I knew I wanted to do a surprise party for Hayley this year. The only problem was that my children like to plan their birthday parties months in advance. For weeks Hayley had been asking what she should do for her party this year. I helped her brainstorm some ideas, but I didn't share the type of party I was secretly planning behind the scenes:
A cooking competition party - Chopped style! She is really into cooking and baking and I knew she would love this. Here are all of the fun details.
First off, I knew I wanted to have aprons for each girl. My amazing mom agreed to sew them all for me! It took her weeks and I couldn't be more grateful to her for doing this. They turned out even cuter than I could have imagined!! (Don't know what I'd do without my mom. She also helped sew all of the owls for Kate's bday party here.)
Here's my mom. Isn't she the cutest?
I purchased a darling printable set from Mirabelle Creations here. They included the invites, the Welcome Chef signs, the Chopped sign, water bottle labels and the tags for my party favors.
So while we waited for Hayley to arrive, I had each of the girls pick an apron. THEN I told them that they had also just picked their team depending on which color of apron they chose.
And then Hayley arrived and she was SURPRISED! Yay! She had no idea.
Next up - we had the girls watch the opening segment of the show CHOPPED so they could understand the premise of the party. I changed it slightly though. We were only going to have two rounds - an entree and dessert. And each team would be given two secret ingredients for each round. But each team's ingredients were different. I also explained that they would be making their own dinner - so they better make it yummy so they'd want to eat it.
There would be a time limit, and they'd also be judged on Creativity, Presentation and Taste.
ROUND 1: The Entree
For the first round, each team was given pizza dough and told to do something creative with it. They were given a bag of their secret ingredients -- pesto & bacon, alfredo & artichoke hearts, and bbq sauce & olives. And then they were also given a list of available ingredients that I put on the counter for them. I had pre-cooked meats like hamburger, sausage, meatballs and chicken so they were ready to use. Other ingredients were pepperoni, all types of cheese, traditional pizza sauce, green pepper, onion, garlic, basil, tomatoes, pineapple and taco seasoning.
These girls blew me away with their creativity and what they came up with!
The pink team created a bbq chicken pizza pie (and even mixed the olives into their pizza dough)!
The blue team came up with a heart shaped pizza and mixed their alfredo sauce with marina!
And the orange team created a cheeseburger pizza pie. They topped their dough with bacon, and then layered meatballs, cheese and olives on top. De-lish!
The judges had the hard task of choosing winners.
Instead of chopping a team (can't be that mean), each team won a category, and then there was an overall winner for that round. For Round 1 - it was the orange team.
On to Round 2: Dessert
They could pick a cake mix to use and then they could choose to either use the store bought frosting or make homemade frosting. (I provided a butter cream and cream cheese frosting recipe.) They all chose to make their own! And then they had to incorporate their secret ingredients again. And they could use any of the other ingredients available on the counter. It was first come, first serve so they had to plan quickly!
The pink team created a vanilla cupcake (to which they added sprinkles to the batter), and then topped them with bananas, frosting (to which they mixed in Reeses PB cups), drizzled caramel and a cherry. They ended up winning for presentation and best overall.
The blue team created a chocolate cupcake and put an oreo cookie on the bottom of each. They made cream cheese frosting with a snickers bar on top. They won for best taste!
And the orange team created a gourmet chocolate cupcake. They hollowed out the center and put in hot fudge and strawberries. Then topped it with cream cheese frosting and strawberries. They even thought to dip the strawberries in hot fudge to put on the plate. They won for most creative.
I couldn't believe what great bakers these girls were! They thought outside the box and really came up with some amazing cupcakes. So yummy!
The girls had a blast and were involved from the moment it started until it ended. They were busy cooking and eating and all had a fun time. I couldn't have done it without my mom and mother-in-law who helped the entire time! Seriously couldn't put on a party without these two!
Happy early 13th birthday, my cute Hayley! So glad we pulled off the surprise, and that you got to spend an evening doing what you love most with your darling friends!
