Cake Ideas: Jungle Cake (Kid Tested)

This is the cake that got me hooked on making crazy cakes. I found the instructions on nickjr.com. Unfortunately, it looks like the instructions are no longer there. The great thing about this cake is that it is absolutely crazy, but if you break it into pieces it's very managable. It has palm trees, baby jaguars and lots of monkeys. The candy bananas (runts) were a great addition.

Cake Ideas: Rainbow Cake (Kid Tested)

This is one of the most fun cakes I have done. It's great because it's a surprise until you cut the cake. I received tons of ooohs and aaaahhs for the cake I used with this technique. The process is simple and inexpensive, but a litte time consuming.



What You'll Need:

• Box White Cake Mix (and required ingredients from the box)


• Food Coloring


• Pint Sized Ziploc Bags

Here's How:

1. Mix up a box of white cake mix according to the directions.


2. Select the colors you'd like to use (You can really use any number of colors. 3-5 would work best.


3. Divide batter into the Ziploc bags based on the number of colors you've selected.


4. Add food coloring to each bag and mix up the batter.


5. Grease cake pan.


6. Imagine a 3" circle in the middle of the pan. With your first color, fill in the 3" imaginary circle.


7. With the next color, fill in the imaginary circle again right on top of the first. Repeat with all colors. Repeat this with all of the colors. Rotating until all of the batter is complete. the batter will begin to spread out as you go and eventually fill in the entire cake pan.


8. Bake as directed on box.


9. Cool & frost as normal.

Party Theme: Summer Camp (Kid Tested)

What's more fun in summer than camp? This theme is fun because it combines all the great things about being a kid: crafts, games, hot dogs and s'mores! We branded our camp party: Camp Jacob 2009!

Camper Registration


We set up a table with a sign for "Camper Registration". As each child arrived, they signed in and were given a backpack that had an iron on that said "Camp Jacob 2009". In each bag was a flashlight (with batteries) and compass ring (from the party store). This was their favor bag, but it was fun for them to have them to put their stuff in during the party.

Games/Activities

Name Badges:

This was a simple activity that can be done while everyone is arriving with little direction. It was foam sheets cut to 4 x 6 with holes punched in them, string, letter foam stickers, beads and foam markers to decorate. Each child used the sticky letters to create their name.

Postcards:

The front of the postcard said: "Thanks for coming to Camp Jacob. It was AWESOME celebrating my 6th birthday with you!" on the left side and lines for the child's name and address on the right. On the reverse side, the kids could color a picture. After the party, we mailed the cards to the kids, because what would camp be without a postcard from camp!

Make Your Own Trail Mix:

This was a fun idea that the kids loved. We placed about 8 different mix-ins on a table (raisins, peanuts, chocolate chips, marshmallows, etc). There were snack sized Ziploc bags and put labels that said "(name)'s Secret Recipe Trail Mix". The kids loaded in their favorites to create a unique mix.

Tie Dye T-shirts:

For this traditionally messy activity, we used water bottles with a squirt top and filled them with water and Rit Dye. Each child used rubber bands to tie their t-shirts. Plastic bins worked to keep the excess dye contained. We strung a cloths line with cloths pins for the kids to let their shirts dry. Also, important - plastic bags as cover ups, plastic gloves and gallon sized Ziploc bags to take the t-shirts home.

Water Balloon Toss: Another classic camp activity! We lined the kids up in pairs and let the toss the balloons back and forth. Most of the kids were little, so it turned into chaos and all of the kids used multiple balloons. It was fun for everyone!

Obstacle Course:

It's easy to create an obstacle course. We used a tunnel, a large bouncy ball with a handle, the kids crab walked and crawled through a jungle gym we have in the back yard.

S'mores:

To avoid a fire that had to be closely guarded, I made s'mores in the oven. Place a graham cracker topped with a marshmallow in the oven on low broil for a couple of minutes. Took them out and topped them with a chocolate square and another graham cracker. Viola! Quick, easy s'mores.

Food
Hot Dogs on the Grill
Potato Salad
Watermelon
Ants on a Log
Baked Beans
Cookies
Veggies
Bug Juice (Juice Boxes)
Soda

Cake

This cake was very simple. I ordered a cake from the bakery with green frosting and then decorated it with a tent (graham crackers covered in fondant), fire ring (chocolate covered cookie dough), logs (pretzel sticks), lake (blue sprinkles), fish (Swedish fish), dock (pretzel sticks) and trees (sugar cone covered in frosting rolled in coconut dyed green).

Party Theme: Candy Land (Kid Tested)

Party Theme


This is one of the most magical parties that you can dream up. The party was based on the magical childhood favorite board game: Candy Land. All kids love candy, so who wouldn't love a party that was completely focused on CANDY! Get the Party Started: I like to start parties with activity that kids can do when they first get there and takes little instruction. For this party, we had each kid decorate a bag to keep all of the goodies they will get at the party. Once we got the party started, all of the kids were given a game card to identify what place they would start on the game board.
















Kid Sized Candy Land Game We created a life sized Candy Land game. Kids moved from station to station by picking a card and moving the color that they picked.

• Musical Lollipops - The kids sat in a circle and passed around fun lollipops until the music stopped. The person holding the lollipop was out of the game, but got to keep the lollipop.
• Rainbow Pass - They passed over the Rainbow Pass which was a raised rainbow the kids walked over. Each kid picked up a cool rainbow bracelet as they went over the pass.
• Candy Necklaces - The kids used various candies and cereal strung on licorice strings to create unique edible necklaces.
• Candy Cane Limbo - Each child had to limbo under a giant candy cane to get to the next station.
• Gingerbread Man Notebook Decoration - I used pre-made gingerbread men notebook kits. This was a great way to keep with the candy theme, but have a non-candy activity.
• Chocolate Swamp - A kiddie pool filled with pillows and covered in a chocolate brown blanket became the perfect chocolate swamp. The kids stomped through it on the kid sized board and picked up a little chocolate treat along the way.
• Gramma Nutt's Peanut Butter Cookie Hunt - Each kid reached into wrapped box full of packing peanuts in search of Nutter Butters. Of course, we had a few non-peanut treats in the event that a child had an allergy.
• Snow Flake Lake - This was another pass through on the board. Each child received a snowball cookie.
• King Kandy Buffet - When the kids completed the board, each was rewarded a King Kandy Buffet ticket and treat bag. The kids were set free to raid the candy buffet and fill their bags with any candy they liked.

Setting the Scene

• Kid Sized Board -

This was key to setting the tone for the party and important for the events. It was very simple. It was made from several colors of 11x18 construction paper taped to the floor. I also created a rainbow pass with construction paper cut in strips and pasted the opposite way as the other paper.

Kid Sized Gingerbread Men - We also created kid sized gingerbread men/women using brown craft paper and various other papers to add pearls and buttons.

Licorice Forest - Using several red tablecloths and red crepe paper, we created Licorice Forest.

Candy Bouquet - These are easy to make and a lot of fun. Place a chunk of dense green foam into any fun container. Tape a variety of packaged candy to skewers. Poke the skewers into the green foam and cover the foam with tissue paper or colored paper strips.

Giant Hard Candy - This was so cute and really cheap and easy. It takes only old newspaper, fun tissue paper, curling ribbon and cellophane wrap. Cut the cellophane wrap slightly larger than the tissue paper. On a flat surface place the cellophane, then the tissue paper and crumpled up newspaper on top. Roll everything up and tie the ends to look like hard candy.

Food

• 'Sweet'-corndogs
• Gramma Nutt PB&J (A variety of PB&J Sandwiches Without Crust)
• Fruit Lollipops (Fruit on Skewers)
• Cookie Sandwiches
• Veggies & Dip
• Rainbow Jell-O Jiggles
• Chocolate Swamp Goop (Chocolate Cake Crock-pot Recipe)
• Colored Goldfish

Cake

I ordered a cake frosted in light green with pink edging, but otherwise plain. Using the board as inspiration (and many online examples) I created a Candy Land board for the cake using various candies, cookies and sprinkles. It was very easy and so much fun. We served it with Peppermint Stick Ice Cream.