Cake Planning: Get the Kids Involved!

For Monkey's pirate party, she and Sarita sat down and sketched out what she wanted. Sarita and I have been plugging cake balls for Monkey's next birthday party in lieu of cake. The size is the perfect serving for a little one, and they require no plates and forks which makes them green. I do, however, find the name unfortunate, so let's call them cake bites.

Monkey wasn't feeling it, and to get her excited about it, Sarita pulled out a piece of paper and started sketching these fun pirate bites. As Sarita incorporated Monkey's designs (like different eye colors) the guest of honor began to get excited. She even pulled out paper and started sketching her own version of a bear cake for Squeaker's upcoming bear hunt party. I mean, she's 5, so her attention wandered a bit.

Of course, we will also make a sheet cake for the adult guests and so we will have leftovers to eat in the middle of the night-admit it, we all have another piece of cake after the guests leave. And some of us store it in the freezer for months and nibble a little here and there. You know who you are...

For the sheet cake, we will most likely use a Wilton cake pan. These are so easy to do. If you can use a star tip, you can make awesome cakes using any of their pans.

To make our tiny little cake bites stand out and command attention, we plan to stick them into a pirate ship. No decision yet as to whether they will go in the sheet cake pirate ship or possibly one made out of cardboard. Cakes are such an easy way to add festivity and to double as decor.

Not only are cake bites the perfect size, they are really easy to make. Check out this blog for an detailed how to.

This is what I mean by planning your parties in 15 minutes. Planning the cake was on my to do list for the week, so we sketched for 15 minutes and had fun with it. That's all it takes. Those little bursts of time and inspiration add up.

Try this at home! Sit down with the guest of honor for your next party and sketch something- decor, food, invites. It makes planning all the more fun!