A Map Themed Birthday Party

The Boy's birthday was last week, and he asked for a map themed birthday party.

For food, we went simple, with frozen International appetizers, cooked up easily, and fruit and vegetable platters, so that I could focus my attention on the cake.

Chicken Shu mai, pork gyoza, mini chicken tacos

Lemongrass chicken sticks, spanikopita, vegetable gyoza, and chicken samosas

Marinated mushrooms, because yum

The kids arranged this beautiful vegetable platter

Plenty of melon

Assorted cheese

Deviled eggs

Cherries, blackberris, strawberries

A Global Spread

We decorated the walls with maps, taken from The Boy's bedroom walls - it was basically wallpapered with the maps, and they will be returning to their spots soon.

For the cake, I used the same modification on a Dunkin Hines mix that I used for The Girl's birthday - one cake mix (in this case, vanilla), made with 1/2 c oil, 1/2 c water, 1 c sour cream, 3 eggs, and one box pudding mix.  This makes a moist and sturdy cake.

I made Swiss Meringue buttercream to use as a crumb coat, and as a filling (which I mixed with leftover lime curd).

I covered the cake in marshmallow fondant.

For the globe, I used a spherical pan.  It came with almost no instructions.  I basically just cooked it until it looked done - this was much longer than a standard cake pan.  It took maybe 40 minutes to bake through.  After cooling entirely, I filled the cakes with lime curd buttercream, applied a crumb coat of plain Swiss Meringue Buttercream, and then covered with fondant.

My spherical covering skills could use some work.  My continents are highly representational, and I am very optimistic about the arctic ice shelf.

For the "painting," I used some food coloring and water, to make a kind of water color.  I dusted the map on the bottom (the Vermont) with gold edible shimmer dust, per The Boy's request.

Overall, I was pretty pleased with this party.  Sure, the globe could have come out smoother, and the continents could have been more accurate, but The Boy loved the cake, and it tasted delicious.  That's a win, I'd say!