Gruffalo Party

My little man, my sweet sweet boy loves The Gruffalo and it's the story he insists on every single night. So, when I asked him what kind of 2nd birthday party he’d like, he came up with a combination of Blue (he also loves blue) and The Gruffalo. I didn’t actually end up incorporating any blue because let’s face it, the only thing blue in the forest is the sky!
 

I had such a blast putting this party together.

 

I painted the backdrop for the table on the Friday night before the party. I’m no artist but I was so thrilled with the end result and feel like the backdrop, along with some wooden rounds I’d gathered from our local Christmas tree farm (as we bought our tree) & some Christmas tree trimmings,  really set the scene for the food table.  And then I put together a menu based on all the food references in the book which made the whole planning phase really fun.
 

 

We served:

- Owl Ice cream (Cupcakes)

- Gruffalo Crumble (individual Apple Crumbles topped with whipped cream)

- Scrambled Snake (Popcorn with jelly snakes)

- Roasted Fox (sausage rolls)

- Purple Prickle Jelly (little blackcurrant flavoured jelly shots)

- Little Mouse Droppings (chocolate covered peanuts & raisins)

- Mouse Dropping Bites (baby sized raisin scones with jam & cream)

- Poisonous Warts – Wasabi Peas

- Little Nuts

- Logpile Rolls (Asparagus Rolls)

- Purple Prickle Juice (a concoction made up of fruit juices, lemonade & Ribena)
 

 

The cake was the most fun to make – I thoroughly enjoyed my first experience of fondant modelling and creating the wee characters to sit atop the cake. I knew I wanted the cake itself to be very plain so I covered it with Vanilla Swiss Meringue Buttercream.  The cake was Neapolitan – layers of Chocolate, Strawberry & Vanilla cake sandwiched together with the Buttercream.  Yum!
 

Submitted by: Vanessa Rehm

When she's not in the kitchen making yummy things for her kids and guests, Vanessa runs www.bubbalino.co.nz where she sells her handmade bibettes, clothing, accessories and Keep Cups.

Edited by: Ben De Haan