The One Direction Themed Party

Oh my goodness, I'm exhausted! I spent this afternoon at my cousin's 11th birthday party, surrounded by seventeen 10 and 11 year olds in a crowded function room at The Three Merry Lads in Cutthorpe, Barlow. Not having kids of my own yet, I haven't been to a kid's birthday party in a long long time - to be honest, the last time I did, I was a kid myself. So after today's crash course in kid's birthday parties, I realise now that these events are loud, brash, hyperactive, borderline hysterical, and I love them!

My super little cousin is totally obsessed with One Direction (aren't all young girls at the moment?) and I don't think anyone hesitated in deciding how to theme her party. The team at The Three Merry Lads have to be commended for the effort they put into decorating the function room; helium balloons, One Direction posters plastering every available square inch of wall space, beautifully laid tables and elaborate virgin cocktails for the guests. It was a really great effort from the team, and they were incredibly accommodating in the face of so many kids running around their rooms (and so many parents hiding out in the bar!). 

For my part, my cousin and I had long ago established that she wanted a One Direction cake for her birthday. I had part designed it in my mind already, and when I sat down to work out the detail it came together quite well. The cake is a rich chocolate Devil's Food Cake, filled with a milk chocolate ganache. After covering in navy blue fondant, I iced the names of the band-mates around the side, and punctuated them with pink and red sugarpaste hearts. For the 1D logo on the top of the cake, I googled and printed a copy of the logo, and then cut a stencil out of baking parchment. After gently pinning the stencil to the top of the cake, I used Dr Oetker's Shimmer Spray in silver to graffiti the logo onto the surface of the cake. 

One Direction Cake

Since there was going to be a party, I decided to supplement the cake with a batch of cupcakes, but I wanted to make them fit the theme. I decided to try out these cute microphone cupcakes, baked in ice cream cup cones. I had a few issues executing these, mostly due to the lack of supplies from my local cake shop at the last minute (I could not find black sugar crystals anywhere), and the fact that the silver crystals I had, and the silver shimmer spray did not stretch anywhere near as far as I expected, however I was really pleased with how they came out, and they were an absolute hit at the party. I am going to post up some step by step photos tomorrow and show you how I made them. 

Microphone Cupcakes

All in all, when the cake and cupcakes were laid out on the table they looked pretty good, and the kids approved, which I am holding as a personal achievement - pre-teens being a notoriously tough crowd! As I mentioned at the top of this post - I'm exhausted, so I'm off to bed with a well-deserved hot chocolate and a hot water bottle. Night All! x

One Direction Cake and Microphone Cupcakes

Blowing out the candles!