Perfectionist DIY

When I throw a party, one of the most important parts to me is the food. It has to taste delicious and also be appropriately on theme. So when it came to preparing the menu for my daughter’s 1st birthday party I knew I wanted to make as many things Winnie the Pooh themed items as possible. I also knew that it was going to be a busy day and I would want to enjoy most of it just celebrating my daughter, so I made sure to keep the food very simple and mostly things that could be prepped the day before.

Main Dishes

Pooh’s Honey Ham Sandwiches

These were so easy and one of the only foods that required assembly the day of the party. I did make the rolls from scratch the day before with an old family bread recipe, but you can definitely just buy rolls from the grocery store to skip that step. For the ham I just went to the Honey Baked Ham Co. and bought slices by the pound. Assembly the morning before the party just meant buttering the rolls and adding the ham!

Tigger’s Twisted Tail Pasta

This pasta salad recipe is one of my family’s favorites and you can make it a day ahead of time. Use whatever your favorite pasta salad recipe is or try mine below.

Mediterranean Pasta Salad:

Combine all salad ingredients together in a large bowl. Pour dressing over top and toss to coat thoroughly. For best results cover and refrigerate for a minimum of 2 hours.

Sides

Rabbit’s Vegetable Garden

I just grabbed a veggie tray from Costco and the morning of the party transferred it to a pretty platter for display.

Eeyore’s Cheer Up Rainbow

There are plenty of different fruits you can use for this, you just want a variety of colors. I picked based off of what looked good at Costco at the time. I used strawberries, raspberries, mandarin oranges (sliced in half and peeled), blueberries, and blackberries. For the clouds at the end I made an easy marshmallow whip fruit dip- 4 oz softened cream cheese and 1/2 jar of marshmallow fluff mixed together until smooth.

Desserts

Banana Cake in the shape of a Honey Pot

I made a banana cake for my daughter’s smash cake since she loves banana and I wanted something with less sugar than a traditional cake. I used this recipe for the cake (but not the icing). For the icing I wanted something that would be tinted yellow without using any artificial food coloring because I didn’t want to deal with it staining. I used this recipe for cool whip frosting and used vanilla pudding which gave it the very slight yellow color which I thought worked perfectly for the honey pot. For a smash cake I recommend halving both of the recipes as you don’t need a full sized cake. I baked the cake in two 6-inch round cake pans and then carved the cake just taking a little bit off the top and bottom to round the shape out. The best part about this design is it is meant to be rustic so you don’t have to have much in the way of decorating skills and it will still look great.

Carrot Cake Cupcakes

Since I didn’t think any of the guests was going to want to eat the smash cake after my daughter went at it, I made cupcakes for the rest of us. I went with carrot cake cupcakes and cream cheese frosting in part because it’s just one of my favorite receipts, and also I thought the carrots tied in well with something from Rabbit’s garden.

And that’s it! It wasn’t a ton of food but offered a nice variety and was plenty for our small family birthday party. Most of it was things my daughter could eat as well which was part of how I picked my dishes.

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