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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:

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girl birthday party themes - cupcake wars party

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

Budget Friendly Pajamas and Pancakes Birthday Party!

September 8, 2018 By: Sweet Frugal Life2 Comments

Easy Tween Girl Birthday Party Theme.

Why is it that every time my kids have a birthday I get so emotional????  Please tell me I’m not alone in this!  It is so fun to watch my kids grow into amazing people, but oh how my heart hurts to see just how fast time passes and how quickly my babes grow!  We celebrated my daughters 10th birthday last week with a Pajamas and Pancakes Birthday Party!  I definitely shed a tear or two, but I mostly enjoyed celebrating her sweet life!

The rule at our house is that I will throw my kids a birthday party with their friends every other year.  This year happened to be the year for my daughters party.  It took us a few days to come up with a theme that felt a little more “grown up” for her.

  • Related:  Budget Friendly Birthday Traditions for Kids

We finally decided that a Pajamas and Pancakes Birthday Party would be the perfect tween girl birthday party theme.

Like all of my parties I try to plan simple, fun and FRUGAL.  I want it to be a special day for my kids and all of the party goers….but I also want it to be the least amount of stress possible for me!  (that’s just how I roll!)

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Disclosure:  “We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.”

The Invitations

I spent $2 on the invitations.

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I found the cutest invites at the Dollar Tree!  Seriously, how cute are these?!?!  They were perfect in every way, cute enough to keep my daughter excited and cheap enough to keep me satisfied!

I highly recommend checking the The Dollar Tree when you are looking for budget friendly birthday invites.

The Decorations

I spent $0 on the decorations.

By using items I already had at home I was able to spend $0 (yes, zero!) on decorations for our Pajamas and Pancakes Birthday Party!  This made me so happy!

With the help of the birthday girl we chose the colors turquoise, pink and white.  I scrounged through my stockpile of streamers and balloons to find some in her requested colors.

We ended up hanging a few streamers and balloons around the house, and made some tissue paper pom poms for a fun statement over the dining room table.

It turned out beautiful!  I was so happy the way the colors all went together.


The Table

I spent $5 on the table supplies.

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Because the party was centered around eating breakfast, I wanted to make the table cute and inviting.  I found the plates, utensils, cups, napkins, and table cloth all at Walmart for $.97 each.  The colors matched our theme colors perfectly!

 

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The centerpieces were put together using items I had at home and I love how they turned out!  I simply filled a mason jar with fruit loop cereal and put a flower inside.  So easy!  So cute!  The girls loved munching on the cereal while they were waiting for the food to be ready.  An appetizer and a decorations!

 

The Food

I spent $10 on food.

Most of the ingredients I needed for the party I already had at my home.  But, I did spend some money on buying a few extra fun toppings.

Unfortunately, I completely spaced taking pictures of the food I prepared, whoops mom brain!  

I cooked up a huge batch of pancakes and set up a pancake bar for everyone to pick and choose their own toppings.  We had Nutella, strawberries, blueberries, whipped cream, maple syrup, raspberry syrup, and sprinkles (it was a birthday after all 😉 ).

I overestimated the amount of food these girls would eat.  We ended up with a lot of leftovers!  So, when you are buying food for your Pajamas and Pancakes birthday party remember they might get distracted and not eat a lot.

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The Activities

I spent $40 on the games/crafts.

The activities were my biggest budget item, and I honestly spent more than I usually do.  But, a few of these activities doubled as the “goody bag.”  And they were all so much fun!

Once everyone was finished eating their pancakes we started playing the games.

Silent Football:

First, we played Silent Football.  The girls had so much fun playing this game!  They didn’t want to stop!

The Cereal Game:

The Cereal Game was so much fun to play, and perfect for a breakfast themed party!  It was based off of the popular White Elephant Game.

How it works:  I bought 9 mini cereal boxes (1 for each girl) and made 9 slips of paper each with a number on it (1-9).

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The girls sat in a circle and each picked a number.  Whichever number they drew was the order of when they would be able to choose a cereal.

The girl who drew #1 was able to choose from all of the cereals first.  Then the girl who drew #2 had the option to choose from the cereal that was left in the middle or steal the cereal box from the first girl. 

Play continues in the same way until all the girls have each had a turn to steal or choose from the middle.  If a cereal is stolen from you, you will receive a turn to steal from another person or choose from the middle. 

A cereal can only be stolen twice until it is “dead,” meaning it can not be stolen again.

This game was a huge hit!  The girls loved having a mini cereal box to take home with them.

 

The Craft

Next came the craft!  Each of the girls were given one white pillow case.  They then used fabric markers to color and decorate their pillow case. 

Honestly, before the party I wasn’t sure how long they would want to sit still and color, but they surprised me!  They sat quietly for a good 20 minutes decorating their pillow cases, chatting and giggling.  It was so fun to see each of the girls put their own personality on their pillow case.

I also had one extra pillow case for the birthday girl.  Each of the girls signed their name and wrote a little note to my daughter to help her remember this special day.

They loved this craft!  This activity was the biggest expense of the party,  but I decided it was well worth the money.  I found the cheapest pillowcases were in bulk on Amazon.


The Results

I spent $57 on this party.

The Pajamas and Pancakes Birthday Party ended up being a huge hit!  I loved seeing all the girls show up in their darling PJs and have a “mini sleepover”!

Now, I get to enjoy my sweet girl at age ten…..and keep hoping someone invents a special potion that will make kids stop growing!  Anyone???  Anyone???

Related Articles:

LEGO Birthday Party for Under $20

Kids Birthday Party on a Budget

 

Pin To Save For Later:

pancakes pajamas birthday party ideas - tween birthday party ideas

This budget friendly Pajamas and Pancakes Birthday Party was so fun!

Hello! I’m Melanie!

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