Goonies Birthday Party

I love themed parties and I love the movie Goonies so it seemed like a fun idea to have a Goonies themed birthday this year.  After looking at pinterest I decided this party was going to be a snap and it was.  Here are some details.

Banners:

Goonies Font from dafont.com.  I cut the banner with the Silouhette using the Goonies font, then glued the letters on white cardstock and mounted on brown.  I just taped the letters to a piece of twine.

Pirate flag from Zurchers party supply.

Goonies Tags from HotTaTasFaktory on Etsy.  Super cute and made a fun additional banner.

One-Eyed Willy:
The skeleton is one I picked up last year at Costco for Halloween, he has come in really handy.  I tied a scrap of cloth on his head as a scarf.  I bought the eye patch at Zurchers and then made the jewel eye like One-Eyed Willy has in the movie with scrapbook sticky embellishments.

Cake:

I got the cake topping frosting sheet from the NM Sugar Shack on Etsy.  These printed frosting sheets are edible, store for a long time, and are easy to apply.  Be aware that it took 24 hours before the frosting sheet blended in with the cake like it was supposed to, not the "several hours" advertised.

 I bought the dynamite candles from Party Swizzle and they were my favorite purchase for this party.  They are packaged so cute, and sparkled when lit.  A couple of them kept relighting and just looked cool for this party, especially because the Goonies think the dynamite sticks they find are just candles.

 

 

The cake was a delicious White cake with Raspberry filling we ordered from Harmon's Bakery, a local here in Utah.

Goonies details:
Data's "Pinchers of Peril" were some chatter teeth I bought on Amazon.

 

Statue of David was a mini garden pick I bought on Amazon then I tied a tag around the middle that said, "That's my mom's favorite piece."  Since it was a tiny garden pick we decided to use it as an additional cake topper.

An "it's wet ain't it?  Drink it!" sign for the water.

Baby Ruth candy bars as thank you for coming favors.

Rocky Road ice cream to serve with the cake.

Pirate's Booty as a salty snack, bought at Costco.  Sign next to it that quotes "bobby traps....that's what I said, booty traps" from the movie.

"Rich Stuff" was a mix of hard candies in colorful wrappers like jewels, some shiny pirate coins and jewelry I picked up at Zurchers, and Hershy's Treasures.

Fratelli's wanted poster found via pinterest.

Goonies map I bought on ebay.

Chunk's Truffles in honor of the truffle shuffle are just oreo truffles.

Additional ideas:
Additional party food as needed that would fit the theme would be Domino's pizza and spray cans of whipped cream.

While we just watched the movie at my party some game ideas would be a matching game with a picture of a character and a quote by that character, a photo booth with One-eyed Willy and a sloth mask you can find online.  A treasure hunt of some sort.  A trivia game.

Decorations that I wanted and couldn't find for a reasonable price or had time to make was the key they find on Chester Copperpot's body.

Ding Dong Cake.

My roommate Melissa loves Ding-dongs so when I saw this recipe on Pinterest I knew I had to make it for her birthday.  I adjusted the cream filling a bit to make it sweeter and changed the frosting to an easy chocolate ganache because ganache is just delightful.

This filling can be used for any of those Hostess treats (ie. Cupcakes, Suzy Q's, Twinkies, ding dongs, cake rolls, etc).  Warning:  Nothing about this filling/cake is good for you. You have been warned. Also read all the way through before making to see some options.

"Hostess" cream filling

1 cup milk

4 tablespoons flour
1/2 cup butter, softened 
1/2 cup shortening
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla

1/4 cup powdered sugar  (as needed)

 

Stir together milk and flour on medium heat in a heavy bottom saucepan until thick.  Set aside to cool.  Beat in a mixing bowl, butter and shortening for 4 minutes.  Add sugar and vanilla and beat an additional 4 minutes.  Beat in milk/flour mixture for another 4 minutes.  Taste, and if you desire a bit more sweetness add powdered sugar.

 

I made a devils food cake in 2 round pans. Layered the cream on top of one cake and topped with the other.  For the ganache heat up 1 cup heavy whipping cream in a sauce pan with 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips.  Stir until smooth and set aside to cool. 

 

 

What I should/could have done:  Left the layered cake on a cooling rack over a rimmed baking sheet and poured cooled ganache over entire cooled cake and let set, to make a smooth coating.

 

What I did:  Cooled the ganache in the refrigerator until thickened and  then frosted the cake.  This still tastes awesome and looks cool but doesn't look like a ding-dong with a smooth coating due to the cream oozing out the side and mixing with the ganache.  It still tasted awesome though.

 

 

 

A different type of Cake Pop.

We made these cakes from soda pop cans for Cyrus' birthday and Shawn's Bachelor party at work.  They were super easy, cheap, and made an impact.

20-30 cans of soda/beer
3 tiers of cardboard cake circles
Ribbon

The amount of soda you need depends on if you want to make a solid layer or a border.  For the bear cake we made a solid layer and for the Mt. Dew cake we just made a border and filled it with a favorite bag of candy.  Make your base, place smaller carboard circle on top, make next layer, repeat.  Wrap each layer with ribbon.  It is easy and can be adjusted as needed.

Happy Birthday Dr. Suess!!

Today is Dr. Suess' Birthday. (and mine)

I love Dr. Suess a lot, and always will. I also love cookbooks inspired by books. Last year for my birthday I recieved this book:

It has a wide variety to fun things to make and eat inspired by his books.

Being a birthday one I want to share here is... Cat in the Hat birthday Cake, essentially here you go:

Cat in the Hat Birthday Cake

1 angel food cake
1-2 cups fresh strawberries
1 container cool-whip

Blend most of the strawberries with the coolwhip in a mixer.
Pour over angel food cake.
Cut rest of strawberries up and decorate cake.
Enjoy!!

This is super easy, and super fresh.