Well, by now y’all know that I can turn any event into a theme night. Don’t doubt for a single minute that the quarantine was an event that wouldn’t get thoroughly themed. Papa Bear’s birthday was this past week, so I felt like we needed something special to break up the daily schedule and monotony that has seemed to blend one day into another. Don’t get me wrong, I am loving this time with the kids. I am so blessed to be able to be safe, here at home, and have all of my family members tucked safely into the nest as well. Not everybody is that lucky and I am highly aware of that!
Now on to the festivities. The cake was a dressed up box mix. I replace the water with milk, add 1 T of Mexican Vanilla, one extra egg, and melted butter instead of vegetable oil for a vanilla sponge. You would be surprised how close to a bakery cake they come out when you make a few little tweaks. Bake it per the directions on the box and let it rest.
I made a chocolate butter cream for the icing and applied themed sugar paper that I purchased on Etsy. My Google search was “quarantine birthday topper” and I took my chances. Luckily, I found a really cute design that was perfect for a man’s birthday – including side wraps that looked like caution tape! It was all sugar and food color, so everything is edible. This makes it SUPER easy to decorate a cake – just trim and stick. They are almost like sugar stickers, but they don’t have an adhesive on them. The sugar naturally adheres to the icing on the cake.
For the meal, we had a lovely social distance salad (broccoli salad), Toast with a garlic and butter “community spread,” and “bio hazard lasagna.” The recipes are classic recipes that are easy to make, and refrigerate well. You can also start with frozen garlic toast, like I did, and add a few pinches of garlic and a few fresh herbs to the top. Not everything has to be homemade!
For this lasagna, I layered freshly cooked pasta with a generous helping of ricotta then tomato based meat sauce (bolognaise), and finish it off with a layer of mozzarella and some grated parmesan. This is a very basic but perfectly delicious lasagna recipe. It is quite versatile and holds up well in the fridge or freezer if you make multiple and put some away for future meals.
The bio hazard design on top was from chopped olives. I simply free-handed the design directly onto the lasagna right before it went into the oven.
Our drinks (we’re kid friendly right now) was Quaran”tea”ni in adorable little beaker cups. We’re southern, so is there any drink but sweet tea? I also bought some small beakers with colorful slime in them for fun for the kids, and a few baby soda bottles with rack to use as test tubes to hold some sweet treats. We can use the test tubes for science in the next couple of weeks and over the summer. They are unbreakable and PERFECT for reuse with the kiddos.
Finally, to make the night really special for him, I arranged a surprise party via zoom with his friends. Complete with cocktails and a round of “Happy Birthday” as he blew out his candles.
The kids and I even made him a “Quarantine Birthday: Y’all Can’t Come Over” sign to decorate a bit.
How have you kept things fresh during quarantine? Check out some of our other theme nights for ideas to match a number of movies and books popular with kids from all ages.
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