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Harry Potter Theme Party Ideas

September 15, 2022 By: Sweet Frugal Life2 Comments

Fun ideas for a Harry Potter birthday party!

My youngest turned 10 last week and he really wanted a Harry Potter themed birthday party.  As a huge Harry Potter fan myself, I was so excited to make his dreams become a reality!  One of the best things about throwing a Harry Potter birthday party is that there are just SO many fun activities you can do.  We had so much fun looking up ideas, planning the party together. and making “magic” happen.

The party was a huge success and I’m so excited to share all the nitty gritty details with you today!

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Harry Potter Party Decorations

The decorations for this party were very simple.  Basically all I did was splurge on a Platform 9 3/4 sign for our front door, and placed a few candles on the table (easy peasy is my jam).  The kids loved walking through the platform curtain and I’m so happy I bought it!  My son now has it hanging in his bedroom doorway.  It’s so cute!

 

platform 9 3/4 curtain on front door

 

Sorting Hat Cupcakes

The party started with our Sorting Hat Cupcakes.  This was probably my favorite part of the entire party!  I knew I wanted to sort everyone into a house, but I wasn’t sure exactly how to do that.  But, then I came across the idea to use Sorting Hat Cupcakes.

These were a huge hit and I’m so glad we went this direction.

But, I have to give a little disclaimer!  I am by no means a professional cake decorator or baker!  But, I do like trying to find budget friendly ways to make my kids dreams come true!  And fortunately, even though these cupcakes did not look perfect….my Harry Potter fan LOVED them….and that’s really all that mattered.

How To Make Sorting Hat Cupcakes

Sorting hat cupcakes are so easy to make!  Just bake cupcakes according to your favorite cake recipe instructions. 

Once the cupcakes are baked and cooled, take a spoon and gently spoon out some of the middle of the cupcake.

Next, mix up 4 different colors of frosting.  One will be blue (for Ravenclaw house), one red (for Gryffindor house), another yellow (for Hufflepuff house), and the last green (for Slytherin house).  Which are, obviously, the different colors of the four houses in Harry Potter.  I really like this frosting recipe and then I used food coloring to make the different colors.

After you’ve made your frosting it’s time to fill the cupcakes.  Put a different color of frosting into the middle of each cupcake. 

sorting cupcakes

 

Frost the cupcake with white frosting, making sure to cover the colored frosting.  Then, put half an Oreo on top of the frosting.  This will be the first part of your sorting hat.

 

Lastly, add a Hershey kiss on top of the Oreo half.  I had to put a little bit of frosting on the bottom of the kiss to make sure it stuck to the oreo.  And ta-dah!  Your sorting hat cupcakes are done!

 

After singing Happy Birthday I let each of the kids randomly choose a cupcake.  Whichever color of frosting was inside their cupcake was the house that they would be in.  They loved getting to take off the sorting hat to see which house they were in.  It was such a fun activity!

I forgot to take a picture of the kids finding out what house they are in, but here is a picture of the Great Hall before our guests arrived.

 

Harry Potter Party Activities

After the kids were sorted into their houses and finished eating their cupcakes we started the activities.  Each activity was in a different room and represented a different Hogwarts Class.  I pinned our class schedule onto a bulletin board to display and the kids loved looking to see the different classes for the day.  If you want this class schedule, you can grab it for free here:  Harry Potter Class Schedule Printable

History of Magic

Our first class was the History of Magic.  In the History of Magic class we learned about the famous wizard who defeated Voldemort….I’m talking about Harry Potter of course!

After learning about Harry Potter we played the game, Pin the Scar on Harry.  My husband drew the poster for me (because he is much more artistic than I am) and I printed out some lightning bolt scars.  Yay for team effort!  This game was a lot of fun, you just can’t beat the tried and true classic!

 

Potions

Next up on the schedule was Potions.  The kids absolutely LOVED this class and it turned out even better than I had imagined!

I wanted to do a simple science experiment, but with big results.  So, I decided to do an old favorite of mixing vinegar and baking soda together.  When you combine the vinegar and baking soda together it bubbles up really big.  The dish soap makes it more bubbly, and the rest of the ingredients are just for fun!  I printed up a potions card to display, and you can print it out for free here:   Harry Potter Growth Potion.

Unicorn Potion:  Vinegar

Dragons Blood:  Food Coloring

Spider Venom:  Dish Soap

Gillyweed:  Oregano (although the kids all let me know gillyweed is suppose to be slimy…you win some and you lose some)

Crushed Bones:  Baking Soda

 

To set up potions class, I bought these science mixing cups from Amazon.  Then I printed out labels for each of the ingredients and taped them to the cups.

 

Potions class was outside (because I knew it would be messy!).  Each party guest started with a small mason jar and a stirring stick (the stirring sticks came with the science mixing cups I had bought).  

 

Then, we brought out a new ingredient one by one as they stirred it all together.   Make sure to add the baking soda last for the big surprise.  The entire solution will foam over the mason jars.  The kids were all shocked and surprised at the result!  It was a huge hit and fun to see their reactions!

 

  • Related:  Budget Friendly Birthday Traditions for Kids

 

Divinations

Next up was Divinations class.  This class was another huge hit!

To prepare in advance I made this fortune teller guide.

 

The night before the party I put a small drop of food coloring into 8 different plastic cups, one for each child coming.  The food coloring needs to dry completely before adding anything else to the cup, so doing this the night before is necessary.  Then, right before divination class began I filled the cups up with ice to hide the food coloring at the bottom.

 

I wanted to make this experience really fun for the kids.  So, I poured some sprite into a large bowl and then added a dry ice block to make it foggy.  The kids LOVED this!

 

I handed each of the kids one of the cups I had prepped earlier.  Then one by one I spooned sprite into each cup.  We had to wait a few minutes for the fog to clear but once it did the sprite had changed colors (thanks to the dried food coloring).  We were able to use the color in the cup and fortune teller guide to tell each of the kids their fortunes.  It was so fun!

 

Charms Class

After divination we went to charms class.  Earlier in the week my son had made wands for each of the party guests and we let everyone choose a wand for charms class.  I found a Wand Motion Chart from The Scrap Shoppe Blog and gave one to each kid.  Together we practiced a few charms and spells, and the kids had fun practicing the different wand motions.

 

  • Related:  DIY Harry Potter Wand

 

Defense Against The Dark Arts

Last, but not least we went to Defense Against The Dark Arts class.  I thought it would be fun to have a pinata in this class for the kids to “battle.”  I found this spider pinata on Amazon and decided it would be perfect!  After coloring in the face (to make it more spooky) and filling it with candy we were ready to go!

Everyone got a turn to hit the spider with a bat, and then we let the birthday boy finish it off.  The kids loved grabbing the candy with their Harry Potter goody bag.

 

 

The Party Was A Hit

The kids had so much fun at our Harry Potter themed party.  I couldn’t have asked for it to go any better!  Let me know if any of these ideas helped you plan your own party!  I’d love to hear how they worked out.

 

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I hope you enjoyed these Harry Potter Theme Party ideas!

How To Throw A Cupcake Wars Birthday Party

October 15, 2020 By: Sweet Frugal Lifecomment

Check out this fun tween birthday party theme!

My middle child turned 12 this month!  I can’t believe it and I’m not OK with it, but apparently I don’t get a say!  She requested a Cupcake Wars birthday party theme and I immediately loved the idea.  Have you ever seen the tv show Cupcake Wars?  It’s one of our favorite shows to watch at our house and my daughter loves to bake.  There is really no better party for her than a cupcake wars party!

Sweet Frugal Life is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.  As an Amazon associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

What is a Cupcake Wars Party?

Cupcake Wars is a competition between teams to see who can make the best cupcake.  Scoring is usually given based on presentation, creativity and taste.  In the TV show they have challenges, or a little twist, that the teams have to follow in each round.  The challenge make the cupcakes a little more difficult, but can also help you to try new things and get out of your comfort zone.

Cupcake Wars Rules

For our Cupcake Wars birthday party I divided the girls into three teams, with 2-3 girls on each team.  They were each assigned a “cooking station” as a spot in the kitchen to create their cupcakes.  Every cooking station was stocked with knifes, spoons, bowls, and a plate.

We had three rounds, with a challenge for the round.

The girls had 15 minutes to complete each challenge, which included plating the cupcakes.

After the 15 minutes were up the girls brought their cupcakes to the judging table.  The judges were my two other children.  They were so excited to get to be the judges and taste all of the cupcakes!

The winner of each round would receive 3 points, second place received 2 points and last place received 1 point.  The points were tallied up during all three rounds for a grand winner at the end of the game.

The Food

We had one table set up as the Food Table.  It contained the cupcakes, frosting, flavorings, and fun toppings…..basically everything the girls would need to create gourmet cupcakes!

I prebaked 3 different flavors of cupcakes:  strawberry, white and chocolate.  This was the perfect way to save time during the actual party.  The cupcakes were already baked and cooled, and ready to be decorated!

I probably bought to many toppings, but they were so fun to buy!!  Make sure you don’t get carried away and buy only what’s needed.  They used almost everything that I bought…..except for the raisins….nobody used the raisins…..

Here are a few topping ideas:

  • Oreos
  • Jelly beans
  • Graham Crackers
  • Sprinkles
  • Berries
  • M&Ms
  • Chocolate Chips
  • Oreos
  • Marshmallows

The Challenges

The challenges were so fun!  I presented them to the teams at the beginning of every round.  Each team was given a brown paper bag with the challenge clue inside.  As they ripped open their clue I explained the specific rule for the round.

 

Challenge #1:  Color Challenge

The first challenge was a color challenge.  Each group had a different piece of colored paper in their paper bag.  The challenge was to use that color somewhere on their cupcake.

This challenge went over really well.  It was a great way to allow each team some creativity with how they used their color.

Challenge #2:  Fork Challenge

The second challenge was the fork challenge!  The rules of this challenge were that they couldn’t use any knives, spoons, or piping bags to decorate their cupcakes.  The only utensil they could use was a fork!

Honestly, I was a little worried how this challenge would go over, but the girls did such a great job!  You would never know they were decorated with forks!

Challenge #3:  Book Challenge

The birthday girl loves to read.  So, for the last challenge we put three different books into each bag.  The challenge was to decorate the cupcake with that book as the cupcake theme.

I let me daughter choose the books.  She chose, Harry Potter, Keeper of the Lost Cities, and Hatchet.

The girls really enjoyed this challenge.  Especially Harry Potter….they all wanted the Harry Potter bag!

Cupcake Wars Decorations

We decided to go simple on the decorations because of the amount of food we would be getting.  My daughter requested a color scheme of black, white and gold.  I thought this was perfect for a classy cooking competition.

My first stop was Hobby Lobby (with coupon in hand, of course!).  I love shopping for birthday decorations at Hobby Lobby because of their large selection of colors.  You can find just about anything you could imagine at this beautiful store.

The Judges Table

I knew that I needed a place for the judges to sit when tasting the cupcakes, and I wanted it to be decorated as a focus point for the party.  I bought a plain white table cloth and adorable black and white table runner at Hobby Lobby.

The gold plates came from Dollar Tree and the paper plates came from my kitchen! (yay!  love when that happens!)

The darling Cupcake Wars banner hung at the window came from Paging Supermom.  It was a free printable and I am so excited I found it!

We placed the cupcake stand on the table as a place for the girls to place their cupcakes when they were ready for them to be judged!  It worked perfect!

Cooking Stations

I wanted to make a cute focal point over the girls baking stations, something fun to make decorating special.  The gold lanterns were bought at Hobby Lobby and I made the tissue paper pom-poms using tissue paper we already had at home.  Tissue paper pom-poms are so easy to make yourself!  Check out my Tissue Paper Pom-Pom Tutorial.

Party Favors

I love to make party favors as part of the party!  So, for a Cupcake Wars birthday party I knew aprons would be the perfect favor!

Each girl was given an apron before they game started.  I am so glad I did this too!!  The aprons were all very messy after the party, so I’m glad we had their clothes protected.

I bought my aprons on Amazon here.  They were perfect!


 

The other favor the girls received was a cupcake in a cupcake box.

At the end of all three rounds of the Cupcake Wars, I let each girl pick two cupcakes.  One of the cupcakes was to put in their cupcake box and the other one was to eat right then.  (this also doubled as the cake, easy peasy!)


 

In Conclusion

The party ended up being a huge hit!  Everyone had so much fun and I loved seeing their creativity in each cupcake.  If you have a child who loves to bake or enjoy watching cooking shows, I am sure they would love this tween birthday party theme!

 

You might also enjoy these related articles:

Budget Friendly Pancake and Pajamas Birthday Party!

How to Make Ice Cream in a Bag

25 Gift Ideas for Tween Girls; all under $25!

 

Pin for future use:

cupcake wars birthday party ideas - tween birthday party ideas

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I hope this helped you know how to throw a cupcake wars birthday party.

Hello! I’m Melanie!

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