Patty Cakes Bakery: October 2014

Our little caterpillar turned one back in May, and we had a fun time throwing her a Very Hungry Caterpillar birthday party. I have been wanting to do this theme for her first birthday even before she was born. We love Eric Carle's book around here, and I fun putting the different aspects of his story into a fun little party.

It all started with a fun little invitation. I saw one similar to this online, and made my own version of it in Photoshop. You can find a lot of hungry caterpillar clip art online.

The next important part of the party is definitely the cake! This cake was so fun to make. I molded the caterpillar out of fondant/gumtex mixture, combining 4 different shades of green in each segment (mixing them together slightly to get the marbled look), and gluing them together with a little bit of clear vanilla. I let it dry for about 2 days before putting it onto the cake.

I mixed a couple different shades of each fruit color to also get some marbled effect on them, characteristic of Carle's artwork in his book. The colors just make me smile. Such happy, bright colors!

It was pretty easy to figure out what food to serve at the party...I just followed along in the book for inspiration. There are some really cute food labels I got here that I stuck into each food to retell the story as people got their food.

"One Sunday morning the warm sun came up and 'Pop' out of the egg came a tiny, but very hungry caterpillar."

"He started to look for some food. On Monday he ate through one apple, but he was still hungry."

"On Tuesday he ate through two pears, but he was still hungry."

"On Wednesday he ate through 3 plums, but he was still hungry." Plums weren't really in season yet, so we opted for dried plums--the kids actually loved it).

"On Thursday he ate through 4 strawberries, but he was still hungry."

"On Friday he ate through 5 oranges, but he was still hungry."

"On Saturday he ate through one piece of chocolate cake..."

"One ice cream cone." I found these cute ice cream cone bubbles that we used instead, since real ones would have just melted all over the table. These were a hit with all of the kids)...

"One pickle." Can you believe that they were actually all eaten by the end of the party? This non-pickle fan just can't quite wrap my head around that one.)...

"One slice of swiss cheese, one slice of salami." We made ham and swiss cheese sliders for this, and hoped the substitution of ham for salami would be acceptable. By the way that everyone ate them, I don't think it was a big issue :)...

"One lollipop." These cute lollipops are usually in the wedding/party favor section of Michaels or JoAnns)...

"One piece of cherry pie." I tried these mini cherry pies using a sugar cookie crust that I filled with cherry pie filling. Kind of messy to eat, but really, really yummy!)...

"One sausage." The men were excited about this one--bacon wrapped little smokies. My SIL and hubby were the masterminds behind this one)...

"One cupcake" (I saw this idea on Pinterest and couldn't help but make this caterpillar cupcake display. It was very simple to make, but added so much to the theme of the party.)...

"And one slice of watermelon. That night he had a stomach-ache." Luckily, I didn't hear any complaints of little tummies hurting after this meal. Overall, there wasn't too many desserts, but a lot of yummy fruits which all the little mouths loved.

"The next day was Sunday again. The caterpillar ate through one nice green leaf, and after that he felt much better." We had a yummy spinach salad for our green leaf. My friend Angie made this for me one time, and I fell in love with this salad. You can find the recipe at the end of this post.

Well, that is where we end in our book for the party food. When I lived in Nevada I remember seeing some large gummy butterflies at a grocery store, but I couldn't find any out here in Iowa, so we just focused on the caterpillar for this party. If you can find any, though, it would be fun to have some in a little candy jar on the table or in a party bag for the kids to take home.

My little table was too small for all this yummy caterpillar food, so we had to set up card tables on either side. I had bought this silly little Hungry Caterpillar card game years ago, that worked great hanging on a ribbon on the tables for a little garland, and I got the ideas for the paper fan caterpillar and Happy Birthday Claira garland from Catch my Party which made a nice back drop for the table.

This little peanut thought it all was great. Out of all my kids, she is by far the best eater, usually liking everything I give her...I guess she is kind of like that Hungry Caterpillar.

She got the caterpillar head from the cupcake cake as her smash cake. That worked out perfectly. It was just a one layer 6" cake--perfect size for a smash cake. At first she carefully picked off the caterpillar's eyes and nose, but then she dug in and was eating handfuls of delicious chocolate cake.

She was very happy being so messy. Some kids don't like being messy...mine is quite the opposite.

You might have noticed some pictures on the table of her throughout her first year. I took a picture of her at every month with her hungry caterpillar toy, and framed one for each month and put those on the table. Then at 12 months I set up a little picnic blanket with the caterpillar's fruit and took some of her reading the book. I have some of those below for those of you interested in seeing them (my excuse to show off my cute little babe!)

Nectarine and Spinach Salad
Spinach
Nectarines (I used mangos since that is what I had on hand)
Red Onion
Craisins
Sliced Almonds
Blackberries
Parmesean Cheese

Vinigarette
1/2 c Olive oil
1/4 c Apple cider vinegar
1/4c White wine vinegar
1/4c sugar
2T toasted sesame seeds (browned on stovetop)
1/4tsp paprika