After looking through the old photos of my daughter’s 5th birthday party, she wanted to do something similar this year (9). We only decided this a week prior to the party so I didn’t have a lot of time for prep. I got most of the items from Dollartree and Target.
First were the goodie bags. I had blue lunch sacks that i previously purchased at Target. Then I got some sea life sticker sheets (.99ea) from the dollar spot. In each bag, we included an inflatable pool ring ($3), bubbles (3-pack for $1 at a dollar store), a Hawaiian lei (3-pack for $1 at a dollar store), and a snack size bag of Goldfish.
We also bought beach themed plates and napkins, cute straws with little palm tree embellishments, 2 pails, 2 plastic tablecloths, an inflatable beach ball and 2 pool noodles (also from dollar store). The pool noodles were game prizes. We had a “biggest splash” contest, then we played limbo. There were only 6 girls, so 2 prizes was enough.
At Target, we got two sand molds that were used as table decorations, two blue mini pails and the snacks. She chose goldfish, popcorn and Swedish fish. I added sliced watermelon which was very refreshing on such a hot day. We made punch from Sprite, rainbow sherbet and juice. I already had bottled water, cups, utensils and some salt water taffy, which I also used.
If you have seen my previous post for the Kids Beach Party, you saw the beach cupcakes I served. My daughter asked for a cake this time, so I did something similar. She requested a vanilla cake with white frosting and chocolate filling. The white frosting ended up being cream cheese flavored, which is her favorite. I purchased a French Vanilla cake mix and followed the recipe, only I added 2 tsp of pure vanilla extract. The cake came out more dense than your average cake mix. It reminded me a bit of pound cake and tasted more like homemade. I used a 9×13 pan and let the cake cook overnight.
The next day, I sliced the cake lengthwise and made two layers. I used chocolate frosting for the middle, then flipped it upside down. It was a flatter, smoother surface to work on. The cake rose in the middle during baking. Normally beach cakes call for graham cracker crumbs for the sand. She isn’t a big fan, so I put vanilla sandwich cookies in the food processor to make the crumbs. Since there was the creme mixed in, I found that they stuck to the cake much better. I covered half the cake with the “sand”.
For the ocean, I decided not to use blue frosting. Instead, I kept it white and on the ocean half, I made several small points that looked like choppy ocean water. Then I used blue sugar sprinkles to cover the remaining part of the cake. I think it looked so much better. It created an effect of the white foamy water over the deep blue sea.
I used a cocktail umbrella, fruit roll-up for the beach towels, gummy savers for the life preservers and dots for the beach balls. The palm trees came from a party store in the luau section. Target had some gummy sea creature candy and we used the starfish around the sides of the ocean. I didn’t get a good photo of the cake from the party. This was the only good one I got, sorry.
The party was a success! It was {simple} and looked more impressive than I expected. The birthday girl was happy, her friends were happy, so mom was happy!
Update: We did another pool party this year and here is the Swimming Pool Cake we made.
[…] finally was the cake! My daughter wanted another beach cake. I made a similar cake for her last party, but she liked this one much better. This time I made a vanilla […]