You can't have a Candyland party without a lot of candy! To help me focus and narrow the food for this party, I looked to the board game! There are 10 sections in the game named after sweet treats and using those sections, I planned the menu for the party.
That sweet 5 year old was in candy heaven! I preset the table 3 days earlier to make sure my banner wouldn't fall down, I had the right serving dishes, enough room for everything,etc. and she just kept asking when the candy would be opened!
I used inexpensive white tablecloths and then covered the tops in 4x4 squares made from bright colored scrapbook paper. This help me to create a backdrop for recreating the board game with food on top. It was easy, fun, and inexpensive.
Each section of the board game was represented with a small framed sign. I own about 15 of these plastic frames from IKEA. They are great for food labels at parties. I used my Candytime font for the section named in the board game and then listed the food in the middle of the frame. I also added fun little details on the top and bottom using a digital scrapbooking kit no longer available.
Above if the right side of the table and below the left side. It took forever for people to break into the food! The table was pretty and colorful and everything I had imagined, but it was to be enjoyed! So, I talked a couple of kids into getting candy and they broke the ice for me!
In no particular order, let's look at each section of the game/table....
Chocolate mountain included little brownie bites and a mountain of chocolate pudding, perfect for little ones!
Since I had sour gummy worms in Gummy Hills, I opened the top of the mountain and added a few worms!
Gummy Hills included 5 pounds of gummy bears, spice drops and sour gummy worms.
Cupcake commons and Candy Castle were my favorite section!
There are so many great Candyland cake ideas online. I loved lots of them, but I knew I could not spend a fortune on cake and with so many other sweets, I wanted a small cake with a dramatic effect. It is just a birthday party after all and not a wedding!
I found a picture of a cake with cones on top and printed it out and took it to my local grocery store bakery. They said they could make it without any problems. What a relief! I love a tasty white cake with a whipped cream frosting and our local grocery store does it well!
They didn't have sprinkles I liked, so I bought those at Hobby Lobby and added them myself.... an entire container of them! ha! I also added the three lollipops and the 5 candle. Everyone wanted to know where the cake was from! It made a great statement and was only $25. Amazing!
A little tip... the chocolate drippings were made with magic shell. They were crunchy and extra yummy!
I made the 4 dozen cupcakes (we had over 25 kids here) for the party. We had chocolate and blue suede (vanilla flavored) cupcakes from the grocery store. I topped them with vanilla icing and then lots of sprinkles. Finally, I added three Dum Dum lollipops to each cupcake to look like balloons. Kids loved them!
Moving along the table, licorice lagoon included red vines and some bubble gum balls.
I couldn't serve ice cream at the party and was looking for something healthy to add, so I filled chocolate dipped cones with thawed mixed fruit. The giant ice cream cone is actually a piggy bank I found on clearance last summer at a party store. Abby loves having it in her playroom now.
Lollypop Woods included sweet swirly pops I bought via Oriental Trading company. I also bought candy bracelets at the same time. Kids always love them!
The Gingerbread Houses were a timely addition post Christmas. I bought this little village and we made them together the day before the party. I don't know about you but mine NEVER look like the pictures. How they make icicles hanging from the roof I will never know. But, Abby and I had fun, so they were great to have on the table.
The last food section was Peppermint Pass where we had soft peppermints and yummy Peppermint Chocolate sandwich cookies. I was originally planning to make an Andes mint chocolate chip cookie, but I found these at Target on Christmas clearance (her party was on January 4th), so I bought them instead. I really kept my cooking to a minimum this year.
In the kitchen, I also had some non-sweet things. I was afraid all those sweets would make everyone sick! So I also served pizza rolls (recipe to come), chips and queso and had a big bowl of goldfish for the kids.
The Ice Palace was perfect for the drink station! The cute little stuffed cupcakes were 90% off after Easter last year. They were perfect and Abby loves having them now.
We served ice cold water and Sparkling Raspberry Lemonade. This drink was easy to make and very flavorful.
Sparkling Raspberry Lemonade
2 Liter Sprite
2 containers frozen raspberry lemonade concentrate
3 cups water
1/4 cup lime juice
small bag of frozen raspberries
Pour all ingredients into drink container and mix well. Serve chilled with ice.
To see more of Abby's Candyland party, click here for crafts, games, her invitation and more!
