and feel like real baking.

Second Round was decorating their cupcake displays or stands.  Each girl got a cupcake stand.  Their challenge was to decorate it using paint, gems, ribbon etc.  The cutest cupcake stand got an award.

I had to piece together the stands.  I can't remember the exact place I got them, but google wooden candlesticks and wooden discs or medals or circles and you should be able to find some in your budget.  I then glued the two pieces together using E6000 glue.

Third Round was the decorating of the cupcakes.  Each girl got 5 cupcakes to decorate.  1 was to put on their stand as the cupcake they wanted judged (for decoration and taste) and then 4 that they got to package up and take him with them.

Lastly, we judged the OVERALL WINNER.  The baker that had all the right stuff when it came to taste,   decorating and painted cupcake stand.

Here are some other details to the party.  Loved the colorful frostings with the ribbon.  Ribbon and bows always makes everything so much cuter :-)

The cupcake wreath tutorial can be found here.  

I bought plastic plates and used vinyl (yet again) to make the cute cupcake in the center of them.  

The recipe for the cupcakes I put on a big giant recipe card and hung it over where the girls would be baking.  If you are so observant, you will notice that the Vanilla recipe calls for chocolate pudding and chips.. I mixed them up, so the vanilla cupcake side had the chocolate recipe and vice versa.  it was an "ugh" moment, but I wasn't about to start over, so I just warned the girls :-)

Here is a great picture of one of the bakers and their cupcake masterpieces.  Man alive.  She didn't win, but she probably should have, am I right?

The girls were so cute.  Many of them named their cupcake creations.  They gave them clever names like "the leaning tower of cupcake"  (that would be the cupcake seen below) or the Black and White (it was a s'more themed cupcake).  The girls had a total blast with this.   The party was 2 1/2 hours long, but it could have easily been 3 hours.  They took this decorating thing very seriously.

And and I almost forgot the invitations.  I always say "the invitation sets the stage" so I decided to a "baker's tool" as the centerpiece of the invitation.  The good, ol' trusty wooden spoon :-)

So, there you have it.  One of my more favorite birthday parties to throw.  The girls loved it too, they kept telling me how fun it was, so that verifies it... a great birthday party in my book.  Seriously, if you daughter is over 10 years old and loves to bake, this is the theme for you... CUPCAKE WARS!