cinderella princess party

Okay, who remembers last year's Belle Barbie cake? Well this year, I did it again! ...and then some. I not only made a Barbie cake, I also made alll the other food for this party. And I helped decorate, too! So, I am going to show you all of the pretty things and yummy food behind the making of this party.

First of all, how gorgeous is this princess dining table!? I confess that everything was provided to me, but I did have to put it all together! I decided to add on and make those sweet silver pumpkins, since this was a Cinderella party.

These were ridiculously easy, but they came out great! I felt they were a perfect addition to go with the theme. All I did was buy a bag of mini pumpkins and spray-paint them silver! Seriously can't get any easier than that when it comes to party decor.

Now, let's talk some food! I made these adorable knock-off Goldfish crackers, but of course I couldn't just cut them out in fishy shapes... I cut them in Cinderella slipper shapes! I personally think Goldfish taste like garbage, but these crackers were SO good, especially right out of the oven. Me and the birthday girl (who was also my helper) could not stop eating them. Ha!

I made a veggie tray with celery sticks, carrot sticks, broccoli, cauliflower, pepper strips, and cucumber slices. I cut the cucumbers out with a flower cutter to skip peeling them and to make them prettier! And I used a hollowed-out pepper as a ranch dip bowl. Healthy and pretty!

These antipasto skewers were a HUGE hit with the moms! They were the first things to run out, and everyone commented on how yummy they were. I got the inspiration from this site, and these easy little things include green pimento olives, genoa salami, cheese tortellini (I know it sounds kinda weird, but I promise they work!), mozzarella balls, thin-cut pepperoni, black olives, and baby tomatoes. Before serving, you drizzle them with balsamic dressing (I used Ken's Light Olive Oil and Vinegar), and you're all done!

Because it's Halloween, Pillsbury conveniently had some Place and Bake cookies with Cinderella slippers, so of course I had to bake some of those!

And now, this dip. I am not sure what an "appropriate" amount of spinach artichoke dip is, but I'm pretty certain I had an inappropriate amount. This dip was SO ridiculously easy to make, but it tasted amazing! I served it with pita chips, but they ran out before all the dip was gone. So we resorted to using plain Ruffles chips. Haha! No shame.

As mentioned earlier, I made a Cinderella Barbie cake! I remembered that the fondant had driven me absolutely crazy last year, so I decided to "cheat" this time and buy ready-made fondant. Can I just say, that was probably my best decision ever? It was so easy to work with! I used box-mix white cake with added sprinkles and strawberry frosting for the inside. Another thing I learned last year, when I made homemade swiss buttercream frosting, is that little kids really don't care if something is homemade or not. And to be honest, they are so young they can't even tell the difference! Since I already had so much on my plate, I decided to make it easier and buy as many shortcuts as possible. Everyone loved it anyway, so obviously it wasn't a big deal!

Since the cake was confetti, I also made chocolate cupcakes with blue vanilla frosting. To make them extra special, I topped them with little tiaras and princess rings! It amazes me how a little bit of hard work can result in gorgeous cupcakes!

All this was, basically, was making cupcakes from a box mix, frosting them with storebought blue frosting, topping them with little doo-dads, and topping that with sprinkles! Yet, they look amazing.

P.S. Little princesses love cupcakes. 🙂

Table full of princesses hungry and ready for some CAKE! Yay!

Obviously, a princess party is not a party without "tea"! We did an easy mix of pink sherbet and ginger ale for pink princess tea.

Here is the birthday princess! Do not be fooled by her innocent appearance, she is a big ol' stinker. 🙂 But I love her to death! She is the best nannybaby a girl could ever wish for. I hope you had an awesome FIFTH birthday, baby! 🙂

P.S. Being five means you can't take un-blurry pictures because you're too excited. 🙂