So I began scouring Pinterest for ideas and inspiration for a cake, for decorations and for food. I love Pinterest! There were ideas a-plenty. I found a cake I could attempt, and dessert table decoration ideas and inspiration in general. So I got to work (who doesn't love a good art-&-craft project after all?
I created fire truck invitations by scanning the lid of Noah's giant floor sized fire truck puzzle (it's about 3 foot long), cutting out the images and printing the party information on the back.
I also used the giant floor puzzle as a stencil to draw and paint a large fire truck on which to play "pin-the-fireman-on-the-fire-truck". This was quite time consuming and my husband came home many nights to find me painting the 3 foot fire truck. But my son loved it and this fire truck painting is now hanging on the wall in my sons' playroom
The cake I decided to make was inspired by a Betty Crocker Fire Engine cake and after an initial cake failure (trying to make a gluten-free flourless hazelnut cake) I think the cake turned out pretty great! But it took a whole day to decorate with 2 kids to wrangle in between making icing, mixing colors and applying finishing touches! And there was definitely more red food coloring used than I care to admit (especially to the mothers of the other children who attended the party).
The initial cake failure....
The success cake taking its 'Fire Truck' form...
I decorated the cake table with some of the many many fire trucks and FDNY vehicles my son has accumulated in his 3 short years. And I made a "Happy Birthday Noah" bunting from wrapping paper and hand traced the letters onto it (we don't currently have a printer) using fridge magnet letters. I made toothpick stickers with FDNY emblems or fire hats and the words "Noah is Turning 3!" printed on them for the food trays and each of the children received a sticker badge as they arrived.
For the food we served mini burgers and sausage-sizzle, fairy bread and bowls of red berries.
All up I think it was a great party and my little Fireman loved it! He didn't notice that I forgot all about the 'Martha-Stewart-inspired-tissue-paper-fireballs' which I made or the fire truck piñata his Dad had bought for the party. He just loved wearing his fireman outfit all day!
