A favorite memory from my childhood, is the monthly (or bi-monthly if our moms were too busy to host) tea parties my best friends and I would throw for ourselves. We would start out like little Cinderella’s, baking in the kitchen, cleaning and decorating the house, bringing out the best tea sets we could find. Once everything was staged perfectly, we dug through our stash of costume jewelry, “princess” dresses, and mom’s old make-up. We curled our bangs, burnt the ends of our hair off, and put a ton of blush on our cheeks. Then we would sit and sip our tea, have fancy conversations, and dance all day. The entire affair would take up a whole afternoon, and we loved every moment.

I’d love nothing more than to help create the same happy memories for my daughter and what could be a better time to celebrate special friendships than on Valentines? The yummy treats and sparkly crafts are a fun bonus.

Scroll to the bottom for all the yummy recipes, and check out these fun craft ideas!

No party (or really any event) can be completed without a raid of the Target $5 and under bins. It’s about the only place I can allow my daughter to grab whatever catches her eye and throw it into the cart. We loaded up with adorable stickers, glitter, and these cute treat bags! Each place setting for the girls had  supplies to make their own Valentines, and these little bags with a special surprise inside (pssst, I’ll let you in on the secret, it was putty and band-aids…never underestimate how much toddlers will love bandaids.)

While the kids made their pretty cards, and infected my home with an explosion of glitter, we discussed what special people we have in our lives, and ways we could show them we love them.

The girls each made a thumbprint heart, to make this best friends board keepsake.

Cake decorating with little ones will inevitably be messy, it did help to put some wax paper down first, and to select a few sprinkles for a plate rather than leaving the whole container within reach. 

Thanks to my friend Gabriella for bringing over these adorable heart shapes molds for these mini cakes! Here is a tip, make sure yours are oven safe so you don’t have melty plastic in your oven….like I may or may not have done to my silicon pans. These are ovens safe and adorable:

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Gabriella and I couldn’t leave all the fun for the kids, we had to decorate a little cake of our own. Leave us a comment and let us know which one is your favorite. 😉

I love these mini spring form pans for Japanese pancakes, personal cheesecakes, ice cream sandwiches and…well you get the idea, ton’s of things! You can have your very own for just $12.33! (too salesey sounding? My bad, but they really are grrrrrreat!)

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After all the decorating, these littles ran out of energy for holiday themed games. But depending on the age group of your party, you might want some more entertainment! Here are some fantastic activities I found in the wonderful world of Pinterest.

Games:

1. Heart Hopscotch
2. Felt Heart Tic Tac Toe
3. Valentines Minute To Win It
4. Valentines Science Activities

Snacks:

1. Finger sandwiches ~ Cream cheese and strawberry jam sandwiches, cut into strips. Or use a heart shaped cookie cutter to shape your sandwiches.
2.  Energy bite ~ these are my go to kid pleasing “healthy” snack, you can find it here.
3. Strawberry lemonade try making it with agave syrup in place of  granulated sugar, yummy!

Cakes:

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Simple Vanilla Cake

This recipe will make two 9 inch round cakes. I cut it in half to make three mini cakes, and a pan of heart cakes.

Ingredients

• 1 cup butter room temp.
• 1 & 1/12 cup sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1 tbs vanilla extract (or vanilla bean for extra yuminess)
• 2 & 3/4 cup All purpose flour or cake flour
• 1 tbs baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup whole or skim milk

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350

2. Grease cake pans

3. Cream the butter and the sugar together

4. Mix in eggs one at a time, and vanilla

5. Sift dry ingredients together & gradually mix into butter mixture while adding milk

6. Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until they stop wiggling in the pan! For the mini cakes, they bakes for about 20 minutes. The hearts baked for about 15.

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Easy Glaze

I usually prefer to indulge in a buttercream or cream cheese icing, but for some cake or cookies decorating, I just wanted a glaze that is fast to make, and easy to spread or drizzle! To flavor, you can add lemon extract butter extract, vanilla extract, etc.

Ingredients

• 4 cups powder sugar
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1 tsp flavor extract (vanilla, lemon, etc.)

Instructions

1. In mixing bowl, whisk together ingredients until desired consistency. Add in your liquid slowly! It's easy to add more, but once it's too runny you have to add more powdered sugar! You may prefer to add more or less milk than is suggested. 

   Seperate icing into seperate bowls to add coloring

Recipe Notes

Honestly ya'll, I've made a lot of "royal icing's" that didn't turn out before, this was simply dumping and mixing until I got the consistency I wanted, and it was the most successful batch I have ever made! Much simpler than dealing with sticky corn syrup, or adding meringue powder.

Happy Valentines Day!

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