What not to do: Cake Decorating Party
Hosting my own “Decorate your Own Cake” birthday party last week sure did teach me some valuable lessons. It was a small party for 8 women. We all had lots of experience baking, although none of us had ever done creative cake decorating. Even so, I thought it would be fun if I baked some cakes, offered up icing and decorating tips and let everyone have a blast. I added cupcakes and cookies just in case…
I baked ten 4” layers of assorted cake flavors and half a dozen cupcakes, made two pounds of buttercream frosting, bought canned icing and the cookies. What a pain to do all that baking! Everyone loved the cookies and cupcakes but the cakes were a bit overwhelming for most of them. Next time I would just buy cookies and make a couple of dozen cupcakes. Easier, cheaper and still lots of fun! I printed out a chart explaining what the different tips did, but everyone liked experimenting. Don’t bother. Do buy lots of sprinkles, the gals loved using them!
We decorated the cakes on my kitchen counter and then had lunch at a separate table. I thought that worked well but if you don’t have the space, just do it all on the one table. Each person presented their creation to the display table where I had placed small cake plates and tiered plates. That was fun and gave everyone a chance to take pictures and admire each other’s work.
I bought aprons from Amazon and used my Circut to personalize them with everyone’s name. That was a hit and a nice gift to give them to take home.
The table setting combined high and low for sure! The cake was a pillow from Target I use to play tea party with my Granddaughter, heart plates were Pottery Barn (here’s an alternative)and striped plates were Target’s from a past season. I made the flowers from strips of tulle and garden stakes and places them in miniature glass vases. The runner was just fabric I had in the closet and the tablecloth a 2 dollar item from Target. It was a stunning table, if I don’t say so myself. lol
My advice is to keep it simple. Don’t go crazy buying cake decorating tools. If you want, print out some cute cupcake ideas to stir their creativity. I had bought to go boxes, but we didn’t use them. All in all, it was fantastic to get everyone together and share lots of laughter.