This Mom's Party Desserts

I was asked by a good friend to create desserts for her son's 1st birthday. It was such an honor to be asked to do this but I was nervous and anxious about making it perfect for the birthday boy and his family. I am not a professional nor had any training whatsoever, but as with all things I do, if I don't know it, you bet your bottom dollar that I will learn how to do it!

After spending about 4 weeks looking up ideas, shopping, planning, printing and cutting, and a total of 1.5 days baking and packaging, I came up with 6 different desserts, totaling over 300, all themed after Superheroes. Everything is made from scratch, including all of the packaging, wrappers, and tags. And best of all, each dessert cost less than a $1 each to make!

Raising a family in Hawai'i is not easy because living in paradise comes with a pretty price tag :-). Throw birthday parties into the mix and the budget stretches pretty thin. But as mothers we all try really hard to give our kids the best we can without breaking the bank of course. So when making anything, whether it be desserts and decorations for a birthday party, or a pizza night for the kids, I always keep budget a priority. And when asked by family and friends to make desserts for their children, I apply the same values to their events just as much as I do for my own.

Here are some of my budget-friendly tips to create quality on a buck :-)

1. Do your research ahead of time! Start about 3 weeks ahead so you will have time to formulate your plan, go on your shopping trips, make most of the things you need ahead of time, and visualize the game plan. I mentally go through each step so that I am maximizing the time I spend online researching, shopping at the grocery stores, and in my kitchen. 
2. Pinterest and Google are your best friends. Ideas for everything you can imagine under the sun can be found through a simple internet search. This is the first step to generate ideas and to start the brainstorm process. 
3. Make it instead of buying it. Almost everything you see can be made. But do not get stuck on the complicated version of something. If a cake or centerpiece looks a bit too complicated and will cost way more than you plan on spending, keep searching for a scaled down version that you can pull off reasonably within time and budget limits. I employ this tip when I am designing birthday cakes. If I see an element to a birthday cake that is beyond my skills or time to learn it, I leave that one element off and replace with an easier piece. There are so many templates now available on Etsy and other websites, most of which are free printables that can be used to make birthday cards, birthday invitations, cupcake wrappers, cupcakes toppers, favor tags, etc. 
4. Shop around - online, local grocery stores, or even Costco! I have found many products and ingredients on Amazon, Walmart, and even Costco that are much cheaper than if I had bought elsewhere. I try to avoid specialty stores that exclusively sell party supplies, not unless they are warehouse stores. Now those you will definitely find great deals! My go-to places for supply/ingredient shopping are Amazon, Walmart and Costco. I am a Prime Member on Amazon so I never have to pay for shipping! And then I fill in the gaps on my lists by going to Party City. 
5. Channel your inner Sandra Lee and go Semi-Homemade! Sometimes buying a box of cake mix that you can doctor up with fresh ingredients will save you a LOT of time and money. Ideally I want all of my desserts to be from scratch, and most times I'm able to achieve that. BUT when there are kids to be fed, a baby that is hanging on my leg, and dishes to be washed, well my Sandra Lee comes out to the rescue! 
6. Always think "Big Picture". I wouldn't have been able to make 300+ desserts in 1.5 days by my lonesome if I had not had the big picture always in mind. When compiling my dessert menu I made to sure to incorporate desserts of varying degrees of difficulty and time requirements. I will include maybe 1 easy, quick dessert that can be put together in a couple of hours, 2 or 3 medium difficulty desserts and then add the Wow factor with 1 or 2 difficult desserts that will take a lot more of my time. So again, Big Picture...or else not much will get done :-). 

These are the tips I follow every single time I start any project. I just scale back or more depending on the size of the project. By following these tips, I was able to produce 300 desserts, for 3 different 1st birthday parties, each dessert costing less than a buck each to make :-).

Here is my production line for the Superhero Birthday Party that I was honored to have been a part of.

Chocolate cookies made from Ree Drummond's recipe, dipped in White Vanilla Almond Bark

Final Product: Hulk Choco Cookies! Packaged into individual cellophane bags, tied with a silver ribbon. The tags were made by my husband, customized for the birthday boy :-) 

Final Product: Local Hawaiian Furikake Chex Mix. I made the comic strip cones by pasting different Avengers comic strips that I found online and printing them out on a cardstock 

Cake Pop dough, rolled into balls, stuck with lollipop sticks and dipped in red candy melts

Iron Man Cake Pops! 

Final Product: Captain America's Shield (laid the cookies into the plastic lid of a food tray to simulate the iconic shield wielded by the iconic Captain America. This idea I got from Pinterest :-) 

Peanut butter frosting to go on top of Ina Garten's chocolate cupcakes

Avengers Assemble! I bought a cupcake wrapper and topper set from Etsy that was a quick downloadble PDF and printed them onto cardstock to create these cute wrappers for the Superheroes. 

Had to represent for the girl Superheroes out there: Black Widow Blackberry Cheesecake (in a cup!) 

These were made using a simple layered recipe for cheesecakes that did not require baking. 

So with $300 I was able to buy all the ingredients and supplies to make over 300 desserts. And the few ingredients that were left over, like flour, sugar, milk, and eggs, I was able to use because who couldn't use more of those staples? You better believe I used up every bit of those for pancakes and biscuits the next morning :-).

The next birthday party that I did was for the same family, for their next baby that just turned 1 about a month ago. Stay tuned for the "Carnival" birthday desserts post :-).

Quality does not need to come with a huge price tag. In fact, money cannot buy the love that goes into the things we make ourselves.