“American Diner” – Bubba’s 2nd Birthday Party 23

I really should have been born a citizen of the U.S. of A.

I have always been a huge fan.

American at heart.

That’s me.

Ever since I was a little girl, I wanted to be a cheerleader at an American High School. I wanted to celebrate Thanksgiving and sing The Star-Spangled Banner at the Superbowl with my hand on my heart. I wanted to go to Unversity in the States and become a Sorority Sister. (I actually ended up fulfilling that dream in 2000 when I studied at University in California and became an offical Alpha Chi Omega gal!)

So really, it was only ever going to be a matter of time before I imparted my American obsession onto my offspring. I’m actually surprised it took 2 years!

I had so much fun planning this party and dreaming up ideas, the only thing holding me back was a small voice in my head saying “She’s 2! She’d enjoy a frozen Sara Lee chocolate cake down at the park just as much!” (and the voice of many members of my family saying the same thing!) But the point is, this party was as much for me as it was for her! It gave me a proper excuse to abandon monotonous household chores in replaement of baking for hours and pulling together a fun event! Things I love. It was also really nice to get together with so many family and friends who we just don’t get to see often enough as everyone is so crazy busy! And she DID appreciate and enjoy it – the giggles and excited jumping and dancing all day AND the huge cuddle I got at the end of it all showed me that! In any case, I will print these pics and MAKE her appreciate my efforts when she’s older! Kidding! (Sort of!)

THE INVITES

I made these on my Mac in about three and a half seconds. I sourced a couple of cool images from the net, typed the text and voila! Delivered to my door! Couldn’t have been easier! And the fact that they were customised didn’t mean they cost more, relative to the nice Paper Eskimo packet design that was my alternative, these were about 25% cheaper – so, tailored AND more affordable – score!

THE DECORATIONS

Obviously I was looking for decor that was 1950’s Diner inspired. I narrowed that down (slightly!) by choosing a red, pink, black and white colour scheme. The decorations from the party came from absolutely all over! I did a lot of browsing online and it was here that I managed to find the banners and posters, the juke box pinata, the “Diner” designed party plates and serviettes, the 1950 foil balloons, (weighed down by Aunty T and Fam’s original vintage milkshake makers!!!!) the cardboard photo car and the red and white chequered table cloths. The 2 main sites I bought from were Party Central and Parties Online.

I bought the popcorn boxes, the lolly bags, the napkin holders, the doilies, the ice cream tubs and the straws from Papier D’Amore in Double Bay, Sydney.

I bought the Straw dispenser from Plenty, Westfield Bondi Junciton, Sydney.

I bought a trillion 4-pack Schweppes soda waters and drank them night after night after night after *hiccough* night, then threw them in the dishwasher after having soaked the labels off. I knew I wanted to fill these with chilled strawberry milk.

THE PARTY BAGS

Oh I am a fool. I forgot to take pics of these and they looked really cute lined up!

Basically they were just pink and red striped bags (from Papier D’amore, Double Bay, Sydney) filled with yummies! Oh look, I found them online. Click here to see/buy them. These are the exact ones I used! The hot pink and red striped ones.

When doing party bags I always like to put in heaps of chocolate as that’s what I like to get in party bags! I also like to chuck in just one item that relates specifically to the theme, in this case it was Gummy Hamburgers! Again, silly me, forgot to take a snap, but click here to see the ones I bought.

THE CAKE

To me this was the highlight of the party! I had an ABSOLUTE BALL making it and I couldn’t wait to bring it out to show the kids! I knew they would love a bit of theatre.

The actual cake part

To make the cake base, I simply followed my basic vanilla cake recipe. i.e. the recipe I pull out whenever I require just a plain, moist, cake. I generally use this when I’m doing something visual and I want a cake that’s taste is plain and simple! I shouldn’t call it MY vanilla cake as the recipe actually belongs to Nigella. I’m sure she won’t mind if you borrow it like I have. Click here to see it! I made 7 “loaves” of this cake. I used a standard loaf tin

The idea was that the end result would look like a massive family platter of Spaghetti and Meatballs, so I used the largest white plater that I could find, my Roast Turkey platter (only other time of year it comes out is at Christmas)! I covered my white cake board in red and white chequered table cloth and placed the white platter on top. The vanilla cakes were then laid out in an oval shape ie 5 in a row and then one on each side (shaped by cutting with a knife). Then, using a palette knife, I covered this mammoth mound of cake with a very thick layer of the Spaghetti coloured icing (see below).

The “Spaghetti”

A MASSIVE and I mean MASSIVE bowl of buttercream icing was harmed (I mean USED) in the making of this cake! Not only is heaps of it needed to cover the base cake as soon as your oval is formed, but then tonnes more of it is needed for the piped “spaghettti”. Getting the colour right took me quite some time so I didn’t want to perfect it only to run out and have to whip up (and colour match!) ANOTHER batch!

The two MAIN considerations when making icing in this instance are 1) consistency and 2) colour. The icing needs to be thick enough to pipe the “spaghetti” so that it holds it’s shape but not TOO thick otherwise it’s really unpleasant to eat and spreading and piping becomes difficult. The colour needs to match that of cooked pasta. I started doing this by THINKING about what colour cooked pasta was and in the end I made some up so I had a sample in front of me! I made vanilla buttercream icing and tweaked the colour by using cocoa and yellow food dye! Easy on the yellow food dye as it tends to be “bright”…. I literally added a drop at a time.

It was important to me that the cake didn’t look “cartoonish”…. I wanted it to REALLY look like spaghetti and meatballs so it was imperative that I piped with the right size tip. The icing had to come out in strips that matched the size of a regular tube of cooked spaghetti. I tested about 4 until I was happy. So once the tip was chosen and the icing was made, I piped my heart away until the iced cake underneath was not at all visible. This was then placed in the fridge.

The “Meatballs”

Hello Fererro Rocher. I unwrapped 10000 F balls, ate about 10 (or 20, or was it 50,  I can’t remember!) and randomly dropped the others on top of the spaghetti mound. Concentrating them to the centre was important but so was allowing them to drop down the sides to look “organic”.

The “Tomato Pasta Sauce”

Raspberry Coulis! Made the traditional way, well, what I consider to be the traditional way……frozen raspberries in a pot with a dash of water, a splash of lemon juice and a pinch of sugar. I wanted to dull the bright, bloody raspberry colour so I added a little bit if drinking chocolate (of all things!) until I got the perfect colour.

The “Parmesan Cheese”

A block of white chocolate finely grated in a bowl.When serving the cake I brought out the spaghetti mound with the “meatballs” in place and as we sang happy birthday I poured the sauce over and sprinkled the “cheese” on top. The birthday girl then dug into it with a set of pasta tongs!

THE FOOD

Burgers and Fries – Cupcakes and “French Fries” crisps.

Chocolate Brownies

Quiches

Chicken Sandwiches

Made by my grandmother. Truly ridiculously delicious. Made with chicken, mayo, celery, walnuts on Multigrain tip top. Oh and KILOS of butter. DEATH by chicken sandwich.

Ice cream shaped Kiddies Sandwiches – ham, cheese, vegemite.

Ice cream Sandwiches

Meat Pies

Strawberry milk and Doughnuts

All in all the party was a success – I had HEAPS AND MOUNDS AND LOADS AND SWIZZ-BANGS of fun planning and cooking and creating and my gorgeous American Diner princess had a blast too!

Thanks must go to everyone that helped me with the party, especially Hubby to the stars (Mr Phoodie) and the ever-reliable, always creative, genius of ideas to the moon and back, the one and only, Aunty T.

Let me know what you think in the comments section below! Any questions!? Leave them there too and I will try to help out! :) P