A Party For Yourself Anytime You Want It.

Okay, so there isnt any reason to party coming up and you really want a cupcake, What do you do but make the best ever cupcakes just to throw a party in your mouth. Of course you can make your favorite cupcake or you can make my favorite in cupcake form.

Vanilla Bean Cheesecake Cupcakes

Start with your crust. You can use what ever crumbs you like for the flavor you want. I used graham crackers this time. 1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs, 1/2 cup melted butter and 1/4 cup brown sugar. Mix all together and put in cup cake cups.

I pressed the crumb mixture into the bottom of the cups using a rolling pin to form the crust.

Next is the filling. You can use any cheesecake recipe you want to use and have any flavor you want. I used my favorite basic cheesecake recipe modified slightly by adding the vanilla beans from one pod of vanilla to give it more vanilla flavor and also the tiny vanilla beans in the batter.
1 cup sugar. 1 tbsp corn starch. 5 -8 oz pkg cream cheese. 2 large eggs. 2 tsp vanilla extract. 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream. vanilla beans from one vanilla bean pod. Mix all ingredients together and spoon over crust. Bake at 350° for approximately 20 minutes. Watch closely and take out when filling is just set.  center should be slightly jiggly and edges firm. Let cool.

While cupcakes are cooling you can make the topping. A white chocolate cream mousse. You will need 6 oz white chocolate chips, melted. 1 cup heavy whipping cream. 1/4 cup powdered sugar. 4 oz cream cheese.

Melt chocolate chips and let cool. Mix cream cheese, sugar, and cream together then add chocolate and beat well. Spoon onto cooled cupcakes.

 At this point, need to melt some chocolate chips to drizzle over cupcakes.  You can use semi sweet or milk chocolate, whichever you prefer. I used semi sweet on mine. About 6 oz of chips will do and mix a couple of tablespoons of heavy cream into melted chips to get a drizzling consistency.

Next comes the vanilla bean whipped cream for decoration. Mix 1 cup heavy whipping cream with 1 tbsp of powdered sugar and the beans from one vanilla bean pod. Beat until stiff peaks form. Use  a rosette tip to pipe rosettes on top of cupcake and enjoy!

 A Party In Every Bite!

Vanilla Bean Cheesecake Cupcakes

Crust: 

1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs

1/2 cup melted butter

1/4 cup brown sugar. 

Mix all together and press in cup cake cups.

Filling:

1 cup sugar

1 tbsp corn starch

5 -8 oz pkg cream cheese

2 large eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

vanilla beans from one vanilla bean pod

Mix all ingredients together and spoon over crust. Bake at 350° for approximately 20 minutes. Watch closely and take out when filling is just set.  center should be slightly jiggly and edges firm. Let cool.

Mousse Topping:

6 oz white chocolate chips, melted

1 cup heavy whipping cream

1/4 cup powdered sugar

4 oz cream cheese.

Melt chocolate chips and let cool. Mix cream cheese, sugar, and cream together then add chocolate and beat well. Spoon onto cooled cupcakes. 

Melt some chocolate chips to drizzle over cupcakes. 6 oz of chips will do and mix a couple of tablespoons of heavy cream into melted chips to get a drizzling consistency.

Vanilla Bean Whipped Cream:

1 cup heavy whipping cream

1 tbsp of powdered sugar

beans from one vanilla bean pod

Beat until stiff peaks form. Use a rosette tip to pipe rosettes on top of cupcake and enjoy!

Campout Party

We had a campout party for our son's 6th birthday. 

The cake was simple and the boys all loved it. I made a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and made a campfire out of cookies and fruit roll ups. It was a little tricky to get the fruit roll ups to stand up for the fire so I used tooth picks to help with that.

 The boys each got a walking stick with a bandana tied to it with their party favors inside. I used wild animal print material for the bandanas and inside was a compass, a flash light, a trail bar, and fruit snacks to enjoy on the hike.

The boys hiked out in the field and had their snacks while we set up the tent and got the camp site ready.

Some of the party favors.

Back at the campsite, The boys played in the tent and ran around playing games until dinner time. Some games taught the boys how to use a compass and they enjoyed learning the way a compass works.

 Then they each roasted their own hotdogs over the campfire and enjoyed baked beans and trail mix.

Trail mix was a big hit with all the boys.

mix together cheerios, m&ms, raisins,  and peanuts.

 Makes for a great anytime snack on a real campout when boys get hungry often. We usually have a big bag of it available for the boys to get anytime while out in the woods.

 Another party favor was crazy straws and the boys enjoyed making long crazy straws to drink their drinks with.

 After dinner, We had s'mores. Each child roasted marshmallows to make their s'mores.

 Then of course, cake. The boys had a lot of fun and were all tired and ready for bed by the end of the party.

Pirate party for kids

This a Pirate party we had for our son who was turning 5. As always we get creative and make a great party out of what we have, keeping it simple but super fun for all.

The cake was made from Hostess Ho Ho's and designed to look like a Pirate ship. Candles were put in sideways to look like canons shooting out from the side of the ship.

The cupcakes were topped with gummi fish.

The treasure chest was filled with candy and pirate goodies, like jewels and coins.

In our back yard we built a temporary Pirate ship tree house for the kids to play on. Just a few boards between some trees and decorated with a sheet for a sail.

We had several game stations set up in the back yard. Each place the kids got more pirate stuff. One station was balloon sword fighting......

One they made telescopes......

One they made Captain Hook hands and had to use the hooks to get prizes from the basket....

One they played "pin the patch on the pirate".....

And in one they took pictures with the photo board.....

The final game was following a pirate treasure map......

Once the X was found, they dug up the treasure chest.

The treasure chest contained individual treasures for each child.

Super Mario Party

Super Mario Bros. makes for a super easy party that is sure to be a hit with all ages. I remember having a Super Mario Bros party for my oldest son who played Super Mario Bros on the original Nintendo system and now with my 5th child who plays it on the Wii.

Decorations were easy even though we didnt have printed Mario plates and decorations. We chose colors that complemented the game and hung balloons and stars around from the ceiling. Of course we had to have plenty of chocolate coins.

Fake mustaches for everyone! Dinner was pizza of course and for the cake we made cake pops to look like mushrooms. Red frosting with smarties candies for spots.

The entertainment was, of course, Super Mario Bros. on the Wii and everyone had a great time. First time around with this party we had other games as well. One that was a hit involved dividing into two teams and having a child on each team put on a large sweat suit over their clothes and then having the teams stuff blown up balloons into the sweat suit to make them look like muscle men or Mario after he powers up. The team that can stuff the most balloons in wins. Or you could make a relay race and have each child take a turn with the suit. There are many ways to expand on this theme. depending on how much you want to do and how much time you have. The most important thing is making the birthday child happy and this party wins in that category.

Medieval Times Party

The theme for our family get together this year was medieval. This party lasted for the whole weekend and we tied it together with our family reunion.

These are some of the family crest flags representing each family in attendance that we made before the event.

The first day we had the tournaments, each famliy had to come up with a game for everyone to compete in. First we had archery and each person tried their hand at shooting the bow and arrows.

The next event was the wild goose chase. Each team had to catch a chicken or rooster (which were worth more points.)

Then came the pool jousting competition.

The final event for the tournament was "Boberry Tales" around dinner....each family had to tell a story from their life and the most interesting, funniest, or most intriguing would win. We have a family trophy that the winning family from each family reunion gets to keep for the year.

The next day is when we had the real party. Everyone dressed up in Medieval attire and was assigned a character. We again used a murder mystery game and each person played their role. Each person was responsible to come up with their own costume and it could be as simple or elaborate as they wanted.

For the walls, I painted a canvas drop cloth that we could hang up with out damaging our current walls and decor. We also used material to hand as curtains and vinyl clings to add to the castle feel. For the table, we used gold chargers and aluminum pie tins for plates and baskets to hold breads.

Some costumes were bought.

Some were very creatively hand made.

For our food, we tried to keep things as close to period cooking as possible. We had suckling pig, roast chicken, corn on the cob and baked potatoes. It was all delicious!