Cupcake Party -4yr- Cupcake Pinata

Theme:  We chose cupcakes and candy to be the theme for my four year old daughter’s birthday party. 

INVITATIONS:  I purchased 8 ½ x 11 inch white paper that had a preprinted border on the top.  The border had purple and lavender stripes with pale lavender swirls. On top of that were multicolored cupcakes, balloons and sprinkles, and below, it was trimmed with green scallops.  In purple, it read:  A Sweet Celebration We have in store, Cupcakes, Sprinkles and Candy Galore, Our Little Gabrielle is turning Four!  Please join us on Sunday, November 20, 2011 at 4:00 pm.  It will be oh, so sweet if you can join Gabi for a birthday treat!  We included a little homemade confetti in each invitation. This was made by using a tiny punch, in the shape of a cupcake with a single candle on it, on different colored paper I had. We sealed the envelopes with ornate foil cupcake stickers. The post office had birthday stamps that said Celebrate on them and looked festive.

DECORATIONS:  I had purchased two large cupcake paper cutouts.  I used the first on the front door. It had pink frosting with sprinkles and was in a green wrapper. To give it a little bling, I glued on tiny multicolored pompoms for 3 dimensional sprinkles and glued a large number 4 to the wrapper. When guests entered the house they came in to our two story foyer.  It had a streamer banner that hung around the edge of a half-round table. The streamer banner said Happy Birthday and had cupcakes on it. It was fun how the fringe on the banner blew when anyone entered our house. A large 3 dimensional cupcake centerpiece made from cardboard sat in the middle of the table. It had red foil fringe all around it. On the table were more homemade cupcake confetti, party hats that were blue with different colored cupcakes on them and matching party blow-outs.

From the balcony we hung three hanging decorations that everyone had to walk under as they passed from the foyer into the dining room. They each had a cupcake in a blue wrapper with white icing; a cupcake in a yellow wrapper with pink icing and the words Happy Birthday in between with bunches of red foil ribbons. In the living room was the gift table.  It was covered in more of the cupcake confetti and had a black balloon weight with stars shooting out of it.  Attached to this balloon weight was a brightly colored large mylar balloon in the shape of a cupcake with a candle.  I had pictures of my daughter in her birthday outfit professionally taken.  We placed one of the pictures in a two-toned frame with a white mat and added one of the foil cupcake stickers to the corner. It looked so cute and we placed this on the gift table as well. In the dining room we hung crepe paper streamers that said Happy Birthday and had cupcakes on them from the top of the chandelier to the walls to form a canopy above the room.  

Above the doorway between the dining room and living room we hung a 7 ft. jointed banner that said Happy Birthday and had more cupcakes on it. On the dining table we placed a pink plastic tablecloth with all different colored stripes in the center and two rows of all different cupcakes on the sides. In the center of the table was a two-tiered cake/lollipop display. I purchased a Wilton Pop display, basically just like a tiered cupcake display but with pre-punched holes for lollipops. On the bottom tier I put in all of my lollipops and on the top level I placed my cupcake cake (described below). I used Happy Birthday ribbon along the edge of the top tier and ribbon printed with curling ribbon on it on the edge of the bottom tier. Both were white backgrounds and primary colors. I tied yellow curling ribbon onto each lollipop. (These were later used in a game.) On one wall we had a yellow poster with a cupcake on it (described below).  We used one counter as our drink area and had an ice bucket, small cupcake printed cups for the younger kids, and plastic cups in red, blue, green or orange for everyone else.

I also placed the cupcake piñata here as a decoration until it was time to play. On the food counter were cupcake plates and napkins. They had a blue background with a white frosted cupcake covered in candy sprinkles in a blue wrapper and said Happy Birthday.  In the middle of the counter was a pink balloon weight holding a pink mylar balloon that also said Happy Birthday and had 9 different cupcakes on it. We had a vanilla cupcake scented candle burning in the powder room. Attire: Gabrielle was dressed in a fuchsia dress.  It had brown with white polka dot sleeves and ruffles along the bottom, and a brown with white polka dot bow on the bodice.  On the skirt part of the dress were three appliqued cupcakes with different colored wrappers, frosting and candy toppings.  It also included brown with white polka dot leggings.  It was exactly what I was looking for, Gabi has big brown eyes and the outfit accented them beautifully.  In her hair was a fuchsia sparkly headband with a bow on it. She also wore fuchsia sequin ballet flats with little bows on them. 

FOOD:  We served a variety of different pizzas, bread sticks with marinara sauce, veggies and dip, orange jello, candy corn and peanuts (which tastes exactly like a Payday) and cupcakes. The cupcakes were in the cutest liners (described below) and were either chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and rainbow jimmies or white cake with white frosting and multicolored non pareils. 


GAMES:  We played four games.  I must first say that our guests included our immediate family, cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents and a couple of girlfriends. The KIDS who played ranged in age from 4 to 22 and all were very good sports and made Gabi’s party lots of fun! Our first game was Pin the Candle on the Cupcake.  I used the second large cutout cupcake with a blue wrapper and white frosting with multicolored sprinkles for this game.  I taped it to a yellow poster board that I had stenciled different colored cupcakes on (This stencil was 3 ½ inches high and 2 inches wide and had a candle on top.). I used different patterned paper to make 12 different candles and attached yellow paper flames to them.  Two-sided scrap booking tape was used on the back and I pealed the cover off of the tape just before I handed it to the kids. The player who was closest to the center won a prize. We blindfolded everyone and spun them around. I did help the 6 and under crowd find the cupcake, but the 16 and older kids my husband kept moving the poster around and it was hilarious! I lucked out and found two great prizes that had cupcake themes at JC Penney when I had a $10 off coupon; I was able to get $11.50 worth of prizes for $1.50! The prize I used for this game was a box of Birthday Cupcake Candy Bites (Dylan’s Candy Bar brand) that came in a box decorated with a birthday cupcake and candle on the front, the perfect match to this game.

Our second game was Pass the Present. To prepare for this game, I had purchased an adorable ivory colored Gund bear holding a cupcake in a white and green wrapper, with pink frosting and a little pink felt gumdrop on top.  Attached was a little ribbon that read: You’re so SWEET. I placed him in a shoe box and wrapped it in five layers of wrapping paper.  The wrapping paper was red and had cupcakes in all different colored wrappers frosted with white icing and topped with sprinkles.  Each little cupcake had a letter candle on top that all together spelled out happy birthday.  The kids all gathered in a circle and we played the song I Want Candy. When the music stopped whoever was holding the box unwrapped a layer of paper. The player who unwrapped the final layer got to keep the bear.

Our third game was a cupcake piñata. It had a white icing top covered with multicolored sprinkles. The wrapper was yellow and orange striped.  Multicolored curling ribbon came out the top and long strands hung from the bottom.  We filled it with all kinds of candy (I hit the after Halloween candy sales and it really was stuffed!) and the kids took turns pulling the long ribbons until the bottom fell out. I gave each kid a pink lunch bag with a pink and purple cupcake on it that I had written their name on in purple marker. They were a lucky find, for back to school lunches.

Our fourth game was a lollipop game. I had found the cutest cupcake lollipops at Dollar Tree (they were actually the inspiration for the party theme). They came in packs of six for $1. Each pack had two different styles of cupcake. The store had six different styles in total. So I ended up purchasing 18 suckers total for $3. On the bottom of one lollipop stick I drew a black dot. The person who picked that lollipop won the second prize I purchased at JC Penney, a cupcake-shaped cookie kit. It included pre-baked and iced cookies and 4 flavored food color markers to decorate the cookies with.  

ACTIVITIES:  What fun would a cupcake party be if you didn’t get to decorate your own cupcake?  I had made enough cupcakes so everyone could decorate a chocolate and a white one. I found the cutest white cupcake liners with cupcakes and the word cupcake written all over them.  Each guest was given a disposable apron that I had stenciled a single cupcake in the center. Each one was a different color with a yellow flame.  We set out bowls of chocolate, vanilla and pink frosting and I had tubes of yellow icing to write with. We had tons of different candies for the kids to top off their cupcakes: different colored sugar crystals, different colored jimmies, non pariels, chocolate chips, and mini marshmallows, just to name some of it. Even though they made their cupcakes on party plates, I did have two tablecloths on the table so when they were done I just lifted off the top one and had a solid yellow colored one beneath. 

CAKE: Gabrielle had a giant cupcake cake of course.  I debated between the Wilton giant cupcake pan and Big Top cupcake silicone bake ware. I ended up going with the Big Top one because it seemed like it would be easier to store and came with more helpful directions.  I actually made a practice cake a month ahead because I was worried if it would be hard to use, but the cake turned out perfect on the first try! We used white cake mix with confetti sprinkles in it. We frosted it with bright pink icing and sprinkled it with multicolored jumbo diamond sprinkles. This sat on the top of a two-tier display with a rainbow colored number 4 candle on top. Gabrielle’s cake was served on a dish that I purchased for her as a keepsake of the party. It was white with pink trim and a pink center with a single vanilla cupcake in a green wrapper with polka dots. We also had vanilla and chocolate ice cream.

FAVORS:  The kids took home their bag of piñata candy, cupcake lollipop, party hat and blowout, personally decorated cupcakes (if they hadn’t already eaten them…lol) and game prizes.The best part was Gabrielle loved her party!