Mario Cupcake

Remember that Mario Birthday Party Brainstorm article? It is full of great ideas, but sorely lacking photos. Now my kids are asking for another Mario Party this spring, so we’re perfecting our favorite Mario Party ideas and documenting them in individual articles. Starting with 1-up Mushroom Cupcakes, perfect for a Mario Birthday Party, or even just a fun Saturday afternoon activity… my kids and the neighborhood children that came over sure enjoyed it!

Ingredients:
- Mini Cupcakes or Muffins – enough for your Mario party plus a few spares
- Almond Bark
- Frosting – I used Betty Crocker Lemon
- Food Coloring
- Mini Chocolate Chips
- Small round candies for the spots (M&Ms, smarties, etc)

The Ingredients

You’ll also need
- Waxed Paper
- A cookie sheet or large plate (Put the wax paper on this)
- At least two custard cups (one more for each extra mushroom color)

For the mushroom stem and its eyes, melt 2-3 ounces of the Almond Bark in a small glass custard cup or tiny bowl according to the directions on the package. Holding a cupcake by its top, carefully swirl the bottom of the cup cake till it’s coated up just up to the edge where the mushroom top will begin.

Dip the bottoms of the cupcakes in melted confectioners coating, aka Almond Bark

Let the extra glaze drip off a little while you add two mini chocolate chip eyes. Press the pointed end into the glaze so you’re left with tiny round eyes. Stand this mini mushroom cupcake up on the waxed paper, and then repeat with the next cupcake.

If the cupcake crumbles a little, scoop out the crumbs, then reheat your coating a little to make it easier to work with. And of course, you can melt a little more when you start to run out. The small quantity makes it manageable.

Once your Mario cupcakes all have stems, put all of them in the fridge to cool off for at least 20 minutes.

Swirl the tops in slightly melted, colored frosting

Meanwhile, scoop your frosting into glass custard cups, and food-color it till it’s a shade you like. 1up mushrooms are green with white spots, but other mario mushrooms have been red with white spots, or orange with red spots (in the old-school Mario Brothers).

After checking to be sure your mushroom cupcake stems are hard enough (they should easily come up off the wax paper), microwave the frosting for about 10 seconds to thin it out. Now grab each mushroom cupcake by the stem and swirl it in the frosting, coating up to part where the stem begins. Again, turn the mushroom to the side a little to let the excess drip off. Then press the candy spots in hard enough that they’ll stick, and set the mushroom back on its waxed paper to cool.

A variety of Mario Brothers Mushroom cupcakes

And that should be it! Serve them up on a cute plate, possibly with a star shaped icecream cake for a large party (I’ll post THAT how-to soon), and you’re ready to party Mario style! If you’re looking for other ideas for your Mario party, you can find several here. Enjoy

Yoshi Egg Pinata

If you hadn’t gathered it from my other article, my kids LOVE Mario.  Ethan wants another Mario birthday party this year.. we may even do a combined birthday party for both kids since Mary’s birthday is in the summer (when friends are often on vacation.)

The title for this post says it all!  We were thinking of Mario themed Piñatas. Someone had suggested a Boo, and the kids and I thought that a question-mark-box piñata would be cool too.  But I’m thinking the simplest idea by far is a Yoshi egg!

You can of course make the yoshi egg using regular paper mache techniques, but we opted to go unique and make it with tissue paper. Here’s how:

- Cover a balloon with white two to three sheets of white tissue as your first layer.   Soak the first layer in water alone Don’t use paste on this first layer. Misting the paper with water would be a good idea. Add four to six more layers, brushing each with  paper mâché paste.  I wouldn’t use a flour-based paste for this one as you’ll want something that dries clear.  White glue or mod podge works.

- Let this dry, then pop and remove the balloon, and carefully slice part of one side off so you can fill it with candy and prizes.  We’re going to use chocolate coins, gold star confetti,  and whatever other mario themed birthday party favors we can find.   Use a few more white strips and your paste to put the side back on.

- Cut several large spots out of green tissue paper.  Use your paper mache paste to stick them on.

- After it’s thoroughly dry, paint the whole thing with mod-podge once more so it’s reinforced.  Mod podge dries clear and strong.

And that’s that!   And yes, it will be more fragile than a traditional pinata.  Since hitting it with a baseball bat doesn’t relate very well to the Mario theme,  I’ll have all the kids throw hacky sack ‘fireballs’ at it till it busts, and they can take home the haky sacks as part of their prize box.  The party favor box itself will be a question mark box, for sure. I’ll post a pattern.

Speaking of Mario Birthday Parties, after years of waiting, there are finally some mario themed birthday party supplies to help supplement these ideas. And that link helps support my blog, too

I liked that one alot anyway, as did the other adults. I think Ethan and Mary did too at the time, but they were younger and more easy to please. This one last night had them enthralled.

Sam and Sarah met at work where they do graphics for video games such as Need for Speed 2. I would imagine that not many people find their way into that industry without some sort of passion for gaming, and these two were no exception.

Their wedding cake was an elaborate design based on Super Mario Brothers. Even the pavement on each level was incredibly detailed. The cake base was a mario-style ocean floor, with Mario’s typical underwater antagonists. The second tier was an above-ground level (I am not sure which one) with goombas and piranha plants. and the top tier featured vines, clouds, and lots of gold coins. Peach and Mario figurines stood on top holding hands (Princess toadstool probably would have been there in her 8 bit glory instead if they made figurines for her).

The main entertainment at Sam and Sarah’s wedding was stationed next to the food, where everyone could give it a try if they wanted to… which makes me wonder why _I_ didn’t try playing Guitar Hero — it looks like lots of fun! I would have snapped some very cute pictures of my kids playing it had my camera flash been working (I didn’t even bring my camera since this is a night wedding and I knew I’d just be frustrated with a bunch of underexposed or motion blurred pics).

Ethan, being my little video game fanatic, was entirely thrilled about the whole thing, hanging out and chatting it up with the guys I grew up with (or maybe grew up without ) and even some of their teenage kids. When it was time for the bouquet/garter toss, Mary tried to catch the bouquet and commented in her matter-of-fact way, “Well I don’t feel bad; I’m not old enough to get married anyway.” That didn’t stop Ethan from trying for and catching the garter belt. I can’t say the other guys were exactly diving for it, and he certainly didn’t know what to do with the girly looking thing once he’d caught it, but everyone got a good laugh anyway, and I saved the garter to tease him with later ;-D

A variety of Mario Brothers Mushroom cupcakes

Update: Our party was a smashing success, and dozens of other parents have posted their stories too! Also, there are finally some cute mario party supplies to help supplement these ideas. If you need the supplies you can support this page at the same time by ordering them here.

My son turns six this month and would like to have a Mario Party Party. It’s a fun idea really, but I’ve noticed that mario birthday party supplies and favors are a bit hard to find. (Not anymore!)

So this time around in addition to posting my ideas as to what worked and what didn’t, I realized I could check with you! Here’s what I’ve got so far:

(I’m updating as I come up with ideas, and there are tons of other mario party ideas readers posted in the comments below!)

• Mushroom cupcakes made with red icing and white candy spots or orange frosting and red candy — or green frosting with white, for that matter — maybe all of them? Let the kids decorate?
• Ice Cream shaped like a star using a star shaped cake pan
• Star shaped mylar balloons for party favors – just add eyes! I gold star shaped mylar balloons, 20″ across for 99 cents here, or you can get a 3′ star shaped mylar balloon for $2.99 . These also make excellent additions to any mario-themed costume
• Chocolate (Or bubblegum) coin hunt
• Pizza – oh and set the table with a red/white checked tablecloth
• Mini Games (haven’t figured out which ones yet but stuff like a beanbag toss, frisbee throw, etc. would probably work – I should go play mario party with the kids for more ideas)
• Yoshi Egg Piñata
• Mushroom Invitations (pattern posted below)

I did find some red newsboy/cabbie caps that’d be adorable on the kids. A bit over (my) budget for mario birthday party favors but it’d be fun for someone I’m sure. Maybe I could make some out of .. I dunno, foam visors and fabric? who knows

So anyway.. If you’re looking for mario party ideas for your kid, there are a few, and if you’ve got some I’ve not thought of, please feel free to contribute.

Old School Mario Mushroom

There are some cute Mario Birthday Party invitations available now along with favors and other party supplies, but if you want to make your own, here’s the pattern I made for our party. These look like the 8-bit mushrooms you might remember from Super Mario Brothers. Print caps.pdf on orange, red, or green cardstock. Paint the spots.

Print stems.pdf on white cardstock, and then print envelope.pdf on goldenrod 4.25×6.25 envelopes.

Cut out the caps and stems. Fold forward along the dotted line on the cap to form a tab to glue the stem to the mushroom cap. Let the glue dry first, then put the cards in a heavy book to get their folds crisp.

You could do the same thing with a smoother mushroom look, but I think the 8 bit pixelated thing is a bit fun and unexpected. Enjoy!

Chain Chomp Pinata idea by Heather & Joe - this is awesome!

Vinyl Mario Peel & Stick Wall Stickers - out of my price range but SO COOL!

And I totally love these wall stickers. I can’t afford them, but if I could I would totally turn my apartment’s living room with it’s nearly black wall into World 3-1, and then it’d be like having a Mario Party every day!

Have fun at your Mario Party!

Sorry Mario, but your princess is in another video game...

I’m also an unfair mom: Mary was just dying to be Princess Peach but I forced her to use Ethan’s King Kong costume from last year, adding nothing but a red tie. What little girl wants to be Donkey Kong for halloween? Not this one. But once she had this costume on she forgot all about it and instead ran around saying “I’m gonna get you, Mario!” So next year perhaps I’ll force Ethan to recycle his costume and let Mary choose hers.

Well, here’s what the ended up wearing the next year: I can’t believe I didn’t upload it till now! (I’ll need to split this so the dates are right.  and I’m no really proud of these last minute costumes!)

Monkey Man and Butterfly Girl - Halloween 2005

One more uber-cutie. This is Aren in 2006 as a ninja, in the hospital in DC.

Ninja-Aren Icon