Medieval Madness, The Castle Cake & A Knight In Shining Armor! Yeah, I Am Insane!Jan 20 '05 (Updated Feb 02 '06) Write an essay on this topic.
Popular Products in Sport and Outdoor
The Bottom Line There might be jousting but there will be plenty of fun!
My sons birthday is less than two months away so why am I already working on the details of his party? Well, he requested a medieval birthday party complete with a castle cake, games and suits of armor. Yeah, some days I wonder where they come up with these ideas and how I get talked into them. Birthdays are taken just as seriously as Halloween around here and there was no way I was going to wait until the last minute to start playing around with ideas. Thankfully I have some of the most brutally honest kids on the planet that don't mind me experimenting with different cakes and baked goods. So far I’ve done three mini castles, mock up designs for the real thing. There'll be no aluminum foil for armor, no, this will be made from PVC pipe and plastic that an extremely generous neighbor has so graciously offered to help with. Outside of that we'll have renaissance type foods like soup in a bread bowl, some type of roasted dead animal and waffres. "No weird food mum" was the only request my son made knowing my love of traditional English cooking [tongue, kidney, tripe etc]. You'd be surprised how quickly he turns red when he asks if a friend can stay over for dinner only to find out I've made Toad In A Hole [baked sausage and bread] or Bubble and Squeak [fried cabbage, bacon and potatoes]. So much for them retaining their ethnic background. When I got the "no weird food mum" comment I asked them this, "What exactly do you think people ate in medieval times, there were no drive-thru medieval McDonalds". Now they want to plan the menu too? Come on ... gimme a break! The Castle Cake I've been playing around with several designs and came to the conclusion that I am going to have to make the cake in small sections and cement them together with white and gray icing. In the long run this will take just as much time as it would to ice the entire cake and then do the individual bricks. I started out wanting a small moat around the castle but have since opted to just fill it with blue whipped cream or chopped up bits of blue candy. The drawbridge proves to be the hardest thing to tackle. I'm going to have to use hard biscuits for the wood and glue the pieces together with a hard icing that will dry solid. The ropes for the bridge will have to be licorice or some other type of bendable medium, but those are the small details I'm still working on. At first I was going to go with Lego horses and elements for decorations but I stopped to think about that and realized I didn't want the Lego pieces exposed to the sugar and more over possibly eaten by a wee person. I decided to go with a 100% edible cake just to be on the safe side. So far the plan it to make three sheet cakes and cut them into 2 x 3 x 3 inch bricks for the walls. This might sound like a chore but thankfully I have my handy dandy Wilton Cake Leveler to help out and make sure that the pieces will be straight and not crumble or fall apart. I decided not to ice the outside of the castle, instead I am playing around with different tints for the batter and hopefully will be able to get a nice gray that won't look gawd awful when it's done baking. As a last resort I can opt to airbrush any parts that don’t turn out all that great. The top sections of the castle will have flags made out of colored chocolate that I've been playing around with. You’d be surprised what you can make with melted chocolate and hopefully the poles will be strong enough to support the flags, if not I'll have to find some other way to get them to stay straight. The shrubs will be made out of popcorn that I’ll cover with a sugar based edible glue concoction and airbrush green. This is the easiest way I can think of to make shrubs that will be lightweight, edible and look real. Weapons for the archers will be made from candy molds that I picked up a few Valentine Days ago. These might be a little too big but at lest I won't have to try and think up an alternative. All that's needed is colored chocolate discs, a microwave and a little bit of patience. The small castles have taken about three hours to decorate from start to finish and I anticipate the final one will take about five hours. That might sound like an incredible amount of time to invest in a cake that is going to get hacked to bits but when you are doing small sections here and there, 20 to 30 minutes at a time, it's really not that bad. For those that don't want cake, I'll have toffee and candy covered apples, small cakes and dessert items and whatever else I can find a recipe for. I am sure there will be tons of dentists out there that will be sending me thank you notes ... Food Outside of the cake I'll also be making a lot of finger foods and snacks that I'm still trying to master. The bread bowls are the easiest by far and will require the least amount of work, its what goes in them that might be a bit of a problem. I want to go with three choices; chili, a hearty stew and a thick cream based soup [probably potato] but I'm not sure those will appeal to everyone. So far there are only a few adults that are going to be attending, mostly other home schooling parents. This isn't exactly the type of event that people bring food to so I am not expecting someone to show up at the door with some mint jelly or roasted chicken so I know that I'll be doing the bulk of the cooking two to three days in advance. The roasted animal remains to be named but I doubt it will be a whole pig. As much as I love freshly roasted pork, there's no way a handful of adults and kids could pound down that much meat. And no matter how amusing it may seem, small kids seeing a pig on a spit might just be more traumatic than practical. So for the moment the menu consists of wrapped hot dogs, several "soup in a bread bowl" offerings, kettle fries and tons of meat and cheese combinations. I’m trying to keep it as simple as possible because not everyone attending will want to sample some of the more "bizarre" foods. Snack foods will include popcorn balls [not traditional but a lot of fun], sugared almonds, hot pretzels [the microwave kind, I'm not that insane to try and make my own] and a few more recipes I am still playing around with. Medieval Games No, there won't be any jousting but there will be a lot of cool games for the kids and adventurous adults to indulge in. A local team of artisans have a small puppet show that they put on so I asked them to keep the date open and cook up something interesting for the tots. We're going to make tons of different arts and crafts projects ranging from colored sand sculptures to hand prints in plaster so each kid will have at lest one or two things to take home with them. My youngest wants to have "Pin The Tail on The Dragon" so I'll have to try and find a large dragon that can be taped to the wall; just like "Pin The Tail on The Donkey" only with a dragon. Piñatas have become a staple at out birthday parties and even though it doesn't fit into the theme it will be medieval looking and filled with cool trinkets of the period. Most of these were picked up from a local party supply store and others were ordered over the internet. Costumes Everyone wants to be a knight but thankfully I've been able to talk two of them into being warriors which is basically the same thing but less work making the armor. My oldest now has a girlfriend [something that I still can't fathom] and she wants to be a damsel in distress; since her parents are complete morons and having a conversation with them is similar to talking to a rock I started on a very simple outfit for her. One thing to keep in mind if you are "pre planner" like me is to leave a lot of extra material inside the design for those unexpected growth spurts. Most of the knights material will be made out of molded PVC pipe that a neighbor has been helping me with. These will be molded the same way as the Star Wars Stormtrooper outfits I’ve made in the past. Under the "armor" they'll be wearing gray thermals or some type of gray clothing depending on the weather. Costumes can be purchased from stores and online sites but as I said, growth spurts can really ruin a great idea if you don't allow a little extra room. If you don't want to make costumes, try calling around to rental stores to see if they have any costumes that they are getting rid of or selling. Toy can also check thrift stores to see what they have on the racks. Some people feel uncomfortable buying second hand items but as long as they are in good condition and will hold up for the event I don't see the big deal. Don't be afraid to improvise either. You never know what household items can be used in a pinch until you stop and think about basic items that you have laying around. The Bottom Line I am sure that the next few weeks are going to be busy ones trying to get everything finished and finalized but in the end it will all be worth it. The kids will have a full day of fun, parents can kick back and relax for a while and I'll finally be done with all the planning and work involved. To me this is something that kids will carry with them for the rest of their lives but chances are they won’t appreciate all the work and planning that went into an event like this until they have their own kids. Then they can look back and say "hey, remember when mum did that castle party for me?". I may have to wait a long time to hear those words in that context [it better be a long time Simon!] but I’m sure it will be well worth it. As always, thanks for the read! ~^V^~ Freak ~^V^~ © 2005 Freak369 Other birthday party ideas ... Medieval Madness, The Castle Cake & A Knight In Shining Armor! Yeah, I Am Insane! A Scooby Doo-rific Birthday! 3 - 2 - 1 BLASTOFF ! A Totally Spacey Birthday Party! Pulling Off A Sparkiling Hello Kitty Princess Party! Tools to help you get the job done! • Wilton Cake Leveler • Ateco Parchment Paper • Wilton Squeeze Bottle • Ateco Cookie Spatula • Wilton Meringue Powder • Ateco Bowl Scraper • Ziploc Storage Bags • Aluminum Muffin & Cupcake Pan • Hefty Steel Sak Trash Bags • Wilton Online Store • Wilton Food Writer • Wilton Spatch-It • Wilton Color Mist • Wilton Ready-to-Decorate Icing • More Medieval Madness Who Wants A Dragon? You Wouldn't Want to Be a Medieval Knight: Armor You'd Rather Not Wear A Medieval Feast Behold .. The Dragons! Wizardology: The Book of The Secrets of Merlin Dr. Ernest Drake's Dragonology: The Complete Book of Dragons Dr. Ernest Drake's Dragonology Handbook: A Practical Course In Dragons End Note: I started writing this in 2003 and never got around to finishing it up thanks to the birthday party! These are still some great ideas to help you pull off a medieval party without going insane.  |
| Read all comments (5)|Write your own comment |
in Online Stores & Services, Home and Garden, Kids & Family, Wellness & Beauty, Restaurants & Gourmet, Books
- Top 10
