Bonjour, Petit Gateaux!

This is a bit of a back posting, but perhaps worth sharing....especially since I wasn't blogging in December!


My daughter's 9th birthday had a French twist!  After falling in love with the book Tales of Desperaux, she'd decided long before December that she wanted a French theme for her party.  Ok....how to do that?  We combined the ideas of the season, her favorite sport (ice skating) and this location to come up with "Winter in Paris".  Decorations - easy...winter stuff!  Thanks to my crafty niece, Daphne, for whipping up some cute Parisian touches.  (Check out her Etsy shop!)

Every kid's party seems to require an activity, craft, or some crazy arcade venture.  Our activity?  The kids became painters in their own French gallery.  A make-it, take-it project!   Viola...instant party favors - a finished painted 8 x 10 canvas!  Actually, supplies for this activity were cheaper than stuff I might have bought for a favor bag!  Thanks to a handy Granny, each young painter also received a pretty nifty beret!

Bon appetit!

But wait...there's more.  As part of the make-it, eat-it activity (after all...it is France), we opted for a create-your-own crepe bar!  The kids were able to make their own choices as to crepe toppings or fillings - fruit, chocolate chips, Nutella (of course), whipped cream.

For snacks, semi-traditional birthday fare.  The French twist here was adding labels with the French translation for the snack.  After all, wouldn't you rather have a petit gateaux than a cupcake?  Speaking of sweets, the cupcakes were lemon with buttercream frosting.  Also, I had made some pretty yummy strawberry cookies with cream cheese frosting...these were super easy and made from a cake mix!

All in all, a fun afternoon trip to the City of Lights.  A super fun way to celebrate a birthday and adding a little cultural flair at the same time!

Easy Strawberry Snowball Cookies

Strawberry Snowball Cookies
(adapted from an Allrecipes.com post)

Ingredients
2 eggs
1 package strawberry cake mix
1/2 cup vegetable oil

Directions
1. Mix together cake batter ingredients in large bowl or KitchenAid
2. Roll into 1" balls and set on ungreased or parchment covered cookie sheet
3. Bake at 350 degrees for 5-10 (Watch carefully during this stage.  I always wait for a crinkly-looking crust to appear.)
4.  Frost with homemade or store bought cream cheese icing.  Decorate as desired.