Sara in Wonderland Birthday Party

Yes yes, it was my birthday and I had been planning this birthday party for at least 5 months! Nuts right? But I am so pleased with how it came out... I had to share with you. Recipes included of course!!

I’ve always loved everything whimsical, and although Alice in Wonderland isn’t my favorite Disney Movie, it had the most creative and colorful ideas! I wanted my very own mad hatter tea party. I even asked the guests to come dressed up in their best mad tea party costumes. They all complied, and even agreed to wear the oversized accordion hats that I found online at Oriental Trading. 

I wanted the table spread to be colorful and somewhat cluttered like the movie. I didn’t want the table to look prim and proper, I wanted it to miss match and call out for attention. I used an assortment of cake and cupcake stands to create height and different levels for the food items. 

I also baked all of the food myself (some recipes at bottom of the page), the bread for sandwiches, the scones, the quiche, chocolate macarons, the birthday cake, and I even dipped the dainty little strawberries in white and pink chocolate. I wanted the food to be very much what you would eat at a tea party, all finger food.

I also used food coloring to paint phrases such as ‘eat me’, ‘bite me’, ‘try me’, and ‘drink me’ which the guests found quite irresistible.

When it came to the signature drink of the party, I didn’t do tea because most of my friends aren’t tea drinkers, so my I made my dad’s signature drink, his ‘Sandia’ which means watermelon in Spanish. It is a drink made with watermelon juice, quite a few different mixtures of liqueur, and served inside the watermelon itself. 

I carved the watermelon to look like the Cheshire cat, since it already had stripes of its own. The drink was a hit! When the drink was finished my friends asked me to break open the watermelon so they could eat the flesh! Although this drink has a lot of alcohol, you can always make it kid friendly by making a mocktail mixture and serving it inside the watermelon.

The only real tea at the party was the jasmine blooming tea displayed inside a clear apothecary jar that sat in the centre of the table. It was more decorative than functional, but it looked beautiful through the clear glass.

There was also a multitude of tea cups of all sizes laid out on the table. I bought a few teacup shaped flower planters and painted them with bright colors, and some with themes from the movie such as the Cheshire cat’s smile and the suits from a deck of cards. The largest planter I found at a supermarket in the gardening isle of Shop Rite. It was quite a find! It was so large that I could fit a regular bowl in it, so I decided to serve the salad inside it. Most of the guests didn’t realize it was a large teacup until the bowl was almost empty. The middle sized teacup planter I used to put the silverware inside so that the guests could find them more easily.

I am also raving about the newly popular teacupcakes. They are made out of silicone and you can bake cupcakes right inside them. They come with a saucer too so that you get that perfect teacup look. Unfortunately the molds only come in white as of now, but you can always use an edible airbrush paint to color them after they’ve been baked! I loved this look and even used one of the tea cupcakes  to top off the birthday cake

The birthday cake is one of our Stardust favorites, it’s the black forest cake. I wouldn’t typically place a black forest cake underneath a fondant layer, as many Pastry Chefs will tell you, whipped cream under fondant is a very dangerous and risky venture, but since it was my favorite cake I decided to alter it a bit to make it work. It wasn’t a very elaborate cake since there was so much on the table that would detract from it, but it had a nice height with the rest of the items.
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The place settings were just as bright as the rest of the food. The bright blue table cloth contrasted with the bright pink plates, and the black hexagonal cake plates. I also used bright yellow napkins with a large fake gerbera daisy on top to top off the setting. And instead of teacups to serve beverages, I used neon colored margarita glasses. They worked really nicely by adding that different height effect I was trying to achieve.

To achieve the party setting in the room I had to add a lot of color without destroying my walls, so I bought a set of balloon wallies from the online Wallies store. They are great because they stick nicely to the wall without damaging it and come off very easily and don’t peel the paint.

I also loved Martha Stewart’s poms and the effect they added to the room. They are very fun and festive, and are so easy to assemble. They have a multitude of colors and sizes too.

And no party is complete without balloons. I ordered a few helium balloons to decorate around the room and on the side of the chairs. My husband Todd had a great idea for the back of our white chairs. We made them look like decks of cards by adding the suits to each opposing corner. I also added some ribbon to enhance the color effect. It was perfect!

Even the bathroom didn't get missed, we picked the queen's favorite quote 'Off with your head' and turned it into 'Off to the head.'

It was really quite a party, and with the Alice in Wonderland movie playing in the background, even those who had never watched the movie became familiar with some aspect of the movie. An amazing birthday party it was!

Macaron Recipe

2 3/4 cups almond flour
2 cups powdered sugar

1 cup egg whites
pinch salt
3/4 cup granulated sugar
Gel paste color

1. Sift the first 2 ingredients together. (this is super important!)
2. Whip the whites with salt to soft peaks.
3. Add granulated sugar and gel color (any color) and whip to stiff peaks.
4. Fold the dry with the whites till well incorporated.

Using a large/ wide tip, pipe dollops onto a piece of parchment. (Make sure the tip is wide, a small tip will deflate the whites.)

Let them rest for 30 minutes or until they feel dry when you touch them. Or at least make sure they don't stick to your fingers! This way you will be guaranteed lovely 'feet.'

When you bake them at 300F make sure they are well spread out. Bake for 15 minutes. After the first 5 minutes let the steam out of the oven for a few seconds.

Allow them to cool on a rack before pulling them off the parchment!

Fill them with any desired filling (it must be creamy or you can't spread it on)

 You can decorate them any way you like.