Party Planning: Treasure Strings Game

Let's wrap up the week with another tip from the wonderful Birthday Cake book: a variation on a treasure hunt for younger children.

Treasure Strings involves a different color ball of yarn for each little one at your party. Write each child's name on a tag and tie it to one end of the ball of yarn. Now comes the fun part: winding the yarn all through your chosen area (house, yard) being careful to go over and under things and crossing the yarns. Cut the yarn and tie a small treasure to the end of it, then hide the gift under something. During the game, the children follow the trail of their assigned color and are rewarded with the little treasure. Maybe the first person to find their treasure also wins a prize!

How much fun is this? We think this would be great for the preschool & kindergarten set. It would even be a great activity for a playdate on a rainy day.

Wee-Tails: Glazed Flowers, Leaves and Fruits

It has been said that you learn something new every day, and the Birthday Cakes book is an inspiring teacher. Here is a tip from the book on how to add a precious wee-tail to any cake.

Carolyn Miller writes:

"A frosty glaze makes fresh flowers, leaves, and fruits even lovelier for decorating cakes and cake plates. To glaze, simply beat an egg white until it is frothy, then dip the cleaned item in the egg white, or brush the egg white on with a pastry brush. Lightly dredge in super-fine sugar, then sprinkle more sugar over to cover any missed places. Let dry on a wire rack. Use the same day."

Wee Festivity particularly loves how the authors instruct us to decorate the cake OR the cake plate. See? That is a wee-tail right there, they just didn't know the lingo yet. Also, we would use this on a cake for any celebration, not just a child's birthday.

Reading: Birthday Cakes

I picked up this book, Birthday Cakes: Recipes and Memories from Celebrated Bakers, last week at the library.




Kathryn Kleinman and Carolyn Miller have put together a treasure trove of birthday beauty and information. The photos are amazing and the variety of cake stands? Let's just say I might need to replace the library's copy because I drooled all over theirs.

I will share some of my favorites from the book for the rest of this week.