Calling All Cakes!

I love it when someone sees a good idea and runs with it and does their own thing!

That’s just what a couple of you have done with the candy bar cake idea we shared here on the blog!!

Thanks to Jenni for sharing her darling version of a candy bar cake.  I really like the smaller size….

and here is Carolyn from Australia’s version!!  Yes, all the way from Australia.  Love her use of ribbon and a candle on top!

And here it is all wrapped up and ready to give to someone.

The other cake idea we shared this week was that cute diaper cake.  My niece Michelle sent me a few more photos of another darling diaper cake she made – so cute!!!  Won’t someone I know please have a baby so I can make one of these!!

Do you have a picture of a fun cake you have made?  Any kind of cake?  I’d love to share them here on Your Homebased Parties.  Just send the picture in a jpeg and brief description of the event the cake was for and I’d love to highlight you and your cake here on the blog!

How to Make a Candy Cake

Thanks to my friend Laurie who sent me this amazing idea for a candy cake!

A cake made out of your favorite candy bars – who wouldn’t love one!

I think it is the perfect gift for just about any chocolate/candy loving person in your life.  I know a few college age boys who would love one!!

Here’s what Laurie has to say about her idea:

Here is an idea that I’ve used for years for our parties and gift-giving… Candy Cakes! It’s been so much fun making them for family and friends. The “cakes” usually end up being the hit of the party. My daughters like making them for their friends and I love seeing their variations.

These Candy Cakes usually cost less than $10 to make and can be customized for any event. They can be made up well in advance since they don’t get stale like real cakes. They can be assembled anywhere (even in a hotel room if you’re traveling). I usually use round tins with solid colored sides (I discard the lids) but as you can see in my photo, other shapes work well too.

For the cake shown below Laurie found a 25-bar variety pack of candy bars at Target for $6.99 (did not use them all) plus a few smaller bars for the top tier. The tins were 50 cents at her local thrift shop (she runs them through the dishwasher first and I bet you could find some at the dollar store too).

 Thanks to Laurie for the great step by step tutorial!

Step One:  Gather supplies.  candy bars, tins without lids, cardboard circle, foil, double sided tape, paper shred.

 

Step Two:  Cover cardboard circle with foil.  Attach several strips of tape to top edge of largest tin.

 

Step Three:  Place tin upside down (i.e. taped side down) in center of cardboard circle.

 

Step Four: Attach a smaller tin on top if desired using tape.

 

Step Five:  Using strips of double sided tape, attach candy bars around bottom tin.

 

Step Six:  Use several strips on each candy bar to make sure they adhere well.

 

Step Seven: Keep adding candy bars around tin.  Try not to eat any!

 

Step Eight: Finished with bottom tin.

 

Step Nine: Repeat on top tin with smaller candy bars.

 

Step Ten:  Add paper shred if desired.

 

Step Eleven:  Add a paper strip on top…

 

or a bow….

 

or a fun toy or even a tiny blue pail filled with even more candy.

 

Perfect for any occasion!

 

Wrap in cellophane for the finishing touch and easy transport.

 

Who are you going to make your first candy cake for??

Birthday Gift Idea – Through the Decades

Note:

Please excuse my lack of posting here at Homebased Parties.  A combination of technical problems due to a mean old blog hacker and a case of tennis elbow have slowed me up a bit!  I’m getting back into the swing of things here though and have lots of fun party ideas to share with you.  If you have a fun party idea to share I’d love to hear about – send me pictures!  You could be a Party Guest here on the blog!!

As you may remember I celebrated a pretty big birthday earlier this month!!  In fact I turned 5 decades old.

My friend Sherra who lives in Atlanta wasn’t able to be at the party but she sent me the most amazing gift.  I wanted to share it with you because it is the perfect gift idea for someone celebrating one of those milestone birthdays – the ones that end in zero!

She helped me take a trip down memory lane, through the 5 decades of my life.

Of course, who doesn’t love to receive packages in the mail?!  Especially when they are filled with lots of other packages!

 

In fact there was a present and a picture  for each decade of my life!
 
I was so cute back in the 60’s!

 

Sherra found this amazing vintage – yes I guess I am old enough for something from my childhood to be called vintage – party book.  It was perfect and I absolutely love it.  It reminds me of a Betty Crocker Children’s cookbook I had as a child!

 

And then the 70’s, not such a great look with my long straggly hair.

 

But I actually squealed when I opened the 70’s gift – it was a coaster made from an old 45 of Donny Osmond singing “Go Away Little Girl” and an entire CD of Donny!  I love it!!  Yes, I was one of those teenage girls with posters of Donny all over my bedroom!

 

And then the 80’s  complete with my nice permed hair and my first baby.

 

What a better gift for the 80’s than a collection of great 80’s hits!  Remember Wake Me Up Before You Go – Go by Wham and Change of Heart by Cyndi Lauper?!

 

And then there was my business look of the 1990’s

 

I love the Southern Living magazine so was excited to get their collection of  their best recipes from the 1990’s!

  
Think I’m looking a little better in the 2,000’s!

 

One of my dreams was to travel to Italy with some girlfriends to celebrate our 50th birthdays together and take cooking classes.  Unfortunately that dream isn’t going to come true this year (I’m going to England instead!!) but Sherra sent me another cookbook with lots of yummy Italian recipes so I can teach myself!

 

And then there was the Here & Now.

 

This present was some of my favorite things!  Pretty notebooks and some great motivational art!
 

Wasn’t that an amazing gift!  Sherra did all of her shopping on Etsy.

Surprise 50th Birthday Party

I am the one usually giving the party.

In fact, it’s been a lot of years since someone gave a party for me….

But that all changed this weekend when my sweet family and dear Beach Babe friends (a group of women I have known for over 20 years)threw a surprise party for my 50th birthday. I know, it’s hard to believe, but I am 50!!!

I have a couple of other girlfriends that also turn 50 this year. For years we talked about celebrating our fiftieth birthdays together, in Italy, taking cooking classes. Well, over the years life happens and things change and we knew that the dream was no longer a reality, at least not right now. When my Beach Babe friends heard about the lost dream they knew that the party they were throwing for me needed to have an Italian theme!

We were greeted at the door by this lifesize menu!

There was lots of yummy Italian food to enjoy.

 

I have some friends that are very good cooks!
 

My family had done a great job of compiling a guest lists and so many of my friends from different parts of my life were all there!

 

And my sweet parents were there to celebrate with me too.

 

My family put on an entertaining program complete with a printed program.  Thanks to my good friend Julie who is the queen of organization who put together the invite, program, menu etc.

 

Logan and Cali did the 12 hours of mom’s day sung to the 12 Days of Christmas – it was hilarious and their actions were even more entertaining!

 

On the first hour of mom’s day her to do list said….

One ten mile walk in a weighted vest

Two Webinars

Three Scrapbooks

Four care packages

Five diet cokes

Six grocery store visits

Seven trips to Anthropologie

Eight million pictures

Nine books to read

Ten recipes to cook

Eleven phone calls to kids

Twelve new blog posts

 

Next on the agenda was a song by my friend Merrill set to The Impossible Dream.  Part of it went like this…

“To write the unwritable blog, to bake the unbakeable bread, to live in the Garden of Eden…..

 

Clark and Tessa helped out with the entertainment too.  They put on a skit about Jim and I in another 50 years!  They were hilarious and pretty much nailed us!!  Complete with Jim’s plaid shirt and baseball cap and my multiple pairs of glasses!

 

Then Logan sang a sweet song from Fiddler on the Roof called  “Mama, a Rainbow.”  The words start out, “What do you give to the lady who has given all her life and love to you?  …..What can I give you, what will your present be? Mama young and beautiful, always young and beautiful.  That’s the Mama I’ll always see.  That’s for Mama with love from me.”

 

Of course it made me and just about everyone else in the room cry!

The program finished up with a few funny things from Jim and my Mom, or at least they thought they were funny!

 

The program concluded when Jim presented me with my birthday gift.  To read more about it check out my post over at Your Homebased Mom.  Of course I loved it and it made me cry too!

,

After the program we had birthday cake, my favorite – lemon poppyseed creamcheese from Beaverton Bakery! 

 

And my husband made a sweet toast.

 

Thanks to my amazing friends the Beach Babes….

 

and my wonderful family for making this a birthday I will never forget!

 

Turning 50, just the beginning of a great new era in my life.  Maybe I’ll go to Italy for my 60th!!

Party Guest} Too Cute – Two Years Old

My good friend and amazing photographer Meg is also a great party planner!

Her darling daughter Addy recently turned two and Meg created a fun and magical family celebration for her daughter.

Balloons always add a fun and colorful touch to any party and are the quickest and easy way to establish a color theme.

Meg used her creative abilities to create this easy and inexpensive but darling banner to celebrate Addy’s big day!

 

The banner is made out of pink paper plates from Target- how cute is that!
 

Meg added some letters to spell Addy’s name and the number 2 which she cut out of paper along with some other cute embellishments and ribbon. Meg’s creativity didn’t stop there, she made a darling little apron for Addy too. (Simplicity Pattern 3802)

 

 

Addy looks so cute in her cupcake apron and is perfectly attired to serve tea with this darling tea set  her mother made out of felt for her.

 

Since little Addy is definitely the princess at her house who better to grace the top of her birthday cake then  Cinderella! (cake from Safeway)

 

Here’s what Meg had to say about the special day she created for her daughter:

For my daughter’s second birthday I wanted to keep things relatively low key and thought a tea party day with mom would be a memorable way to celebrate her special day. I spent the weeks prior crafting her a little felt tea set and sewing a darling hostess apron out of her favorite fabric! We spent most of her birthday morning picking up the cake and prepping for our little party. She chose a Cinderella cake and a variety of pink and green balloons. Then we dressed up and played with our treasures. It was a wonderful day, filled with meaningful make believe and a magic that we both enjoyed.

What a lucky little two year old.  Thanks to Meg and Addy for sharing their special party with us here at Your Homebased Parties!

Tween Birthday Party

Today’s featured party is one I consulted on.  It was the 12th birthday party for my sweet next door neighbor Molly.  When her mom, Katie, contacted me about helping with the party she told me the party theme was “blue and peace signs.”  Not your everyday birthday party theme but we can work with that! 

Katie wanted to do cupcakes and a candy bar.  White cupcakes with all kinds of blue toppings looked very festive and made a great centerpiece for the table!
 

Oreos dipped in white chocolate with blue sprinkles were also very popular!  Katie used the peppermint Joe Joes from Trader Joes – so yummy!
 

The candy bar consisted of lots of fun candy.

Since Katie conveniently lives next door to me so we used my collection of white and clear glass containers to give a cohesive look to the table.  We grouped the candy into color themes – there was the blue and white/silver candy…

 

the blue and yellow candy….

 

and then the bright, rainbow colored candy….

 

We almost forgot the red licorice!
 

There were cute little Chinese take out boxes for the girls to fill with their candy and fun little smiley faces and peace signs to decorate the table.

 

The table looked darling!
Anchored in the center of the table were some balloons to help carry out the Blue/Peace theme.

 

What would a party be without balloons!
 

Other fun decor included this clothesline full of photos of Molly through her long 12 years!

 

When the girls returned to the house after a few games of bowling they munched on pizza and treats from the candy/cupcake bar.

 

The girls answered some questions to see who knew the birthday girl the best….

 

and played some other fun “tween” girl games like two truths and a lie!
 

Of course music and a little bit of dancing made for a fun party!

The girls each went home with one of these darling party favors.  I’d been looking for an excuse to use these darling Jones Soda labels I had seen over at Karyn’s shop – Pixel Perfect Boutique.  

 

Katie emailed Karyn some photos of Molly and some words that decribed her and Karyn personalized the labels.  Aren’t they cute!!!  What a fun party favor!

  

Thanks to Katie and Molly for letting me help with the party and Peace Out Molly – we love you!!

A special thanks to Karyn of Pixel Perfect Boutique for helping us create the perfect party favor!