A Princess Party? Arggghh!

When you’re daughter asks for a princess party, you give her a princess party. Even if that’s way way out of your comfort zone.

As a mom, there is a certain joy in having a daughter.  I’m sure I imagined that as she grew up, Georgia would be a  chipette off the old block, the mini-me, the prequel to myself.  In many ways, though, she is so un-me I often stop and think, “Wow, I did not see that coming.”   Of course, this is where I say that I love my daughter to pieces (which I do), because she is funny, loving, wildly entertaining, and totally the apple of my eye.  However, as any dime-store psychologist could have predicted, she is also completely and individually herself, with a penchant for things I never blinked twice at when I was young.

Take her first day of pre-school last year.  She was so extraordinarily excited, she could barely lie still in bed the night before. In one breath, she blurted out, “It’s my first day tomorrow — can I wear make-up??”  My brain hit the brakes — SCREECH. Um, what?  Make-up? When did she become interested in make-up?  We don’t have cable TV, she rarely sees commercials, and doesn’t hang around with middle-school girls as far as I know.  How does she even know what make up is? Certainly she didn’t learn it from me — I buy my lady paint at CVS, wear the most minimal of stuff, and then only when I am “dressed up.” Is she really my kid?

So, imagine my chagrin when she requested a Princess birthday party.  To her, I replied, “Sure, honey, that sounds like fun.”  In my head I’m thinking, “Good-bye comfort zone. What the heck is a princess party and can I pull it off?” Whimper.

In the end, Georgia made it easy for me. She really just wanted these fairy princess cupcakes from a cookbook we had, and some sort of special hair-do. I was up for the challenge – sort of.  At least the kitchen is my comfort zone, even if all things hair and make-up are not.

The hair turned out kind of cool, thanks to coaching from my pal, Michelle.  I was pretty impressed with myself. Not bad, eh? I’ll admit it took more than just my two hands, but thankfully a couple of Georgia’s friends showed up to the party an hour early and were eager to help.

The cupcakes were a bit more of a challenge.  We had a book called Pink Princess Cupcakes by Barbara Beery.  The fairy princess cupcakes were supposed to look like this:

Beautiful, right?  Makes me think of Camelot and Guinevere and all that.  Unfortunately, what I created is more like something Cinderella’s tarty step-sisters would have worn, in the unlikely event they ever became princesses…

Sigh. Gaudy and psychedelic. Not being able to find silver sugar sprinkles, and in trying to include Georgia’s three favorite colors (blue, pink, and purple) the fairy princess hats may have lost their charm. However, this very nice bunch of little girls ooh’d and ahh’d appropriately and were polite enough not to say what they really thought.  The “crowning” moment (hardy har) was Georgia’s declaration after taking a couple of bites.

“THE CONES ARE STALE.  DON’T EAT THE CONES! THEY’RE STALE.”

Thank you, dear daughter 🙂

In case there are a rare few who might actually like to attempt this, the instructions are below. Perhaps you are attending a Mardi Gras party or are having a scary clown-themed Halloween party. Or, maybe, you are better at tapping into your inner princess and could actually pull these off better than I did.  Either way, I hope you have enjoyed my most recent Flooper (food blooper). Blogging about it is better than therapy. Now I’m going to go and do some stuff I’m actually good at — like sweating it out at the gym.

Fairy Princess Cupcakes
makes 24
from Pink Princess Cupcakes by Barbara Beery

1 – 18.25 oz box of prepared cake mix (like Funfetti by Pillsbury)
1 – 16 oz container prepared vanilla icing
24 sugar cones
Fruit leathers (like Fruit Roll-Ups) in assorted colors
Colored sugar sprinkles
Pink sugar pearls (like Wilton)
Decorator’s icing in assorted colors
White chocolate chips for melting

1) Bake cupcakes in decorative liners according to package directions; when cooled ice with vanilla icing and decorate with sugar sprinkles
2) Put 1 cup of white chocolate chips in a microwave-safe bowl; microwave on HIGH for 25 seconds, and stir.  If not melted completely, continue at 10-second intervals, stirring in between, until completely melted.  DO NOT OVERCOOK.
3) Using a spatula, coat the bottom third of the cone with white chocolate. Immediately decorate with sprinkles, then put them upside-down on wax paper to harden
4) Using decorator’s icing, make a garland around the cone, about 2 inches from the tip.  Decorate with pink sugar pearls.
5) Flatten out fruit leathers and cut into ribbons.  Fasten two to the top of each cone tip using a small amount of decorator’s icing.
6) Place a cone “hat” on top of each cupcake.  Voila’!