Leopard Themed Birthday Party!

Okay people, are you ready for it? It's time to get Wild! 

As in a wildly themed Sweet 16 Birthday Party. It was so much fun planning this party for my sweet niece, Isabella! I always surprise the girls with the theme for their Sweet 16. Once I decided on the Leopard/Zebra Wild theme, my mind was racing with ideas. I knew it was time to get out every wild thing I could possibly find...even though it was months before the party. Like months. 

 It started with the invitation. Handmade invitations.

Wild Themed Birthday Party!

When I say it's going to be wild...it's going to be WILD! 

I wanted to make an invitation but didn't know where to start. Finally I decided upon the zebra and leopard/gold print balloons, with red and black streamers and printed accents. So the invitation coordinated with the party tables.

I'm pretty sure everyone noticed. Now that I think about it...no one probably noticed but me. 

Anyway...

I placed each balloon on a peace of double stick foam to lift them off the cardstock. The envelopes had both leopard print and zebra print with the addresses in red printing.

On to the desserts. Let's start was the leopard themed dessert table.

I know, it's a lot of desserts. 

But don't act surprised when I tell you there is a zebra themed dessert table. You know I had to. 

Right in the middle were the birthday cupcakes with homemade wrappers placed on a tall black metal tree.

The wrappers were just perfect, I cut from leopard print and gold cardstock! And I also found happy birthday cupcake picks also in gold. (Hobby Lobby) To complete the cupcake, I made a leopard embossed triangle from black fondant and painted the edge with edible gold then sprinkled the top of the cupcake with gold and black dragees.

Here's a little close up of the cupcake.

Can you see?

No tutorial on how to make them, because I'm pretty sure no one would take the time.

I loved how they turned out and so it was worth it! YES!

Now are you ready for the cake?

After searching online for cake ideas, this was the one. All of the black, white and gold fans were created with fondant and a mold. The leopard print on the side of the cake was also fondant, airbrushed a black leopard print and hand painted gold. I ordered the plastic gold balls for the side of the cake and cut the Sweet 16 from gold cardstock.

On the other side of the cupcakes were the cake pops.

Topped with gold straws, and black number 16's I cut with the Cricut from shiny black cardstock. To match the shiny black cake stand.

I hot glued the sixteen on the straw. Please keep in mind, after designing the desserts, I started making all the paper décor so it would be ready to go when the desserts were finished.

More cake pops, only this time Cakesicles.

They were decorated with royal icing in a leopard print and painted gold. Each stick is tied with a black ribbon.

And each label had a bit of leopard and zebra print.

In front of the cupcakes were the cookies. 

Oh so wild and sweet.

Wrapped for everyone to take home.

This time I decorated the RKT with chocolate and a gold fondant leaf and flower.

The only thing leopard about them was the leopard print cupcake wrapper. Which I turned inside out and placed the RKT inside. That way you could see the print.

And the chocolate covered pretzels.

Each was topped with a little leopard embossed chocolate disk. Handmade with a mold. I just melted a little chocolate and poured a dot onto a leopard print mold and let harden.

Drizzled with chocolate and sprinkled with chocolate and gold. 

The next little bite sized dessert was the favorite. of mine. 

Homemade chocolate peanut butter bars.

I punched teeny tiny balloons from edible gold wafer paper and placed on the top of the peanut butter bar. I took a scribe and drew the lines in the chocolate for the streamers. 

Yea folks, I have a leopard print Oreo cookie mold and yea folks, I hand painted the gold on the leopard print. One and done. Nope, twelve and done.

Equally as hard, but even more time consuming were the handmade chocolate covered cherries. 

This time the shell was made with a mold. Kind of like a cocoa bomb. Only I had to melt a hole in the top to make room for the cherry stem. The day before the party I placed the cherry in the bottom and melted the edge of the top shell and placed the pieces together.

They were dusted with edible gold dust for presentation. I only made a dozen, they were a favorite and were gone in instant. I'm like wait, enjoy, savor, admire the incredible chocolate covered cherry because I don't know if I'll ever make them again! LOL  

I told them, go and eat a edible gold leaf chocolate truffle!

After the cherries were gone, they did.

Another birthday favorite is the blueberry cheesecake.

Made in individual cheesecake pans so I could present them under the glass dome!

Now, I love making all the desserts. But making food, ummm lets just say I made a promise to myself next sweet 16 I'll buy the food. We'll see, I hope I reread this blog post before deciding the menu.

Here's the start of the food food. Yes, really I cooked.

Shrimp, Three Cheese Pesto Pasta, Crepes Florentine, Roasted Red Pepper Quiche and Breakfast Potatoes.

The whole BRUNCH idea came to me when I was going to make and serve donuts on this cute board. Well, I invited everyone for brunch (you know because donuts) and then decided NOT to make the donuts. I mean can you believe that? 

Here's some of what I did make.

And I covered the cooktop with wooden planks and served a little more.

Including Bacon Wrapped Mini Meat Loaf, fresh fruit and Chicken Italiano Wontons.

Deviled eggs and French toast sticks, because you know it was brunch. Off to the side hummus and pita bread was served. I took gold candle holders and placed glass serving bowls and there you have it, two new serving pieces! 

The Zebra themed dessert table is up next, so stay tuned. Let's just say it's Zebralicious!

Thanks for walking on the wild side with me!