Birthday Comments

Have Fun on Your 75th Birthday Celebration
By Gail Leino

It’s coming up on your big 75th birthday bash or at least you should be planning a big bash. There’s nothing like gathering all of your friends and family together to celebrate all the years that you have been on the earth. Sometimes you’ve been grumpy, sometimes you’ve been happy, but today of all days only happens once a year and the seventy-fifth birthday only ever happens once.

The 75th year is usually considered the platinum year. It would be nice if your guests could give you lots of platinum gifts, jewelry and watches and so forth, but that usually doesn’t happen. Try celebrating this year with lots of platinum and silver colored decorations. Many party supplies can be found that sport this theme and you can even come across some party supplies with the appropriate number year printed on theme. Hang colorful dangles from the ceiling and you just might find sporting the number seventy-five. Silver colored glitter and confetti strung about the party area make things a little brighter.

If you don’t really want to go through with the bother of putting seventy-five candles on the birthday cake get a single candle in the shape of the number seventy-five. Or get an unusual cake that itself is shaped in the form of the number seventy-five. A birthday party can easily be made special with just a few small changes to the traditional approach. For instance the reversal party is a fun idea.

Everything at the reversal party is backwards. So maybe you aren’t celebrating your seventy-fifth, maybe you are celebrating your fifty-seventh birthday. You can ice the cake and serve it upside down on the platter. Have the guests come to the party with their clothing inside out and hang all of your banners upside down. It’s a nifty little way to have fun and maybe turn back the clock for a little while.

Mrs. Party… Gail Leino is the internet’s leading authority on selecting the best possible party supplies (http://partysupplieshut.com), using proper etiquette, and living a healthy life while also teaching organizational skills and fun facts. The Party Supplies Hut has lots of party ideas with hundreds of free coloring sheets, printable games, and free birthday party activities. Over 100 adorable Party Themes (PartyThemeShop.com) to fit your birthday celebration, holiday event, or “just because” parties is at the Party Theme Shop. Party themes include cartoon characters, sports, movie, TV shows, luau, western, holidays, and unique crazy fun theme ideas.

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Kid Birthday Cake Idea Collection - Cake Decorating Without Fear
By Patricia Jensen

Our kid birthday cake idea collection makes cake decorating fun and fearless. You don’t have to be a pastry chef to create a professional quality cake for your child’s birthday or other special event. Learn unique and easy cake decorating ideas to make spectacular homemade cakes.

PARTY CAKE CONCEPT AND DESIGN

The most important kid birthday cake idea is choosing a cake concept which fits with your party theme. You can start with a simple sheet cake topped with small toys or figures, or piece the cake itself to form a unique design.

For example, a Construction Party cake could be topped with tiny toy dumptrucks and bulldozers pushing a chocolate chip mountain. Or, the cake itself could be cut, pieced and frosted to look like a dump truck.

For a Train Party, set a miniature choo-choo train on licorice tracks atop your cake, or line up several brightly colored frosted loaf cakes to form train cars.

For a Luau party, a simple round or sheet cake can be festooned with a silk flower lei, or form a string of cupcakes in a circle and adorn each one with silk or frosting flowers. Connect with a licorice string to make a cupcake “lei”.

Baking cakes in an oven-safe glass bowl or in a special 3D sports ball pan is great for making any kind of perfectly round ball cake, or the dress part of a Barbie doll cake. A wonder mold cake pan makes small single serving doll cakes and other cute creations!

Think of the design you’d like to make and what shapes you need to make it - round, sheet, loaf, cupcakes, or a combination.

Peruse cake decorating books for a kid birthday cake idea which fits your needs. Many books provide templates forcutting and piecing cakes to create any number of popular designs. You decide just how simple or challenging your cake will be.

For a no-fuss kid birthday cake idea, apply an edible cake art image to the top of a frosted cake. Many popular themes and copyrighted images such as Disney are available to provide a professional looking cake design.

Themed cake pans are another popular cake decorating option. They provide the shape and visual design to follow for an impressive finished cake. Popular TV and cartoons characters are well represented in cake pans, as well as teddy bears, butterflies, pirates, Tigger,Mickey Mouse, and lots more.

FROSTING CHOICES

Homemade Frosting - Dig up that famous family recipe or check out one of the many online recipe sites and make your cake frosting from scratch. Be sure to plan ahead how much of each color will be needed for both basic foundation and decorative trim.

Canned and Tube Frostings - Easiest and quickest, prepared canned frostings are available in grocery stores in the baking aisle with the cake mixes. They generally come in white, chocolate, and a handful of other popular flavors. Keep a few ready-to-use tube frostings on hand in various basic colors to add the finishing touches.

Fondant Frosting - Gaining in popularity in this country in recent years, fondant frosting gives a beautiful smooth finish to your cake decorating creation. Fondant can be rolled out and draped over a cake, poured on as a glaze, or sculpted into shapes. It is easily tinted, and can be flavored as well. Ready-made fondant is available through party supply outlets. There are also many recipes online for homemade fondant.

CAKE DECORATING WITH CANDY AND SMALL TOYS

Cookies, candies, and other materials can be used for special and impressive effects. Frosted sugar cones can serve as the fins on a space ship cake or the turrets on a castle cake. Make a surprise cake filling with jello.

A wide variety of plastic stand-ups or cake toppers are available in craft stores. Or, simply use a toy which fits in with the party theme as a cake topper and give it to the party child when the party is over. Action figures, small dolls, animals and cartoon characters all make good choices.

Add cool candy accents with M & M’s, licorice pieces, licorice whips, animal crackers, oreo cookies, paper umbrellas, pretzel sticks, tootsie rolls, jimmies, gummies such as worms, bears, etc, gumdrops, mini marshmallows, colored coconut, jellybeans.

THE LATEST CAKE DECORATING FADS!

There are many novel choices for placing the finishing touches on your party cake. Dress it up in style with one or more of these unique special effects:

Spray Color Mist - is a fun addition to your baking repertoire. Frost your cake white, then spray on edible color from an aerosol can. Available in many colors, it can be used with stencils to make unique designs, as a highlight to whipped topping - even on your child’s mashed potatoes!

Luster Dusts - are an edible food safe “dust” which can be used on any frosting recipe that dries hard and firm to the touch. Brush it on white frosting for a metallic-like glossy sheen or layer it for interesting color effects.

Cake Stampers - can be used along with brush-on color for fondant icing. Simply stamp shapes and designs into the finished fondant and tint with brush-on color.

Cake Stencils - Place stencil on iced cake and sprinkle edible glitter, confetti sprinkles, or use spray-on color mist.

Edible Color Markers - These unique markers are used just like an ink marker. Draw fun designs on cakes, cookies, fondant frosting, even cheese, fruit slices and bread. Decorating marker kits are available for children.

Edible sugar-shape decorations,
decorative candles, themed cake picks and rings,and edible glitter are all fun tools in your cake baking arsenal.

Now you’re armed with lots of great ideas for cake decorating success - without fear!

Go forth and create… and above all, have fun!

For more cake decorating information, check out our webpage: Kid Birthday Cake Idea Collection

Copyright 2005 Kids Party Paradise All Rights Reserved

Patricia B. Jensen is a mother of three and kids party enthusiast. She is the webmaster and owner of Kids-Party-Paradise.com - a complete resource for kids party ideas including invitations, cakes, decorations, games, costumes, favors, and food.

For all the latest party news, read her Kids Party Blog.

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Creative Birthday Party Ideas - Casino Night
By Tori Spade

Let’s face it, everyone likes to give Lady Luck a run for her money every now and again. Whether you’re young or old - taking a chance on fate can be an extremely fun and exciting experience. If you’re thinking about holding an event in the near future - consider turning your plain old get together into a magical “casino” themed event that both the young and old can participate in.

Many partygoers aren’t looking to come to a birthday or anniversary party to gamble away x amount of dollars. Don’t worry - you can still host an exciting casino themed party without requiring guests to bring their entire paycheck along. Many party stores offer either plastic or chocolate “chips” that can be given to guests upon arrival. By allotting them this “budget”, you can allow them to gamble until they can’t gamble anymore. At the end of the night, see who has the most chips. By purchasing a small door prize ahead of time, you can award the night’s “highest roller” with a nice parting gift.

Some great ideas for games include some simple blackjack card games (don’t worry about hiring a dealer - have a husband or friend step behind the table to have some fun and put on a show for guests), dice games (keep them simple - have guests place bets on which number they think will roll), and maybe even roulette (you can usually pick up a set at any hobby or toy store). By making sure that each game station has a designated “referee or dealer”, you can ensure that nobody feels as though they were cheated out of their winnings. As mentioned before, husbands or family friends make great dealers and it also allows them to have a little bit of fun with the guests.

Many party stores offer great casino themed decorations, so if you haven’t been to your local party supplier - stop down and see what they have to offer. Party stores are known for being very reasonably priced while letting you create a professional scene for your party. A casino themed party should have simple colors - keep table cloths green (think of the felt surface on professional casino tables), and decoration colors can be kept to a two-tone palette of red and black (think poker chips). Colors have a big part in how your guests perceive your theme, so taking them into consideration should be a main priority when it comes to planning the event. Even if you have the perfect set-up and entertainment - colors can give guests a whole different impression and end up compromising your finished product.

If you’re unsure about how to play some of the popular card games that are popular in casinos - don’t change your theme just yet. The internet provides great step-by-step, easy to understand and learn instructions. Printing out a sheet to give to dealers will also help clarify any rules that they may be unsure of. When hosting a party with so many games - it’s important that everything is run fairly. By doing your homework and ensuring there’s no room for error - your casino party will go off without a hitch.

So whether you have a gaggle of gamblers as friends or you’re just looking for a unique way to spice up a 50th birthday party - a casino theme is the perfect way to get people excited. Throwing a challenge into anything fires people up - regardless of age - so with a party like this, you can be sure that both you and your guests will be in for an evening that none of you will soon forget.

Tori works for Your Home Supply (YHS) the definitive website for home improvement tools, and gardening supplies. Your Home Supply offers a wide range of kitchen accessories and home design accessories.

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