birthday party themes Archives

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!

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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!