Sesame Street birthday cakes – character cake pans

If you have a little confidence not only in your cake baking skills, but your cake decorating skills, then maybe a character cake pan is the choice for your Sesame Street birthday cake. There are options for almost every character out there, so you can pick your – mm, your child's – favorite and make it the focal point of the table.

Wilton lists several shaped cake pans on its site as being current, including

• Abby Cadabby
• Bert & Ernie
• Big Bird (2)
• Cookie Monster (2)
• Elmo (2) - just the face pictured here or a full-body option

Other shaped pans that you could try if you're working with a second theme include a 3D rubber duck, book, palm tree, guitar or t-shirt. They could work with a bathtime, beach or music theme for your Sesame Street birthday party.

You will need some special tools beyond the cake pan for this type of cake, specifically cake decorating tips and likely some special food colorings. (You will not be able to get Elmo red or Oscar green using regular food coloring.) When you buy the pan, it should come with directions telling you just what size tips and what colors to use to get the right look, along with really specific directions on how to make the stars, shells and other details.

My biggest challenges in doing these kinds of cakes have always been 1) getting the cake cleanly out of the pan and 2) keeping my stars the same size. The first can be hidden by the frosting, fortunately; the second, you just have to learn some patience to go slow and steady.

But what if the Sesame Street character you want isn't offered right now? Well, I started checking around on eBay and discovered that there are different pans for Big Bird that came out more than 20 years ago, along with pans for Oscar, Ernie by himself and the Count. These are frequently available at eBay, both for auction and in eBay stores. I've also seen pictures where people have used the Elmo pan and just changed up the colors and made a Zoe cake. You could do the same to turn a Cookie Monster cake into Telly or the full-body Elmo into Grover.

In all, the shaped cake pans can give you a great themed cake for a Sesame Street birthday, just be sure you're willing to make the commitment in time and are confident in your skill. And post those pictures to flickr so we can all see how fabulous your picture turned out! Leave a link in the comments if you like.

Sesame Street birthday cakes – take the easy route

Acck! Help! You need a beautiful cake that will wow everyone and make Martha Stewart jealous!

Actually, take a deep breath and understand that your cake, while it can be a great focal point for your Sesame Street birthday table, doesn't have to be some elaborate piece of architecture. Will it make it taste better? Will it keep your child out of therapy later? Will it help you win the lottery? Nope, nope and nope. So unless you just get great pleasure out of creating gorgeous confectionary (or spending lots of money for it), it might be better to take a simple route and put your creative energies elsewhere. At least until your child is older and can appreciate a fancier cake.

So what are your simple options for a great Sesame Street birthday cake? You'd be surprised just how easy it actually can be. Most of these options are best with a simple sheet cake, so crack out that 9x13 pan! (Or head to Costco to get a huge one for like $18.)

Icing topper – These are just my favorite things that I've discovered lately. (What? I can't be ahead of every trend.) It's basically a sheet of fondant that you just lay on top of your cake and you're done. Can't get any simpler than that. It's possible you could get a local bakery to make one for you, but your best bet is eBay. They even make some for round cakes and for cupcakes! Easy! My favorites are the ones like I have pictured here that can be customized in advance with your child's name. Double easy!

Cake figures – Isn't Sesame Street just so nice? They actually make little plastic figures just to go on birthday cakes! They're relatively inexpensive (the ones pictured at the top of this post are less than $5), and you can add some extra color and pizzazz with colored sprinkles or candies. Then your child had a couple of extra toys to play with when the whole party is over.

Sunny Days – Add a little sunshine with a round cake. Frost it in yellow, then use licorice pieces to make the mouth and eyes and you have a Sunny Day cake! Easy, peasy.

Rubber Duckie – Depending on the size of the duck, this could work on a sheet cake or a round cake. Just frost the top with blue frosting (or sprinkle white frosting with blue sugar) and put a toy rubber duck or rubber duck candles on the top. Great for the Ernie fan. (Or if you're brave, you could try making a rubber duck cake.)

I have full confidence in your ability to make a great Sesame Street birthday cake. Just remember that the cake doesn't have to be the focal point of the party, and it will taste great no matter what color or decorations there are.

Sesame Street Birthday: Working a theme into a theme

Just because you'd like to throw a Sesame Street birthday party for your child doesn't mean you have to follow a single route to developing that theme. It doesn't have to be all primary colors and Sunny Days. One of the joys of Sesame Street as a theme for a birthday party is that it lends itself to incorporating other ideas into the theme.

Start by considering what other things your child is interested in – cowboys, swimming, rubber ducks, birds, music, dancing, art come to my mind as possibilities. Then, does your child have a favorite character? Yes, it's easy to do an Elmo party because they have a lot of Elmo supplies, but what about doing a "Happy Trash Day" party featuring Oscar. (And yes, I'll have a post on that one for sure!) See if you can find a way to marry your child's favorite things outside of Sesame Street with their favorite character's favorite things.

To get you started:

• Zoe = Dance – ballerina party, hip-hop dance party, general music party
• Abby = Magic – fairy party, magic party, pumpkin party
• Oscar = Trash – get-dirty party, dump truck party, trash party
• Ernie = Duckies – rubber duck party, bathtime fun, get-clean party (can toddlers do that?)
• Bert = Pigeons – bird-watching party, flying party
• Big Bird = Radar – teddy bear party, best friends party

Grover and Elmo are probably the easiest ones because they have the most versatile roles on the show. Grover's held almost every job there is so it's easy to see him as a cowboy or fireman. His latest role as global ambassador could give you a starting point for an ethnic party. And with Elmo's World, Elmo can go and do just about anything, such as a pirate ship or castle or the moon.

I hope this thought got your creative ideas flowing. And don't worry, I'll be talking about some of these ideas individually at a later date.

Can you think of some other creative ways to have a Sesame Street birthday party with a secondary theme? Share in the comments! I love to hear your ideas.

Sesame Street Birthday: Indoors or outdoors for your Sesame Street party?

The song might talk about "sunny days", but you can't always count on the weather cooperating. Nor can you wait for the snow to disappear if the birthday you're celebrating is in January. But sometimes you have a choice about where to celebrate your Sesame Street birthday. Pros and cons to each:

Indoors

• Easy to keep everyone contained in a single area
• Decorations stay where you put them
• Temperature controlled (important in Texas!)
• Can be a tight space to have a lot of people at once
• Things with toddlers can get quite messy
• Kids can start getting into things that aren't part of the party

Outdoors

• More physical activity for the kids (especially at a park)
• Games and activities can be quite messy and take up a lot of room
• Mother nature can do most of the decorating
• Weather might not cooperate
• Bugs in the food
• Kids can wander away from the main area

Well, I just cleared that up for you, didn't I? Sorry. There's really no easy answer for the setting for your Sesame Street birthday bash. Unless you want to do it at Sesame Place. That's probably the ultimate setting. So my best advice? Figure out what will work best with your weather, decide how much clean up you're willing to deal with and determine if you can corral enough grown-ups to herd the cats. Either way, your child will have a great time and that's the point, right?

Sesame Street Music: Make a game with music at your Sesame Street party

Music soothes the savage beast, right? (Actually, it's savage breast, but work with me here.) So it ought to work wonders on a gaggle of toddlers! I'm working up a series here with different songs and ways you can use that particular song to reinforce a theme or introduce a game at your Sesame Street birthday party.

Let's start with what has to be one of the catchiest remakes for Sesame Street – "I've Got a New Way to Walk" by Destiny's Child. I've never heard the original, but this version just is stuck in my head. I've got the video right here, so you can take a listen while you read the rest of this post. Just click the arrow to get it started.



So what can we do with this particular song? One idea is to use this song to play a version of Red Light, Green Light where you start and stop the music. You could have them "walk walk" while the song is going, then either hold still or run when the music stops. Or encourage the kids to develop their own new walks to do during the song. (Grown-ups can do a version of the Ministry of Silly Walks and participate.)

If you have slightly older children, you could even use this song for a version of musical chairs or turn "Duck Duck Goose" into "Walk Walk Run" after you've done the music game.

Best of all, once you've introduced this song, you can then control some of the chaos by reminding the kids to "walk walk" and encourage them to use their silly walks as they move around the party. This particular song is great for getting them up and moving in a variety of ways for a Sesame Street birthday.

Centerpiece ideas for your Sesame Street birthday table

Creating a lovely display for your Sesame Street birthday party is actually a simple affair because truly, the cake can be the focal point of the table. Well, that problem solved. Just kidding.

Actually, there are more options than the cake. You might be doing an ice cream cake that can't sit out or have a plain cake that doesn't deserve center stage. So what are your options? Let's see, shall we?

Free option - How about leaving a big hole in the middle of the table and set the presents there? That should make a lovely colorful pile that can be surrounded by favor bags and your plates and things. You might want to make sure you open presents before you do food then, so you have room for the cake. Another free option would be to use some of your child's Sesame Street plush characters or toys. Surely you have a few.

Pay option - There are some cute centerpieces you can buy, like the one for Abby Cadabby I have pictured here. The great thing about these guys is that this centerpiece could serve as your main or only Sesame Street themed decoration and then build out the decorations from there with solid colors.

Time/Creative option – So let's think here. How about taking some boxes and wrap them with Sesame Street paper and stack like a cake? Maybe stack some of your Sesame Street characters on them? Or have your child color some of the characters, then frame them and display on an easel. For an Elmo-specific theme, how about a toy piano or a goldfish bowl? Bert and Ernie could have a pile of rubber duckies and paper clips; Oscar a small metal trash can full of balloons and streamers; Cookie Monster a cookie jar; Big Bird a bird's nest.

Whatever you decide to do, think first about the amount of time and money you want to put into it, then how important it will be to your overall Sesame Street birthday decoration scheme. You don't need a big centerpiece to make the table special. (More on that later!)

Welcome to the Sesame Street Birthday blog!!

If you've stumbled across this blog, I'm in the process of ramping up. Glad you made it by. Please do come back to check it out once I actually get some Sesame Street birthday info on it.

This blog will include info on games, decorating, themes and more all around those lovable Sesame Street characters. I don't care how old you are, you can still love Sesame Street.


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