Alice in Wonderland Birthday Party

I have always been a massive fan of fancy dress and themed parties - people seem to either love them or hate them, and I am firmly in the former camp. Therefore for my 21st birthday party, I decided to host a Alice In Wonderland party. I went all out with themed food and decorations and I wanted to share my efforts with you today:

I baked two different batches of cupcakes using one of my favourite cookery books The Hummingbird Bakery: Cake Days. It has a great selection of fun, different and easy cupcake recipes for every occasion and season. I decided to bake Earl Grey cupcakes and some Strawberry Daiquiri cupcakes too. I was worried that the Earl Grey would be too bland as I find it to be quite a subtle tea, but I was pleased to be able to taste the tea in the buttercream frosting. I was excited to try out the Strawberry Daiquiri cupcakes, mainly thanks to the rum element involved in the recipe. However, although yummy, you couldn't taste the rum which is a shame for a pretty expensive ingredient, and the strawberries placed in the bottom of the bun cases created a very soggy bottom - Mary Berry would not have been very impressed!

I also baked some heart-shaped jam tarts and created some rum jelly limes. I was heavily influenced by Pinterest with all my party planning and you can see my inspiration board here. I create my own 'eat me' cake toppers and 'drink me' labels using John Tenniel's Victorian illustrations and cut up playing cards to top the remaining cakes. I printed famous quotes alongside illustrations to cover the walls, created card bunting and 'this way/that way' arrows to direct my guests to the house. Yes I really went all out!

I'd like to think that it was a successful party. I felt almost like a real grown up as my friends tasted my cakes and drank wine. Obviously this was somewhat balanced out by the amount of wine they consumed, the fact that everyone was in fancy dress and the various shots involved! Overall, it was nice to have a proper house party, a surprising rarity in my student life, and spend some quality time with some great people.

What do you think of my Alice in Wonderland themed party? Look out tomorrow for what I wore!

<3

xx