Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Rainbow Baby Shower

The Rainbow Banner with the Mommy-to-be's name

I am so excited to share this party with you guys as this was my first ever party as a host.  I wanted to throw a baby shower for my cousin and since it is not something common in India I was a bit skeptical about asking her. But when I did she immediately agreed as she was really bored!! So I started planning and searching the Internet for inspiration and I found tonnes of it! I decided to go with a rainbow theme as it was easy to incorporate and there were so many rainbow parties on the net to get ideas from.


I wanted to try making a dessert table as it is something of a rage now and decided with some simple stuff like cake and cookies. I made the ruffle for the table using crepe paper and two sided tape based on an idea on the Hip Hooray blog.


I did all the baking at home and made all the decorations also at home. There was a lot of labor involved but in the end it was all worth it.


I made a rainbow cake using fruits which I had seen on I am Baker. I went with a box mix since I didn't have the time to search for a good recipe and try it out. I loved the concept and it was a hit with everyone except for the fact that the icing melted and the colors were see through!! I will post separately about the cake.


For the cupcakes I used my favorite chocolate cake recipe and divided the batter in two parts. With one I baked 12 cupcakes and with the other I baked a 9 inch round cake to be made into cake pops. The cupcakes were topped with chocolate ganache and they were absolutely amazing.




I made sugar cookies again and while I had a great idea in mind it didn't translate very well on the cookies. I used a glaze icing instead of royal because royal icing tastes so YUCK. My piping skills are hardly anything to brag about so I left the heart cookies bare which was a very good idea. They were really delicious and I packed them up in individual treat bags that I had on hand.



To make the cake pops I crumbled the entire cake and mixed half a can of chocolate frosting (again store bought to save time). I rolled them into 24 balls and dipped in white chocolate. I tried a new product this time called Dr. Oetkers Cake Covering and it is a good product for the price. Good quality white chocolate is just too expensive and too thick to get the results you want. So I am happy with this stuff. After dipping them in the chocolate I sprinkled crumbled cake on it which I took from each layer of the rainbow cake. So, I had four pops of each color of the rainbow. Unfortunately the heat got to my pops when I was transporting them to the venue (in an upright position), the coating melted and they fell off the sticks and lost their lovely looks.

Of course I was smart enough to NOT take photos of them the night before when I made them. After reaching her place I placed all of them upside down (hence the upside down rainbow) on a tray and put them in the fridge. They came out in one piece again but the coloring and looks were all gone :(


Fruit Kabobs - These were a hit with the children and I wish we had made more of them. We forgot the orange fruit (LOL!) but the idea was to create a rainbow on each stick.

Snacks - Since it was teatime we ordered snacks from outside. We got delicious Ragda Patties, Vegetable Grilled Sandwiches and Samosas with tea.

Games - We played two games - Guess the Baby Food and Guess the Chocolate in the Diaper. They were both super fun for me as I was watching every ones reactions to the faux poo!!



Favors - I picked up cute little favor bags from Tavola and we added candles and kisses for the women and chocolates for the kids in each bag. I made the rainbow printable and printed it out on card stock.

I also made the printables for the cake pops, place cards, bottle wrappers etc. If you would like the printables, please email me.
For the cupcakes I used free printables that I got from PaperGlitter.com They have a lovely set for a rainbow birthday party which can be found here.
All in all, it was a great party (if I may say so myself!) and I really enjoyed planning it. I am eagerly waiting for Latif to finish his graduation and then I'll throw him a big graduation party!!

Happy Eating!!