Silly Monster Party

Silly Monster, tricks are for kids!  I know that's not the way it originally goes, but that is what keeps playing in my mind.  My daughters 3rd birthday is this week, so we had her party last night.  We had a silly monster party.  It was very fitting for this little crazy girl.  She is a very spunky thing and she definitely thinks that she rules the world, we just all live in it too.  We didn't go crazy with decorations or games this year and went simple on food.  But it was full of fun!

Happy Birthday Baby Girl!

For decorations I simply got multi colored polka dot balloons.  I also got polka dot plates and napkins.  I found brightly colored cups with a "My name is" place on them for 50% off in the bargain bin.  So the kids each got a cup with their name on it with a silly straw and got to take them home with their goodie bags.  The goodie bags had monster stickers on them that B helped with.  Each bag had a little monster zipper clip I found on clearance at Toys R Us, a glow stick, a small play dough, and a monster eye marshmallow.

 

For entertainment I had a basket full of glittery foam sheets, glitter glue, googley eyes, pom poms and markers for everyone to make their own monster.  It seemed like all the kids from 3 year olds to 10 year olds all liked doing this.  I say that is a successful craft!

In between eating and making monsters the kids all just played outside and inside.  We had 11 kids ranging in ages from 2-10, but everyone played well and although it was loud, it was a great time.  We also had the movie Monsters Vs. Aliens playing when everyone was first getting here.  That's one of B's favorite movies.  :)

For the food we just picked up $5 pizzas and breadsticks.  I figured I'd spend the same amount on food if I made snacks, so this way it was less hassle. For drinks we had lemonade and sweet tea.  For the desserts I got a big bag of cheddar popcorn and made monster cookies and of course cake.  For the cake B requested a chocolate cake with peanut butter.  So that is exactly what she got.  I used this Dark Chocolate Cake recipe from Bakaholic Mama.  This is a great moist chocolate cake and the frosting is always a crowd pleaser.  I used orange food coloring in the frosting.  I figured it would be the easiest color to make it.  Haha! For the eyes I used colored candy melts and dipped marshmallows in the different colors and bought large size candy eyes to put on them.  Easy enough!  With the little bit of left over melted chocolate I made the circles and triangles on wax paper and used them to add more color and fun to the cake.  It was fun to make and everyone liked it.  The only complaint I got was that it was super rich.  I'll take that!

Dark Chocolate Cake
from Bakaholic Mama
Ingredients:
2 cups sugar
1 3/4 cup flour
3/4 a cup of dark coco powder
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp of salt
2 eggs
1 cup of buttermilk
1/2 cup of vegetable oil
2/3 of a cup of boiling water (I used hot coffee, I like how coffee enhances the taste of chocolate.)
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350.
Grease and Flour 2 8 inch cake pans. Set aside
In the bowl of your electric mixer stir together your dry ingredients. Add in milk, oil, eggs, vanilla and beat on medium/low speed for 2 minutes.
Stir in boiling water by hand.
Pour into pans and bake for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick is inserted and comes out clean.
Allow to cool for 10 minutes before removing from pans.

Peanut Butter Frosting
This is the best peanut butter frosting hands down!
Ingredients:
1 cup softened butter
1 cup peanut butter
5 1/2-6 cups powdered sugar
1-2 cup heavy cream
Directions:
Cream butter and peanut butter until well mixed.
Add in about 1/2 the powdered sugar and mix.  Once it begins to incorporate add in 1/2 the heavy cream. 
Add in the other 1/2 of the sugar and then gradually add in the remaining heavy cream beating at high speed until light and fluffy and desired consistency.
For a heavier frosting us less cream for a lighter one use more.

I'd say we didn't do too bad at all!  A lot of the stuff I already had at home so it made it easy and saved money too.  It probably still ended up being bigger then what I was going for, but it was a fun night either way and B had a blast!