Rainbow Birthday Party!...A Colorful Party for a Colorful Little Girl

Pin It Now! It was time once again for my daughter's birthday party, so when thinking of ideas for themes (and we always try to do something out of the ordinary), we landed on something as colorful as she is...a RAINBOW theme!

Here's what we did....



INVITATION:

I always design my own invites and just have them printed at Walgreens to keep costs down (I make them in a standard size...5x7). I wanted something that reflected the rainbow theme, but was also just simple with a fun little saying on it. Here's what we ended up with:

"As colorful as a RAINBOW from her head to her toes...

Let's celebrate the 6th birthday of our sweet Ally Rose!"

CAKE:

I absolutely LOVE making things in mason jars and have tried many recipes in the past, so when I stumbled across this recipe for Rainbow Cakes in Mason Jars and just HAD to try it!

I will say that like everything else that I bake/cook, I tweaked it just a bit. I just used regular food coloring, not the neon ones that they called for, instead of regular sprinkles on top I used rainbow chip crunch sprinkles (I liked the look of these better) and I adjusted the cook time to about 38-40 minutes (it obviously depends on your oven...just cook until a toothpick stuck in the cake comes out clean).

Here are some pics of my process...

(Note: these will sink a bit after they cool)

(What they look like if it scooped out...if someone wants to share :o)

(We served with rainbow serbert...cake is VERY moist)

FOOD:

A rainbow theme has ENDLESS possibilities, so I tried to find a way to encorporate as many "rainbow" themed foods as possible.

RAINBOW LAYERED JELLO

Warning: This was a VERY time consuming task, so make sure you allow at least a FULL day to accomplish this.

My kids, like most, LOVE jello, so I when I was trying to think of some rainbow foods I thought, hey, maybe I could layer up a bunch of different colors of jello? It ended up great, but it took many hours because of the "set up" time.

First, select a flavor of jello in each color of the rainbow. Then, starting with the lowest level first, which would be purple, begin making the jello (using the quick set instructions - that includes adding some ice cubes to cool it down, but make sure that the cubes are completely dissolved before adding to previous layers), letting each color set until firm before adding the next layer. NOTE: this is where patience comes in handy...sometimes I run short of that. LOL

After several hours of chilling and adding...this is the final product! It turned out really cool and the kids LOVED it, so I guess it was all worth it :o)

(There were some bubbles inbetween layers because of the ice and stirring that had to take place to do the quick set)

Some other food items:

RAINBOW FRUIT PLATTER (strawberries, cantaloupe, pineapple, green grapes, blueberries, purple grapes)

RAINBOW VEGGIE PLATTER (cherry tomatoes, carrots, yellow pepper, broccoli, cauliflower...note, blue & purple veggies that I knew that people would eat was pretty hard to come up with ;o)



(Fruity Pebble treats)

DECOR:

We decided to make our own BALLOON ARCH...which was SO incredibly easy...and inexpensive!

I started by buying this balloon decorating strip from the party store for around $5.

(All you have to do is insert the ends of the balloons into the circles on the strip) 

(I had 12 balloons of each color, but you could have as many or as few as you would like)

(The finished product)

Some OTHER DECOR...

MISCELLANEOUS:

I found some M&Ms BY COLOR at our local party store, so thought that would make a fun and yummy addition to the party!

PINATA'S are ALWAYS a good time! I found this great rainbow butterfly that went just perfectly with the theme

RESULT:

When it was all said and done, I feel that we achieved the RAINBOW theme that we were going for...and most importantly, we ended up with one VERY happy little birthday girl! :o)

S'mores Cakes - in Mason Jars!

Pin It Now! Graham crackers, chocolate and ooey, gooey marshmallows...doesn't it just make your mouth water just thinking about it? S'mores are just all around AWESOME and an absolute MUST when you go camping, but who wants to wait until then?

I found some info online about some S'mores Cakes in a Jar and just HAD to try this for myself...and I have to say, it was a WINNER recipe!  I should preface by saying that I like simple recipes...and this is simple AND delicious!

[Recipe courtesy of HowSweetItIs (*I adjusted cooking time slightly from recipe)]

S’mores Cake in a Jar
makes 4 16-ounce mason jar cakes

for crust:
1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1/2 stick butter
pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Melt butter and mix in graham crumbs and salt. Mix until moistened. Spray 4 mason jars with non-stick spray, divide crumbs evenly between 4 jarr and press graham crust into bottom. I used my small Pampered Chef wooden ladel since it was rounded on the end and had a long handle...worked like a charm!
They don’t need to look perfect.

for cake:
1 1/8 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon heavy cream
1/2 cup butter, melted
2 tablespoons sour cream

for topping:
1 bag of large marshmallows

In a bowl, mix egg and sugar until smooth and no lumps remain. Add milk, cream, butter and vanilla, and mix until combined. Stir in sour cream. Sift dry ingredients together and add to wet mixture. Mix until batter is smooth. Using a 1/4 cup measure, add batter to mason jars one scoop at a time. You only want to fill them up about half way, and the batter should work evenly for 4 jars. Again – don’t worry if it is perfect. Place mason jars in a baking dish and add about 1 1/2 cups of water to the bottom. Bake for 30 minutes, or until cake is set. (NOTE: This is where I had to adjust...because mine ended up taking 42 minutes instead of 30 to set and my oven is usually right on point, so it may take longer than 30 minutes...just a forewarning)

Remove cake from the oven and press large marshmallows down on top, being careful not to burn yourself. There is no set number of marshmallows to use, I was able to get 6 in each.

Heat the broiler on your oven and watching carefully, brown marshmallows for about 1-2 minutes, or until golden brown. Do not take your eyes off them! Serve immediately.

Here is our final result:

SOOOOO yummy!!!

The kids were looking forward to these all day and this was their reactions:

Needless to say, they were a HUGE hit with everyone...but be forewarned: they are sticky and very rich...none of us could finish ours, so we saved them to finish off tonight after dinner ;o)