Creative Birthday Parties - Part 3b: Food

We officially have a 3 year old!  In the previous post, I talked about the decorations for our Daniel Tiger birthday bash, this post is about DT themed food.

 

Food:

 

So.  Much.  Food.

 

I always make too much food, and this year was no different.  But the ideas start flowing and I CAN'T STOP making food!  Case in point - we had 2 cakes. 

1.  Tiger Smoosh Cake (Episode 101: Daniel’s Birthday/ Daniel’s Picnic), made from boxed spice cake, orange colored cream cheese frosting and chocolate syrup stripes, and then packaged to go home with party guests.

 

 2.  A vegan chocolate trolley cake (we have a friend with egg and dairy allergies), with white canned frosting, decorated with red sugar, lemon wafer cookies, cherry Twizzlers and red decorator frosting.  Daniel Tiger and friends stood in front of trolley and helped hide my "artistry."  I used this trolley cake to model mine after, except I used a 9x13 pan, cut the cake in thirds and stacked them up.

 

In addition to cake and some assorted candies on the dessert table, there was:

Banana muffins (Episode 108: Something Special for Dad/ I Love You, Mom).  I made them eggless by adding 3t applesauce instead of 1 egg.

Oatmeal with Blueberries Cookies (Episode 117: Good Morning Daniel/ Goodnight Daniel).  These were not eggless, but they were dairy free.  I used the recipe my mom used when I was a child.  Usually we add chocolate chips, but I added dried blueberries instead.

 

 

3/4 cup shortening

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup sugar

1 egg

1/4 cup water

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup flour

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

3 cups old fashioned oats

 

Preheat oven to 350 F

Beat shortening, sugars, egg, water and vanilla together until creamy.  Sift together flour, salt and soda.  Add to creamed mixture and blend well.  Stir in oats.  Stir in dried fruit or chocolate chips (about a cup).

Drop dough by the teaspoon onto a greased cookie sheet.  Bake for 12-15 minutes.

Now for the main course foods:

Spaghetti noodles with either chicken and broccoli in homemade alfredo sauce or marinara and meatballs (Episode 113: Daniel Waits for Show and Tell/ A Night Out at a Restaurant).  They were both yum, yum, yummy in our tum, tum, tummy!

Veggies and dip (Episode 116: Be a Vegetable Taster!/ Daniel Tries a New Food).

 

Honeycrisp apples, pears and caramel dip (Episode 112 – Fruit Picking Day/ Daniel is Big Enough to Help Dad).

The only food that is often referenced in the show that we were not able to use was strawberries.  We have an allergy in the house, but we love them, so we try not to tempt the allergic.  So no strawberry pancakes (Episode 109: A Trip to the Enchanted Garden/ A Trip to the Crayon Factory) or strawberry birthday cake (Episode 135: Daniel Gets a Cold/ Mom Tiger is Sick).

I have to say, the party went off so very well.  I am always relieved and disappointed when the party is over.  It is so much fun to plan and brainstorm and look on Pinterest, but I am always ready for a break after it's over.