Not every truly memorable celebration has to be over the top with an abundance of details, decorations and food. Those are plenty fun, too, but I wanted to show that small family parties can have a little dazzle without being too much work! I know at my house we have many more of these little celebrations than the big ornate affairs, and it’s fun to make them a bit special.
Our dear friend Caroline had a birthday on Saturday. Early in the week, we made plans for her and her husband to come for dinner. And a few days later she saw my Facebook post about cupcake fondue…and put in a request for her birthday celebration! We made a day of it–cutting out decorations, shopping and baking cupcakes. Yes, we made the birthday girl make her own cupcakes. At least we gave her a super cute apron to do it in!
After making Caroline’s favorite {gluten-free} dinner,we dug into the cupcake fondue. (Dinner was churassco with chimichurrri sauce and black beans with coconut rice (a dish we picked up from our Cuban friends during our residence in Miami.)) While I would LOVE to take credit for this super fun idea, Bake it Pretty came up with it! You can see the post here with the instructions and glaze recipe. The three toppings on the left were the most popular: mini chocolate chips, rainbow sprinkles, and coconut. Lesson learned for the next time!
Our Sweet Caroline is allergic to all things wheat, so our feast was gluten free. I’ll be posting these little signs as free printables later this week! There is a lack of fondue forks at our house, so I borrowed an idea from Pizzazzerie and make cupcake skewers and this pretty little bouquet of cupcakes for us to use for dipping cupcakes.
The kids had a ball with this. But I have to admit, we did abandon the skewers and just used our hands for dipping and rolling by the end! And the concept of sprinkling the toppings over the cupcakes was completely lost on my crew.
Caroline is a former Long Beach aquarium worker and complete beach lover, and her husband, Drew, now designs and builds those neat aquariums you see at museums. So I quickly whipped up some fun sea creature party goods for Caroline – a theme I knew she would love! (I know not everyone can do this, but printables are readily available everywhere in all kinds of themes!!)
The biggest hit was the party hats. Caroline was even nice enough to wear a shirt that matched hers!
It was a simple celebration, but so much fun!
Paula @ JC's Loft
Thursday 27th of January 2011
What fun!!!!!!!!!! Why is this the first time I'm hearing about cupcake fondue? Seriously where have I been...love that idea!
Paula
Party Box Design
Thursday 27th of January 2011
looks like a great party!
Amy @ Blowout Party!
Thursday 27th of January 2011
Looks fun! I want a cupcake fondue party!
Nicole @ Tradewind Tiaras
Thursday 27th of January 2011
It's all wonderful, but I LOVE those anemone-ish hats! Lucky friend!