Tinkerbell Birthday Party

Well lets start with the best part, shall we, the Tinkerbell cake!. Aunt Susan created another fabulous cake for my daughter's birthday. It was a hazelnut cake with chocolate filling. The cute little mushrooms on the cake are made with meringue. You can find a good tutorial on how to make the mushrooms on Joy of Baking if you feel like giving it a try.

I served the cake with vanilla ice cream and these cute little mushroom cookies (made by Meiji). It's all about the details.


For decorations, I always like to use two colors that relate to the theme. Since the theme was "Tinkerbell" I went with purple and lime green. I recommend staying away from the copyrighted party products. This will help cut down on cost and give a more sophisticated look to your party. For example, instead of buying paper plates with Tinkerbell's face printed on them, I used lime green plates. The only Tinkerbell product I did purchase was confetti. I used the confetti to decorate the birthday banner and some other items.

Flowers - I like to use carnations because they come in just about all colors, they're inexpensive, and they last a long time.

Giant Flower Pom Poms - I made these using the tutorial on the Martha Stewart Site. I purchased the tissue paper at the dollar store. Pom poms are a great way to make a big statement for a small amount of money. It cost me about one dollar per pom-pom.

To continue with the theme, I added some radishes carved into mushrooms to the veggie platter. I found a good tutorial on how to make these at Anna the Red's Bento Factory.


Since this party consisted of mainly adults, it was important for me to have a good menu. To cut back on prep time I purchased Vietnamese sandwiches (top right & bottom left pictures). Sometimes it's actually cheaper to purchase food rather than make it, seriously. These 12 inch sandwiches cost $2.50 each. I served this with two salads and fresh fruit, easy right? In the top left corner is a spring mix salad with poppy seed dressing. I'll be posting the recipe for that Friday. In the bottom right corner is a delicious sweet potato and poblano salad with honey and rosemary dressing. You can find the recipe at Epicurious.

* most of the pictures were taken by Uncle Danny

Have any good party tips? Feel free to share in the comments.