Animal Safari Party -7yr- Giraffe Cake

For my daughter's 7th birthday, she requested an Animal Safari party.  For the invitations I prepared them on my computer. 

The INVITATIONS consisted of  a single fold French card style printed on white card stock.  On the front of the invitation a large rectangular zebra stripe was printed. I later added iridescent fabric paint on the white portion of the stripe.  Inside read "You're invited to help ____ celebrate her ___ birthday with an animal safari.  Date:, Time:, Address:, and Phone # with a RSVP date.  The invitations were folded then wrapped with ribbon.  Each child's name was attached to the ribbon. A wild animal had been printed beside each name(e.g.: elephant, zebra, lion, hippo).

DECORATIONS: A sign welcomed the children  "Welcome to the zoo!"  The sign was made from poster paper which was painted with poster paints and had two poles to spike into the ground.  Each letter of the sign was shaped like an animal. The backyard was decorated as follows: Tables were covered with plastic table clothes and matching skirts.  One was white which I painted black zebra stripes on it, and the other was yellow which I painted brown spots all over to resemble a giraffe. 

The dishes & cutlery were mixed consisting of forest green , yellow, and black colors.  The cups were animal shaped that I purchased at a dollar store.  I also purchased fun foam masks shaped like safari animals for each child to wear.  I rented a helium tank & made balloon clusters the same colors as an elephant, zebra, cheetah, lion, & tiger.  The tables were decorated with various safari themed stuffed animals.  The background music was a jungle sound CD. 

The CAKE: My daughter chose a giraffe as the cake.  I made the cake from using 3 boxes of cake mix baked in 2 13x9 cake pans.  I cut out the following shapes from the baked cakes. FACE OF GIRAFFE: 10 1/2" long by 6" across rectangle, NECK: 7" long by 4 1/2" across rectangle, EARS: 4 1/2 long by 3" across CUT 2 EARS, then shape like a leaf, ANTLERS: 2 1/2" by 1/2" across CUT 2, ROUNDS FOR ANTLERS 2 1/4" ROUNDS, CUT 2.  The cake was iced using Wilton icing and # 18, # 21 tips. 

Assemble the cake on a cake board that is wrapped in tin foil.  Use cake tip #21 to decorate the bottom of the cake that is touching the cake board.  The icing is white.  Use the tip # 18 to star tip the entire giraffe with yellow icing.  Make a large stripe in the center of the face (7" x 2") out of semi sweet chocolate chips.  Make random circle marking on the face using bunches of chocolate chips.  Star tip the antlers and the antler rounds with brown icing. Inside of the ears star tip with brown icing and also make bangs on top of the giraffe's face.  Make random spots not the giraffe's neck with bunches of chocolate chips.  For the eyes use one Oreo cookie taken apart with the filling scraped off.  The nostrils are 2" circles of black shoe string licorice.  The mouth is a thin piece of red shoe string licorice 2" in length.

ACTIVITIES/GAMES:  I rented a inflatable bouncer in the shape of an elephant.  I also had purchased a pinata shaped like a zebra that I filled with candy & toys.  Two craft tables were set up one was for making bracelets, and the other was for making giraffe puppets made from brown lunch bags and pre-cut construction paper for ears, eyes, antlers, spots, etc. to be glued on.  This craft doubled as a bag for the goodies from the pinata. 

FAVOR BAGS: I purchased animal printed fake fun fur from a fabric store.  I sewed the fur into sacks with ribbon strings.  I filled each sack with costume jewelry, ring pops, candy necklaces, barrettes, a safari animal finger puppet, and of course candy.  The party was a great success and I'm already thinking about next year's!!!!