Ninja Birthday Party
Every night, as soon as my husband opens the door the first thing the kids say from the top of their lungs is “Ninja fightingggg!!!” Then they immediately proceed to jump on top of my poor sweet by now badly injured husband until they throw him in bed to start a true ninja rough play session… and believe me, they go nuts with it! They kick, and jump, scream, chop my husband’s forearm, wrestle non stop and, irremediably one of them (most times my husband) ends the fight in tears and whines. They love everything Ninja or ninja like: Power Rangers, PJ Masks, Ninjago… you name it! They really want to cover their faces with masks and take out their inner dragon fighter to the extreme, until there is no more flame left and only a little puff of exhausted energy comes out of their breath…
Hence it was clear to all of us, that this year’s birthday party for Adrian ought to be a Ninja themed party. And so I started thinking and putting the wheels of my brain in high gear…
First I had to think on the real fun stuff that makes up a great party celebration… I’m of the opinion that a birthday party should be, like an adult party, not too organized or scheduled, that it should be an opportunity for the children to let loose so I try no let them just play as they wish, provide some fun games for when the energy is unwinding and pretty much just let them be children. I feel like sometimes certain entertainers take too much time off the children’s play time to do their little show and they may break the regular vibe of the children… so I have been trying to organize every birthday party around a theme, providing game alternatives but little structure to the party itself… let children be children, give them a few tools to play and they will have a blast!
I decided to get them all into the Ninja spirit by making them little cute Ninja outfits. I bought 12 black long sleeved hoodies at Walmart, 12 black bacalavas and a roll of colorful cotton fabric strips (the kid sold for quilting) and got on with my plan:
I painted every child’s names in the colored sashes (to wear them as head bands or waist belts) and in the back of the black hoodies with fabric paint in fast street-style Asian-looking strokes.
Ok, the mood was going to be set pretty rapidly once the children got into character…
Then I decided to arrange some fun toys (giant balloons, inflatable swords, lose balloons) and games:
Styrofoam “wood boards” for chopping
Don’t let the balloon touch the floor (only using your sword)
Egg hunt (who doesn’t love an egg hunt, huh?)
Face splash which is basically a toy that randomly leaves your face covered in whipped cream… or not…(my mom bought this game for my children last time we were in Spain and I think they have gotten more fun and use from it than any other toy!)
Classic piñata (the real one that you actually have to break, stuffed with all types of new candy and toys leftovers from past birthdays)
With that arsenal we were ready to tackle the food and cake afront… since I’m getting a bit tired of the regular pizza menu for children’s birthdays I decided to serve the other alternative: mini-hotdogs, beef sliders, French fries, chicken nuggets, vegetable crudités with spinach dip and fruit and marshmallow chocolate dips, Spanish embutidos and cheese boards… but since I’m big on natural Whole Foods I decided to make them all myself and so I bought mini wieners that I wrapped in homemade biscuit dough, organic chicken cutlets breaded in panko… I didn’t want to spend too much time prepping in the kitchen but I wanted it all to be still healthier for the children and homemade… so it took me a bit of preparation the day before and about 30 min right before the party (the oven worked overtime that day) et voilá! Finger food was good to go.
I spent a little bit more time making some cake pops which actually came as an afterthought when my brownie letters came out all broken down… so I took the cooked brownies, crumbled them even further than they were and mixed them with a cream cheese, powdered sugar and vanilla frosting until they made a thick dough. Then I rolled them in little spheres, let them cool off in the fridge to harden for about 1 hour, dipped them in melted white chocolate, covered them with sprinkles and let them cool off. I put them in a container at the party and they flew in seconds!
For the cake I made a rainbow cake using this magnificent vanilla cake recipe from Magnolia Bakery:
READY IN: 50 mins
SERVES: 16
YIELDS: 1 2 layer cake
INGREDIENTS
Cake Batter
2/3 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 + 1/3 cups sugar
3 large eggs, at room temperature
1 + 1/2 + 1/3 cups flour
1 + 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
2/3 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 Preheat oven to 350°.
2 Grease and lightly flour three 9 inch round cake pans, then line the bottoms with waxed paper.
3 In a large bowl, on the medium speed of an electric mixer, cream the butter until smooth.
4 Add the sugar gradually and beat until fluffy, about 3 minutes.
5 Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
6 Combine the flours and add in four parts, alternating with the milk and the vanilla extract, beating well after each addition.
7 I then separated the batter into four different bowls and added food coloring to each of them and mixed them well. I poured each of the batters in separate Ziploc bags, cut one of the corners and proceeded to make swirls dividing the batter among the cake pans.
8 Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until a cake tester inserted into center of cake comes out clean.
9 Let cakes cool in the pans for 10 minutes.
10 Remove from pans and cool completely on wire rack.
Once I had the cakes baked I proceeded with the frosting which I made pretty much playing with quantities, without following a measured recipe:
On one bowl I whipped some organic cream to which I added a bit of powdered sugar. 
In another bowl I beat about 2/3 of a regular cream cheese container (I believe that is about 6 oz), with powdered sugar and since I ran out of vanilla extract when I made the cakes and didn’t feel like going to the supermarket, I added a drop of coconut flavor which was AMAAAAAAAZING and gave the cake an incredibly subtle delicious and different taste!
I then folded the cream cheese and the whipped cream together, added a few sprinkles and colorful crushed candy (mini M&Ms, candy bars, etc) and spread the mix in between the two cakes.
After I placed the top cake over the frosting I rolled up my sleeves to work on the fondant. I had bought some light pink fondant and black fondant for the cake decoration and I had a bit of already hardened white fondant from my little one’s Gabriel birthday cake ( important hack: if you have some fondant leftover that has hardened, just place it in the microwave oven for about 5-10 seconds and start massaging it and kneading it with your hands until it becomes soft).
I kneaded and rolled out the pink frosting over the top cake, keeping in mind that only a small portion of the cake needed to be covered.
Once the pink frosting was on the cake, I rolled out a very thin layer of black frosting, cut the top third of it off and folded the edges as it they were fabric wrinkles.
Very carefully and with the help of the rolling pin, I placed the black fondant on top of the pink fondant as it it was a ninja mask
I finally cut the eyes and eyeballs from the leftover fondant and also placed a bit of fondant under the lower mask to shape it like a nose and… the cake was done!
I wrote with some blue icing his name to personalize it as well as a number 5… the cake was now ready to be served at the party… I prepared the cake the same day, finalizing it about one hour prior to the party starting time… I find that Birthday cakes, particularly those with fondant, taste much better if they can skip refrigeration…
The party was about to start and everything was ready… I had to go to Adrián’s school to throw a little celebration there with goodie bags and cupcakes I prepared following the same recipe I used for the cake…
I had had just enough time to hang some decorations and inflate some balloons before we arrived with all of Adrián’s friends from school and from that moment on it was pure joy, fun, chaos and mayhem!!! The kids had a total blast, the adults joined in the fun and some of the games as well and the party was a total success!! Nothing like bringing in together creativity, simple games, homemade treats and love to a celebration!
