crazylou: Cupcake Wars Birthday Bash

I'm so far behind in posting this up on the blog. My daughter celebrated her birthday at the end of December. How pathetic is it that I am now getting to posting about her awesome birthday? She turned 11 in December and requested a "fun" birthday party. After brainstorming for a bit, I realized that one of our favorite shows to watch together is Cupcake Wars on Food Network. I mentioned my idea to her and she loved it. She wanted the theme to be "One Direction" and wanted the entire party to be a secret to her friends.

We created a cupcake-shaped birthday invitation. They were made out of scrapbook paper, stickers and rhinestones.I found these via Pinterest, which takes you to this cute blog. Hailey was able to cut and assemble them herself. I created the party information on the computer, printed it off and glued it to the invite.

Next came the preparation and planning for the big day!

First there would be 2 teams.
They would have 2 hours to make and decorate their cupcakes as well as create a stand for their cupcakes.
We would set-up two stations--one at the kitchen counter and one at the kitchen table. I decided to put up a large plastic tablecloth to block the teams from seeing each others creations.
I set-up a table with all the supplies they could use for their cupcakes and their stands.
Each team received a basket full of the kitchen supplies they needed to prepare their cupcakes. The basket include bowls, measuring cups and spoons, oil, eggs, cupcake pans, mixing spoons, frosting (homemade by the birthday girl's request), cake mixes and a SECRET INGREDIENT! They needed to work this secret ingredient into at least one batch of the cupcakes in some way. The secret ingredient was Cookie Dough Bites candy. I also gave each team 2 cake boards and 3 used toilet paper rolls for the cupcake stands.

cupcake wars birthday party basket of goodies

When all the girls got to the party we had them gather in the basement living room and made the big announcement. Only 2 girls at the party had never seen the show before, so they were going to be on separate teams. Next, we split the girls up to make equal teams. They came up with their team name and then the clock started. Each team was allowed to "ASK THE BAKER" one question. This could be anything! (neither team did!). Because we only have one oven and each team was making 24 cupcakes, each team was allowed to put one cupcake pan in the oven at a time. I also reminded the girls that they needed to allow time for the cupcakes to cool before frosting them.

The girls worked hard and very well together. One team designated who was doing what, the other team just did everything together. One team used the artistic strength of one of the girls to paint the cupcake stand like the Union Jack Flag which represents One Direction. They were laughing, being silly and really having fun in the kitchen. One team finished with minutes to spare while the other team came down to the final seconds before finishing! It was really exciting. Here are a few snapshots I took during the party:

Next, the girls had to present their cupcake displays and cupcakes to the judges (me, her dad and her brother)(this was a very tough job, I tell ya!). They were being judged on appearance, taste, use of secret ingredient and theme as well as the cupcake stand and kitchen clean-up (very important!!). It was super close. Each team did such a fantastic job, but it came down to the use of the secret ingredient--we liked how the winning team put theirs into the batter versus chopping and sprinkling on top!