Celebrating 2 Years Old with Baby Shark! Doo Doo Doo
I can not believe that it has been 2 years since Mary Catherine arrived. That first month in the NICU was full of emotions that it was hard to look forward beyond just going home. Well, we did go home after 4 weeks and let me tell you this girl has not stopped amazing me since the moment she arrived. She is fun, always making you smile, loves to dance and dress up. I struggled to think of a theme for her birthday party this year. She’s too small to tell me what she’d like and I’ve never been huge on character themes. I finally decided on Minnie Mouse (recent trip to Disneyland sparked a love for the Mouse, as she calls Minnies), but again don’t love character themes. I made a cute Pinterest board with a fun idea and then one morning she was playing on her tablet and watching Baby Shark video. It clicked, this girl LOVES her some Baby Shark. I mean I already had the printed! So I searched for the cutest Baby Shark Invites I could find and sent them off to the printer. Now to bring you all you need to hosted the BEST BABY SHARK BIRTHDAY PARTY ever!!!
Baby Shark Birthday Party: Location! Location! Location!
It’s one of the hardest parts of planning a party. Last year for John’s birthday we held his party at a neighborhood park and it was perfect! I mean there is an awesome playground, entertainment – CHECK! No matter who shows up from invites there are going to be kids there and playing, party guests (invited and crashers) – CHECK! Our favorite neighborhood park has the best playground because it is completely shaded by giant trees! There are picnic tables around the playground and the perfect tree for the pinata. My only concern was the craziness of Texas Spring weather. Yes, 3 weeks out I’m checking projected weather, meanwhile The Mister is laughing at my crazy. I send the invites, I watch the weather and I kid you not the week of the party the only day with rain predicted is our party day! I spend 3 days trying to decide if we should move the party inside, which means spending a few hundred dollars on a venue or waiting out the rain. We waited with fingers crossed and NO RAIN, it was a beautiful day!
Baby Shark Birthday Party: Invitations and Decorations
Where better to find the perfect Baby Shark Birthday Party invite than etsy. There were so many to pick from that I knew I was going to find something that was just perfect. I loved when I found one that has a softened color palette and bonus it came with a coordinating thank you tag file for party favors.Now the trick was to find everything else in these softer colors to coordinate. I went super simple in the decorations because we were at the party and the Texas weather is unpredictable. We wrapped the main trees in soft blue and green streamers and hung up the awesome shark pinata from the low lying branch. We covered the picnic table and two additional folding tables with simple white plastic table clothes. We had one for gifts, one for party favors and the cake and the food was set out on the picnic table for everyone to snack on.
Baby Shark Birthday Party: Birthday Outfit
This little baby shark had to have a sweet and special birthday outfit. Let me just say we’ve worn this shirt everyday its clean since the party. SHE LOVES IT! I tried to get her to say cheese for a quick picture but all I got was a sweet Doo Doo Doo! Her shirt is a from Dilly Dally Boutique and her Bow coordinates as any Texas Girl would have.
Baby Shark Birthday Party: Entertainment
The best thing about a party at the park is that you don’t have to plan games or hours of entertainment if you don’t want to. The kids are happy as can be to swing, climbing the monkey bars and slide over and over. If you are wanting to have games even if they are focused on the adults, something like corn hole would be perfect for the wide open space of the park. Bubbles are always a hit at the park and a handful of bubble tubes layed out on a table will go over well.
One of my favorite things to do for a birthday party is to make a fun photobooth for the kids to play and enjoy snapping picture with. Since this was all about baby shark, I figured that the main back ground of the baby shark video was perfect. I searched for the background on google images and sketched it out in pencil on a plain white tri-fold science project board. Then using washable kids paint (because I have masses of it on hand) I painted the sketched out background. In the wee hours of the morning I was snapping random pictures and sending to a friend of the progress. It came out so adorable! Now what to use as props with that backdrop. I found these hilarious shark sunglasses (they fit adults and older children best) and had my local print shop print these large for me. I was so excited that the designed had the softer colors available. After they were printed I did a rough trim on them and glued them to a piece of foam board. Using an X-acto knife I trim them out more precisely and inserted a skewer at the base so that they could be held up.
The pictures of the kids playing with the photobooth are the best!!! SO many happy kids and a few adults too.
What kid doesn’t love a pinata!? I mean you get to beat a box with a stick and then candy and toys shower on top of you. Sounds pretty good to most kids. This part was a little tricky for me. I searched and searched for a baby shark pinata. I mean serious this was a viral phenomenon- how is there not baby shark items EVERYWHERE? You can order an amazing online but this was a little more than I wanted to spend on one. So I considered making one, maybe decorating a like this one. But I struggled to find a #2 that was a plain color I could work with. I finally found a great shark pinata that didn’t look too scary to me and was a great price. I ordered it right away and when it arrived I decided to DIY a little and make it the PERFECT baby shark birthday pinata. I peeled the sticker eyes and mouth off the best I could. This is a delicate process as it’s stuck to tissue paper. With a sheet of white cardstock and a black sharpie I drew out the mouth and eyes to resemble Daddy shark. A little hot glue and this pinata is ready to party. I filled it with 3 giant bags of candy and all the lefts overs from my party favor purchases. I was full for sure. Note to self in the future, reinforce the hanging strap.
Baby Shark Birthday Party: Food and Cake
We had just under 40 people RSVP for this party and food can definetly become a point of stress when you have a large group to feed. In keeping it simple we went with a veggie tray, a fruit tray and a delicious cheese tray. All no prep and picked up from our local HEB the day before the party. A case of bottled water and a few boxes of the kids favorite juice drinks on ice and we’re calling it a day on the food. If we had been inside I may have done additional food offerings with a cute tablescape.
Last year I made John’s birthday cake for the first time and it was so much fun. I decided that from then on I would tackle the birthday cakes myself even though I know some amazing bakers here in Austin. I spent the two weeks before the party brainstorming with my sweet friend Simply Girly since she is currently also learning more about cake decorating. We sent each other Youtube tutorials and talked sprinkles for days. I finally decided that I was going to do a combination of techniques, a little ombre with drip chocolate and all the candy on top. I picked out the most amazing on Etsy and once again they were able to soften the colors to coordinate. Since I’m crazy about cakes and I knew this was going to be all new to me I decided to make a practice cake the week before to see if I could actually pull it off. I did the ombre colors out of order so good thing it was practice. Here is what you will need in order to recreate this look on your baby shark birthday cake:
Gel food coloring (two shades of pink or whichever color you will be using for your ombre)
Bulk candy in colors of theme
French Macarons from local bakery/grocer
Vanilla Cake box mix (ingredients per box)
Strawberry Cake box mix (ingredients per box)
Heavy Cream
2 batches of frosting (from recipe below)
For her Baby Shark Birthday Party cake I still loved all of those ideas and had one more that I wanted to incorporate. This may come as a suprise but I love box mix cakes the best. You are going to need 1 vanilla (2 8″ round cakes) and 2 strawberry (3 8″ round cakes). Bake cakes by box instructions and then allow to cool to room temp. While you are baking your cakes I recommend making your frosting, this came take awhile. For this cake you will need 2 batches of frosting from the recipe below. Seperate some frosting into 2 bowls for your two shades of pink. These should be about half a piping bag worth of each color. Lastly you should have about 3 piping bags full of white frosting for the rest of the cake.
CREAM CHEESE FROSTING
- 1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 8 oz. cream cheese, room temperature
- 6 cups powdered sugar, measured and then sifted
- 3 tablespoons heavy whipping cream
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- Pinch of salt
FOR THE CREAM CHEESE FROSTING
- In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the butter and cream cheese and beat on medium speed until smooth.
- With the mixer on low, gradually add the powdered sugar, one cup at a time, until incorporated (this gets a little messy).
- Keeping the mixer on low, add the heavy cream, vanilla and salt.
- Turn the mixer to medium and beat the frosting for 3-5 minutes.
When you are ready to put your cake together, trim the rounded top off of each cake and discard. On your cake board place a small amount of white frosting in the center and spread around to secure your cake to the board. Place a strawberry cake on the board. Before you place your next layer of cake you are going to use your biscuit (circle cookie cutter) and cut out the center of 2 vanilla cakes nad 2 strawberry cakes. Set aside one strawberry cake cut out, the rest can be discarded. Continue stacking you cakes, alternating flavors while frosting between your layers. When you are done stacking, Fill the whole in the center of the cake with the variety of bulk candy and sprinkles. Start with the largest pieces of candy and first and top off with sprinkles. You should fill the whole in so that when you replace the missing cut out your cake top is level.
Replace the cut out and crumb coat the entire cake. When finished Place in the fridge for 20 minutes OR freezer for 5 minutes. Remove the cake from cold storage. I have come to love my cake turntable, I HIGHLY recommend one. Place you cake board on the turn table and clip the tips off of the piping bag of your darkest colored frosting. Pipe a heavy amount of frosting to the base of the cake and about 2″ up. Next step is to take your lighter shade of frosting and continue to pipe the next 2″ of cake. Finish off the remaining height and top of the cake with the white frosting. Your cake should look like this at this point. Using your icing scraper at a slanted angle spin your turntable allowing the frosting to smooth together and blend. after 1-2 spins with the scraper you will be able to see where there are holes in your frosting. Fill in those holes with appropriate shade of frosting and spin again.
Once the desired look is reaching on the side of your cake smooth out the top of the cake. Place your frosted cake back into cold storage (fridge for 20 minutes OR freezer for 5 minutes). While your cake is chilling. You can prep you chocolate drip. For this you will need 3:1 mix of white chocolate melts and heavy cream. Place in a microwave safe bowl and heat in 20 second intervals, stirring until well incorporated. Pour into squeeze bottle and allow to cool for about 2 minutes. Shake the bottle well. Line up your squeeze bottle with the edge of the cake and using the turn table place chocolate drip slowly as you turn the cake. Fill the top of the cake and smooth over the chocolate for complete coverage.
I like to allow a few minutes fo the chocolate to set before decorating with a variety of bulk candies and sprinkles and macarons. Cake can be placed in the fridge overnight if needed. Place your cake topper prior to presenting cake.
Baby Shark Birthday Party: Party Favors
Something I have learned after a handful of kids parties, the goodie bags are SUPER important to the kids at the party. They are actually a primary focus. So making those fun was high on my list. Using the cute thank you tags that came with our invites and raffia ribbon I filled white gable boxes with all the goodies. Here is what was included in our baby shark party favors: shark sticker sheets, NEW BABY SHARK STICKER SHEETS now available, mini squirty sharks, shark candy bracelets, mini bubbles, and sticky sharks.
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