Donut Birthday Party Decorations

Christiana George

Well, since the decorations for my daughter’s birthday party came out even better than anticipated, I thought I’d share a few more photos.  Since we now live down south, I thought a “Krispy Kreme” theme would be appropriate for the party and my daughter agreed.  I found so many great ideas on Pinterest for decorations.  The colors are what drew me in, maybe because they remind me of Christmas.  Everything was fairly simple to put together, my daughter helped out with a lot of small details.

So the first thing I worked on was the invitation.  This is a blown up version.  The actual invite was about 4″ x 5″.  I found the invitation online and through the magic of Photoshop Lightroom, I was able to erase all the information inside the circle and replace it with my own, using Picmonkey. The font is not exact, but the feel is still the same.  I glued it to some green card stock I had in my scrapbook stash.

Next came the centerpiece.  Originally I was planning on hanging everything, but then I decided I needed something easy to set up and easy to remove after the party.  Party Pail supplied me with the white tissue fans, white honeycomb tissue ball, red honeycomb tissue balls, and red drink napkins.  They have a lot of great party supplies for kids and adults at great prices.  I was very happy with what they sent me.  And my daughter was too.



 For the base of the centerpiece I used a plastic drink bucket from Target.  It was only $3.  I lined it with some poke-a-dot tissue paper, also from Target.  I filled the bottom of the bucket with green floral foam blocks I found at the Dollar Tree.  I made two layers of blocks cutting and piecing them together to make them fit.  I did not glue them to the bottom because I wanted to re-use the bucket, so I used wooden skewers to keep the blocks from shifting.  Then I had my daughter paint some wooden dowels I bought at Walmart.  I poked the dowels into the foam blocks and slid the tissue fans and honeycomb balls onto the dowels.  For the fans, I did use a little clear tape to keep them secure.  I covered up the blocks with some more tissue paper.

The Happy Birthday sign was made the same way as the invitation, a little Photoshop and a little Picmonkey.  I printed it on regular white paper and glued it to the same green card stock as the invites.  I made two and stuck them to the wooden dowel and to each other with my scrapbooking ZOTS adhesive dots. I slid two wooden dowels into the middle of the two signs to hand my bunting banner.  For the banner, I used scrapbook paper and cardstock that I had on hand and matched the red and green colors.  I glued them together with the ZOTS also and glued a corner to the red honeycomb ball.  

I ended up making two small topiaries with the other red honeycomb balls.  I found the green metal potting tins at the Dollar Tree, filled them with more green floral foam.  This time I glued the foam to the tin with some tacky glue.  I poked the skewer in and added the ball and the sign the same way as the centerpiece.  Then my daughter glued some red and white shredded paper over the foam blocks.  The shredded paper I found in the party aisle at the Dollar Tree.

I had also found a red tin that matched the green ones.  I used it to store my paper straws that I had on hand.  I bought them on Amazon.  I placed the straws in some recycled frappuccino glass bottles from Target and surrounded them with more shredded paper.  The chalkboard clothes pin signs are from T. J. Maxx.

I bought swim rings for party favors since they look like donuts and this was also a pool party.  I bought the swim rings at the Dollar Tree along with some candy.  I made some cute tags with all the kids names to thank them for coming to the party.  My daughter helped put all the goody bags together.

And that’s it for decorations.  I made a variety of baked mini donuts for the party, Birthday Cake Oreo DonutsCotton Candy DonutsHot Chocolate Donuts, Funfetti Donut Holes, and Sugar Cookie Donuts.  I used the Sugar Cookie Donuts on top of this Funfetti cake and added some sprinkles and Birthday Cake M&Ms.  The kids were all over the donuts.  I guess I will have to make a bigger cake next time.  Even though we didn’t serve any Krispy Kreme donuts, I still liked the theme.  And I got all the kids Krispy Kreme hats for party hats.  The party was a success and everyone liked the decorations.

This post may be shared at these fabulous parties.



Disclaimer: Party Pail did provide me with some products to review, but I was under no obligation to provide a favorable review.  All thoughts and opinions are my own.



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Honey Cupcakes With Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

Christiana George
HONEY CUPCAKES WITH LEMON CREAM CHEESE FROSTING

Saturday afternoon had me knee-deep in frosting. There was frosting in the sink, on the floor, in my fingernails. My hands smelled like butter, which, if you know me, is akin to having butter-smelling perfume sprayed directly into my nose. Or worse, cologne. Like a really obnoxious-smelling cologne. I have a sensitive sense of smell.

For my friend’s birthday, I’d originally intended to make lavender frosting because lavender is her favorite flavor ever, which is why I made honey-flavored cupcakes. Honey and lavender—they seem a fine pair, don’t they? But, me being me, I didn’t begin looking for the lavender until the last minute, the morning of her party in fact, which is how I ended up with a botched Swiss meringue buttercream frosting hanging stickily in pots and pans all around the kitchen: lavender was nowhere to be found, at least in my immediate vicinity, so I switched to the buttercream, and subsequently flubbed it. I’m not an experienced frosting maker, if you can’t tell.

Honey Cupcakes With Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

So I guess you could call the creation of the lemon cream cheese frosting a metaphorical throwing in of the towel. I mean, I did throw a dish towel at the counter in disgust after the buttercream underperformed (fine, I underperformed), and even contemplated showing up at my friend’s place with unfrosted cupcakes. But just like bestowing a cake upon a friend with a slice cut out for the sake of my food blog would be a violation of a basic human right, showing up with plain cupcakes would be, well, just plain pathetic.



That is how I ended up with a lemon zest-spiked cream cheese frosting. I was happy with my decision in the end. It may have been a safe and easy choice, but it was SO good. And I don’t even like lemon.

Honey Cupcakes With Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

Unfortunately, the honey cupcakes turned out kind of dry. I might try swapping out the butter for canola oil if I ever make them again. But a delicious, complementary frosting is usually compensation enough, no? And I do believe that honey and lemon work wonderfully together.

I’ll have to practice my Swiss meringue buttercream craft the next time a birthday comes around. But only if there’s ample time to spare and I’ve prepped my ingredients earlier.

Honey Cupcakes With Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting
Honey Cupcakes With Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

Honey Cupcakes With Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

Adapted from Half-Baked, the Cake Blog
Makes a dozen cupcakes

Ingredients:

For the cupcakes:
1 stick butter, room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup honey
1 tsp vanilla extract

For the frosting:

1-1/2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
4 oz. cream cheese, softened
3 cups confectioners sugar
3 Tbsp honey
Grated zest from 1 lemon

Directions:

For the cupcakes:



Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 12 muffin cups with liners.

In medium bowl mix together flour, baking powder and salt, and set aside. In small bowl mix together buttermilk, honey and vanilla, and set aside. In bowl of stand mixer cream butter and sugar on medium speed until combined. Add eggs, one at a time beating well after each addition and scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Gradually add the dry and wet ingredients, alternating starting and ending with dry ingredients. Don’t overmix.

Fill the liners 2/3 full. Bake 18-20 minutes or until tops are golden.

For the frosting:

In a large bowl, cream butter and cream cheese until combined. Gradually add confectioner’s sugar and continue to mixing scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Mix in honey and lemon zest. Frost the cupcakes.



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