Cruise's Space Party!

I can't believe Cruise is going to be turning 5 in a couple of days! For his birthday this year, he wanted a space party. Because of my insane need to plan fabulous childhood parties, I started planning it in May. Shoot, I even watched 3 seasons of Cake Boss so I could make Cruise a space shuttle cake.

The Invite:
I made the mistake of planning on EVERYONE we invited being able to come, but unfortunately half the party couldn't show, so last minute I invited some of Cruise's friends that we hadn't seen in a while. It turned out fabulous, but I was sad that the latter invitees didn't receive one of these:

Inside they say:

You have been selected for Astronaut Training for a Mission to Outer Space!

Mission Objective:

Help Commander Cruise have a Happy 5th Birthday

Report for Duty:

August 4, 2012

Countdown Begins:

1:00 PM

Return to Earth:

3:30 PM

Launch Site:

Ybarra Space Station

Coordinates:

(Address)

To accept this mission, contact your flight director, Emily, (phone #)

We will be training in our Weightless Environment Training Facility. 

Trainees must be dressed in their underwater uniforms.

The Cake:
Friday, day before the party, I spent most of the day making the cake. I had originally planned on doing a moon cake, where you cook the cake in a bowl so it comes out a half-sphere, but that just seemed too easy. I decided a space shuttle cake would be just the thing to get not only my creative juices flowing, but my anxiety to kick in as well. I honestly didn't think I would pull it off, but apparently those hours of studying every episode of Cake Boss really paid off!

 Okay, so it's not perfect, but for my very first 3D cake, I think it turned out pretty well! For the cake itself, I went the lazy way and bought 4 boxes of pound cake mix. Cooked them in a 12x18x2 inch cake pan and cooked it for about an hour. Let it cool while I made the rice crispy treats and fondant. For the fondant, I used this recipe for marshmallow fondant and found that not only is it pretty easy (yet messy), it tastes pretty decent! I was pleasantly surprised!

Once the cake cooled, I evened out the top so I had a flat surface to work with. I cut it in half to leave two 12x9x2 inch rectangles. I put buttercream in the middle (I had planned on doing a chocolate ganache, but found that it took about 5 hours, so had to just do the buttercream) then stacked one rectangle on top of the other. Then came the messy/fun/nerve-wracking part: sculpting. Earlier in the week I drew out the shape of the body, wings and tail onto cardboard and then cut it out to use as a guide. So when it came time for me to sculpt, I put the cardboard on top and then cut around it. The hardest part was doing the next step which was carving the rest with no guide at all.

Once that was done, I dirty iced the cake in buttercream, rolled out my fondant, and placed it on the cake. Using a fondant smoother, I smoothed the fondant onto the cake so it didn't have any dents or ripples. Once that was done, I cut out my rice crispy treat wings, dirty iced them, and covered them in fondant as well. Using toothpicks, I stuck them into the sides of the shuttle. The tail actually proved to be the most annoying part as far as covering it in the fondant and cutting it so you couldn't see the cardboard edges. But after a few tries, I managed to make it look at least presentable. Finally, I had to come up with the engines. I really didn't have much of an idea as to what I was going to use. I thought possibly those mini donuts, but decided against it. I then spotted these little cups and figured they would be perfect! I fastened them in with toothpicks and got to work on the decoration.

Using a cookie cutter, I cut out a 5 and placed it with frosting on one of the wings. I got out my edible markers that I got from Hobby Lobby and got to work on the windows, flag, name, and coloring of the 5. Using black decorator frosting, I piped the nose and edges and then smoothed them the best I could using a butter knife. And voila! There you have it! All in all, it took 7 hours from start to finish. It was then I realized why personalized cakes cost so much!

The Party:

Just like last year, I set up the party in a very autism-friendly style. I am so glad Cruise's birthday is in the summer! I set up the stations:

The Lunar Exploration table consisted of homemade moon dough (4 c. flour + 1/2 c. baby oil) and added in Cruise's small space toys. 

The Blaster Range was an awesome water space pack (bought off of Amazon.com) and some printed out aliens taped to the fence. The kids were all over it. I wish I had bought a couple more.

The Weightless Environment Training Facility. Pretty much a pool and a slide. But I also bought a blow up space shuttle which made it awesome! And the shuttle was really well made. Everyone had a blast with it!

The Rocket Launch was epic. I had Dave build a bottle rocket launcher and I made sure I stocked up on soda the whole month of July. It had about 100 psi and those rockets flew pretty stinkin' high. We had to keep running to the neighbors to get the bottles back.

The Space Art station wasn't the party favorite, but the kids still got into it and made some pictures.

The Birthday Boy 

Dave at his post: the bottle rocket launch

Cruise blowing out his candles. They were white, so you can't really see them, but I promise he's not just giving the cake a kiss. 

For the party favors, I bought these adorable favor boxes off Amazon.com and filled them with Space Sludge Silly Putty, space stickers, glow sticks, and Starbursts. They also each got a little certificate for completing the Astronaut Training program.

My husband thinks I go a little overboard, but what he doesn't understand is that this is me toning it down a little. He hasn't even seen overboard. But he is a good sport and helps me out with the parties. I think Cruise had a great birthday. He had a lot of fun, his friends had a lot of fun, he got some fun gifts and loved his space shuttle cake. Totally worth this week's anxiety attack. 

Cruise opening his gift from Mom & Dad! 

Finally gets his own camera!