A "Sing"-ular Sensation -- Karaoke Birthday Party

Since we are still partying around here, I thought I should share another party I was involved in recently.

In the middle of the chaos that is December, my neighbor contacted me for help with her daughter's 9th b-day party.  She's good at event planning, but wanted some insanity thrown into the mix. (Yes, she did!  She knows what I'm all about and specifically requested it).  We settled on a Karaoke party since her daughter is quite the performer and I went to work, blinging out the invitations, cake, and other party details.

I drew a lot of inspiration from this party over at Blonde Designs, which I loved, but needed everything to be a bit flashier for this little superstar. These are the invitations I came up with incorporating some of her favorite pop-stars and a picture of the birthday girl.  She looks like as much of a celebrity as the others do!

I was also responsible for the cake and cupcakes.  My neighbor had seen how I had made the robot cake stand up, and the toadstool cake stand-up, so she wanted a standing 3D microphone cake.  I had to think about it a bit before saying I could do it.  The cake came out much better and much worse than I had hoped, at the same time. 

First off, Thank heavens for BSB who saw that my initial idea for making the cake stand up, was probably not going to be sufficient.  He went and drilled a hole in a piece of wood to put underneath the cake stand that solved that problem. I think I'm going to have to do a separate post on the secrets of the 3D cakes. This one involved rice krispy treats, which is partly why the bottom isn't very smooth.

The big disappointment was that we didn't make enough fondant to cover the top of the microphone (and yes, please tell me that you could tell it was a microphone all along!), so I ended up with those ugly folds that probably have all of the real bakers cringing right now.  (I also tend to finish up cakes at the last minute, so there is no time for do-overs, oops!)  What I loved about this cake was that it was the first time I experimented with painting fondant with luster dust. I mixed the dust with clear vanilla and it made this gorgeous metallic paint, that I worked to the max to try and hide all of my other sins.

(I molded an on/off switch out of fondant)

I think the party guests were impressed.  It took a longtime to convince many of them that that was indeed, a cake, and could be eaten.  Another girl told me it looked like something off of the "Food Network."  I wasn't sure whether to be really flattered, or to tell her that she must watch too much TV.  

You've probably seen these cupcake microphones before.  I think the idea first came from Parenting magazine.  We used black sanding sugar, which looked great, but made the party guests look like members of KISS.

But they loved it!  I also created a music-themed mystery, with clues they had to play on the bells to figure out hiding places.  (i.e. "Splish Splash I was taking a Bath", would lead them to the bath tub for their next clue).  But I wasn't there for that part, so no pics.  (I was official party photographer, too!)

The entry way made a great stage for the Karaoke Party that went well into the night (and they hardly let me have a turn.  :-))

The girls were sent home with a swag bag filled with diva supplies, an inflatable microphone of their very own., and probably some hoarse voices.  But a good time was had by all!

And now I'm only one party behind in blogging (and I don't have the pics yet from that one), so I will be focusing on all of your amazing parties linked-up at my Blogiversary Party Party next week.  There are so many!  I think you all need to go and check them all out.  Linky is open through Saturday and we will be announcing the finalists (if we can decide on them) mid-week.  Thanks to everyone who is sharing their fabulous parties and ideas!  I know I'm inspired!