Archive for the ‘campout’ Category

I designed these fun cupcakes a few weeks ago for my beautiful little boys and of course they go perfectly with our “campout” and “great outdoors” birthday party themes too.

My boys love tents, roasting marshmallows and fishing, so I needed to incorporate each element. If you’ve not noticed yet, there is also a little sleeping bag in the tent {giggle}. I couldn’t resist piping one since my boys love to use theirs on their beds sometimes! Oh, and by the way, these are the cupcakes I entered in the parenting.com cake and cupcake contest that I mentioned last week.

Here’s what you’ll need to decorate your white cupcakes (use egg whites only to preserve the color of your cupcake wrappers):

• Hershey bars (2 3/4 pieces per tent)
• Mini goldfish crackers
• Fiber one cereal (campfire logs)
• Cream cheese icing
• Blue, green and red gel food coloring
• Toothpicks
• #46 tip (flat side for sleeping bag)
• #107 tip (campfire flame)
• #233 tip (grass)
• white bakers wire (could use floral wire with non-edible items)

And here are the easy steps:

1. Using the grass tip, ice your cupcakes. (TIP: You’ll want to add all of your decorations before the icing sets too much so that the grass will act as adhesive to keep the items in place.)
2. Build your tents next. Take two full blocks of chocolate and trim the third, the base, to 2/3 its normal size. On the base pipe your sleeping bag, a short strip for the pillow and a long strip for the bag.
3. Melt a block or two of chocolate in the microwave to use as adhesive for assembling your tent. Apply the chocolate with a toothpick and hold your tent in place for a few seconds to allow it to set. Place it on your cupcake.
4. Using Fiber One cereal as your campfire logs {I know… but they look just like little sticks!}, set them up in a pyramid shape and then pipe a dollop of icing on top for the flame.
5. Finally we create our fishing pole with a toothpick, I used colored ones, a mini goldfish and bakers wire. Simply wrap the wire around your fish and wind it around your toothpick pole. I placed it so that it is over the edge and then embellished the cupcake with a paper wave design as if they were on an island.

 I hope you enjoy my little creation, my boys really did!

Similar to our new “butterflies” theme, we had great success with our “campout” theme too and thought it a good idea to develop a new invitation and thank you card for the ever popular campout sleepover party.

So, without further commentary, introducing “great outdoors!”

Check our new design out, and as always, we would love your feedback on this invitation design as well as any of our others.

Plus, if you have a theme design you’re searching for and can’t find, we want to know that too! You can e-mail us at ideas@celebrationshoppe.com or post a comment here.

These are sooo fun and could be perfect for a campout party.

Here’s what you’ll need:

• 1 roll (18 oz.) refrigerated sugar cookie dough
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1/3 cup cocoa powder
• 20 whole cashews
• 1/2 cup chocolate frosting
• 1 cup M&M’s Peanut Chocolate Candies
• 2 cookie sheet pans
• Plastic wrap paper
• Resealable plastic bag

And here’s how you make them:

1. Divide the sugar cookie dough in three pieces. Knead the flour into one piece of cookie dough until smooth, set aside. Combine the remaining two pieces of cookie dough and knead in the cocoa powder until smooth, set aside.
2. Roll the lighter colored cookie dough into a 1-inch round log about 10 inches long, and move it off to the side. Roll out the chocolate cookie dough on a lightly floured surface to a 10 x 4-inch rectangle. Place the light colored log of cookie dough on top of the chocolate rectangle. Wrap the chocolate cookie dough completely around the lighter colored log. Pinch edges to seal and roll the log smooth. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
3. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Cut the cookie log into 1/4-inch slices. Place 2 slices, side by side, on sheet pans. Press a cashew into cookie at the point the slices touch. Repeat with remaining cookie slices. Bake for approximately 8-11 minutes, or until cookies are just beginning to golden. Remove from the oven and transfer to a wire rack to cool.
4. Spoon the chocolate frosting into a resealable bag and snip a small corner from bag. Using the photograph as guide, pipe eyelashes and a dot to secure candies. Add the M&M’s for eyes.

Thanks brightideas.com!