Birthday Party with Baking as the Theme

As cute as doing cakes might be, it'll be a long party and you still have to cool the cake before you can decorate it.

What about a "fondue" party? Cheeses, chocolates, that sort of thing? You could use mini crockpots instead of the real fondue pots. Dip fruit/berries, bread, crackers, veggies, cake, marshmallows... I think it could be a lot of fun, and it omits the whole waiting-to-bake/cool portion.

ETA: I searched "fondue birthday party" and apparently it's a pretty cool thing! Look at this! http://www.piggybankparties.com/oink/wp-content/uploads/2...

Looks like you could also buy or rent one of those chocolate fountains...

I would focus on the "decorating" rather than the baking. The decorating is the fun part. I would have sugar cookies and cupcakes pre-baked (or bought) ready to decorate.

My daughter does not like cake in general so for the birthday cake we have her friends make their own sundaes with tons of toppings to choose from.

Finally get a solid color apron for each girl - grab some fabric paints from Michaels and the girls can decorate their aprons - and it's their "goody bag gift" to take home along with all their decorated sweat treats. (Get cookie sheets at the dollar store for the girls to transport their masterpieces home.

Have fun,
T. Y

A lot of grocery stores here have cooking schools.

Around here, there are some restaurants that have cooking classes. Maybe that's an option!!

A lot of the high end grocery stores have regular classes.

I will say that the fondue sounds fun!

Have fun!!

Sounds like a great idea! You could do an internet search under "kid's cooking" and your location and you might get several ideas on businesses where you could host a party. If you have a regular size oven and space in the kitchen to work (or room to set up a table) you could also do it at home. You could divide the kids into three groups of three (+one) and have some groups measuring ingredients and preparing batter, while another groups ices or decorates something that you have previously prepared. I would have them make cookies or cupcakes or small loaf cakes or breads. And then they could switch jobs- I would let the group that made the batter decorate their own creations. I would also have a group measure and prepare something like check mix. You would need to plan a few other ideas or just let them visit while waiting on the oven to finish.

Most churches have large commercial type kitchens. I often do baking activities with my Sunday school class.

What is she wanting to bake? Cookies, cupcakes, what?

I like the idea of the cookies, either using a cookie press, or a basic sugar cookie recipe where you roll them and cut them.... have an assortment of cookie cutters. You could also have a couple of other basic recipes that the kids help mix up.

If you do cupcakes, see if you can find a basic recipe that you can modify with different flavors, and possibly fillings... the "gourmet" cupcakes are very popular right now, and they could also have fun decorating them. What ideas does your daughter have? Sometimes their ideas turn out to be the most fun of all!

My kids have been to a few of these at grocery store community rooms - and the people there organized it all.

They had a 2 part party - the first part, they were handed mini pizzas already ready to go - they just 'decorated' them with sauce, meat, toppings, cheese etc.

While those cooked in oven, the kids went on to 'decorate' cakes (single layer 9 inch round cake) that they brought home. So they were already baked - they just had icing, gummy worms, sprinkles, etc. and could decorate as they liked.

They ate the pizzas as their meal/snack, and then there was a larger cake afterwards for the birthday cake. All the kids brought home their cakes they decorated as party favors and we had at home. Very proud of their creations.

All that roughly took 2 hours (with opening gifts afterwards).

They did not make the batter and dough, but I think they had more fun decorating any how. If you're doing it at home, it may be easier to have things ready for them to use. Or if you did sugar cookies, you could have the dough already in fridge and they could cut them out (get fun cookie cutters). Then they can decorate. And take some home.

I think I'll do that in future for my little baker. They each got an apron (just cheap) too to keep their clothes clean.

I think it's a great idea. Have fun :)

Added: mine were young at these, so for 12 I'm sure they could handle more of the baking if interested. I like the station idea as others have mentioned and breaking into groups too.

O. of the higher end grocery stores here does cooking birthday parties. It includes balloons, cake, a meal of your choosing....

It depends on the size of your kitchen and what you are planning to bake. If your kitchen is big enough to hold all of the kids at once, or you have space outside the kitchen (say at the dining table) for all to mix ingredients and pour cupcakes, cut out cookies, spread icing, etc., then go for it at home.
And make sure that the kids do their own cleanup as well.

My daughter is turning 12 in a few weeks and this is what she wants to do too. I was thinking the kids could make sugar cookies with the cookie press (hearts, flowers, flat squiggle cookies etc.). ...some cookies will have sprinkles, some M&Ms, some colored sugar, etc.

My daughter wants to go to Maggiano's for dinner first though so she is only inviting 4 friends.

doing it from home would be cheapest but i think 10 is a lot for an apartment kitchen to handle. actually, it would be a lot for my kitchen to handle.
if that's the number you're both set on, then i'd poke around. many churches and civic organizations have halls with commercial kitchens you could rent. my go-to would be our local organic marketplace that has a classroom with full cooking set-up where they do lots of cooking, gardening and healthy living classes. do you have something like that nearby?
khairete
S.

We have done this at home before, but we did cookies and not cakes. Cookies cool much faster so everyone was able to decorate and bring theirs home.

I would also think Michael's would do it since they do cake decorating classes.

I think this is a great idea! I second the notion of contacting some area churches - they have large kitchens and usually are willing to rent out space for a manageable fee.

I'd think about the idea of "stations" - separate activity centers working on different things. Let the kids split up into 3 groups, and rotate. There's only so much measuring of cups of flour to make the party something that involves everyone.

You could expand it from "baking" to "cooking" if you want. Easy things are:
- cupcakes (with decorating at different stations)
- make-your-own pizza (providing dinner as well as sweets) with various toppings needing slicing & sharing
- make your own enchiladas (similar to pizza, in assembly line fashion)
- an easy dessert like 7-layer bars (measuring the various flavored chips & nuts, and allowing for some to crush the graham crackers for the crust, etc.
- quick bread or muffin making

Your expenses will be in materials, of course, plus kitchen rental. The girls (or you) will have to do all the clean-up because you have to leave the kitchen the way you found it.

A friend of mine had a 50th birthday party for ladies, and we did stations like this - bracelet making, wine glass decorating, and make-your-own lip gloss. She gave us aprons with "Laura's 50th" embroidered on them, and the aprons were used during the decorating. Your could do aprons as your party favor - decorated or not. (Or, the kids could decorate their own with fabric paints.)

Michael's has various themes.

Some Whole Foods store has a space for teaching classes.

You should google cooking classes. I am not sure if this place is close to you, but i typed your town name and cooking class:

http://culinaryunderground.com/kids-teens-classes/

I did this kind of party for my son and it was a huge success. I ordered aprons and chef hats from oriental trading. I had fabric paint and stamps for the kids to decorate them. Earlier in the day made 8" round cakes, one for each child. I purchased all kinds of decorations and had several colors of icing. We talked about blending colors and I had patterns available for anyone who was interested. The kids had a blast.

Another activity I did was have them build their own pizzas and put their names on the wax paper under the pizza. I baked them of course and while we were waiting for them to cook I had several types of fruit they made shish k bobs with.

Their take home was their apron, chef hat and cake. It was a lot of fun and the kids who came had a ball.

Enjoy!
L.

What a fun idea!!! Why don't you do it at your house??

Young Chefs academy . My friend did one it was between 300 - 400.

If you have a big kitchen could you do it at your house?

Do you have Panera Bread on the East Coast? They let them bake bread and decorate cookies.