For kids and tweens who love to learn and experiment in the kitchen, a baking party is the perfect way to celebrate. Get your child and all their friends involved in a fun party complete with baking activities and cute decor for a sweet and entertaining birthday bash.
Decorate the Party Like a Bakery
Invite guests to step into a bakery as soon as they enter your baking birthday party. Set up food and dessert tables that resemble bake shop displays and be sure to include your child's name in the sign reading "bakery" or "bake shop." Use fun bakery colors like pink, turquoise, and pale yellow in all your details. Don't forget a striped awning beneath your bakery sign to complete the theme. Feeling extra creative? Build your own DIY bakery stand to set out food, decorations, or a fun play activity for the kids.
Decorate With Cake Stands
You can't have a baking party without plenty of cake stands to use as decor. These work for displaying food and treats, as well as centerpiece decorations on tables. You can even make your own with a simple DIY that's affordable and fun to make. Use cake stands you may already have to showcase food and treats for adults or teens. Make mini cake stands to display small treats like cupcakes and cookies or to set name cards on for more formal parties.
Use Aprons & Chef Hats
You can purchase plain white aprons and chef hats at many craft stores, and you can decorate them however you like. You can even use them as party decor. Wrap chairs in beautifully decorated aprons or hang them near your bakery display to drive home your party's theme. Chef hats can be used in place settings or centerpieces. You can even dye in fun colors and hang them as an alternative to streamers or lanterns for your baking party.
Serve Mini Layer Cakes for Variety
Give guests plenty of flavor choices with an assortment of mini layer cakes. Make your dessert table look like a fully stocked bakery case with a lineup of beautifully decorated and delicious layer cakes on a small scale. These are great alternatives to the standard party cupcakes. You can also use decorated cookies, brownies, and mini cheesecakes to provide alternatives for guests.
Offer Savory Snacks in a Sweet Way
You might not want to overload guests, especially kids, on sugar. So make sure you have some savory and filling options as well. Blend them in with your theme by getting creative with the presentation. Offer sandwiches cut with fun cookie cutters, fruit on skewers, and pull-apart breads in the shape of classic desserts. You can serve savory puff pastry pinwheels that look like cookies and offer pizza or spinach and cheese popovers that resemble cupcakes.
Make Cake-Inspired Treats
Take your baking theme to the next level with treats inspired by the beloved flavor of birthday cake. Make a cake batter dip to be served with graham crackers and fruit. Serve funfetti cookies or no-bake cake batter truffles. You can even go the simple route and dip treats like pretzels, marshmallows, and crispy rice treats in icing and sprinkles.
Let Young Children Bake With Play Dough
For small kids, a bakery of play dough creations is perfect. Set out multiple containers of each color needed with plenty of helpful tools and molds. You might set each child's station up with a small amount of each color and a couple of tools to help them turn their play dough into pretend cakes and cookies.
Encourage Older Children to Decorate Cakes
Bake individual round cake layers ahead of time and hand them out to older children and tweens for a round of decorating fun. Supply them with piping bags full of frosting, plenty of sprinkles, and a few spatulas and cake scrapers. Encourage them to be as creative as possible and to help each other achieve their cake decorating goals.
Present Friendly Competition With Baking Bingo
Guests of all ages might enjoy a few rounds of baking bingo. Be sure to make things extra fun with alternative patterns when playing the game and fun prizes for guests to win. Make everything fair by encouraging the winner of the last round to call the bingo icons for the next round. Prizes might include gourmet bakery treats, fun baking tools, or gift cards to local treat shops or bakeries.
Give Guests the Chance to Design Their Own Apron
An apron-designing station is fun for many ages and encourages kids to get creative. Supply them with plain, kid-sized aprons and chef hats and set out decorating tools and items like rhinestones, ribbon, acrylic paints, markers, and hot glue guns. Be sure to supervise kids while they are decorating to make sure everyone uses tools safely. You can set out inspirational photos or templates for younger children to follow and offer a prize to the most creative apron designer of the bunch.
Celebrate a Birthday With a Show-Stopping Cake
Celebrate your child's birthday baking party with a cake that feeds the crowd and impresses guests of all ages. Try abstract or subtle theme interpretations for older kids and tweens and have fun with literal approaches for younger kids.
- A fondant mixing bowl tower cake complete with spatula and whisk on top
- A cake made to resemble a stand mixer
- A fun take on a funfetti cake
- Birthday cake with vintage style buttercream decorations
- A sprinkle-covered cake with a sprinkle surprise inside
- A cake covered in other treats like chocolate bars, macarons, cookies, and candies
Give Guests Sweet Party Favors
Top off your perfect party with take-home favors that guests will love. Incorporate the baking theme here for sweet treats and fun baking-themed gifts that remind partygoers of just how much fun a baking party can be.
- Cake slice bath bombs
- Mini cookie decorating kits
- Small-batch cookie or cupcake mix complete with small mixing bowl and spatula
- Custom sprinkle mixes
- Personalized mini rolling pins
- Cake or cookie sampling boxes
- Cake lip balm
- Cook books or recipe books for kids
Host a Birthday Bake Off
For older kids who love a little friendly competition, consider hosting a bake off with some of their closest friends. Try to replicate the set-up of their favorite baking competition show and prepare them for a party full of whisking, sifting, and decorating for the win.
- Encourage parents of other children to send over additional baking equipment if needed, but try to stick to as many disposable elements as possible to make cleaning up easy.
- Make sure the competition is age appropriate and inclusive so everyone invited can join in on the competitive fun.
- Have a few adults act as judges and give competitors a doable but fun challenge for each round.
- Make sure each competitor has proper tools and adult supervision when needed.
- Include basic cake recipe cards at each baking station and encourage kids to get creative with other ingredients provided.
- Offer a prize that kids will want to compete for and have smaller prizes ready for those who don't win.
- Consider pre-making elements like frosting or cupcakes for younger kids.
- Throw in a few unexpected ingredient twists just for fun and to keep kids laughing.
Throw a Baking Party Full of Sweets & Laughter
A baking party is easy to pull together but the end result is extra sweet. With fun decorations, plenty of treats, and all the best baking activities, your child's baking party will encourage creativity and give them an experience they'll never forget. Grab your party hats and spatulas to get ready, set, bake!
