Molly's Birthday Party

I shamelessly stole the idea for a mashed potato bar from my friend Shannon's birthday a week ago. We were considering having Moe's cater the party like we did last year but we were trying to save a bit of money. Especially since we outsourced the cupcakes this year. A mashed potato bar is a cheap and easy way to bring on mass thrills. I peeled, boiled and mashed ten pounds of potatoes (whew!) and had sour cream, scallions (not as good as Shannon's) and a mixed cheese blend. I was lucky because the sour cream and cheese were leftover from Cinco de Mayo.

I decided to do sweet potatoes and mashed potatoes because I really just couldn't choose between them. The sweet potatoes were made with canned yams. The grocery store I went to did not have Bruce's so I went with a different brand. I strongly prefer Bruce's Yams if you can get them. These were meh. The garnishes for the sweet potatoes were brown sugar, coconut flakes, marshmallows and toasted pecans. It was a bigger hit with the adults than the kids. Especially my pregnant friend, Amy. Even as a kid, I didn't care for sweet potatoes. I love them now but the color put me off when I was younger.

The cupcakes are from Sugar and Sunshine bakery here in Plainsboro. If you have the itch, this is the place to scratch it. They have every kind of cupcake imaginable! Chocolate cake with strawberry icing, cinnamon, key lime, carrot cake and cookies w/cream. They actually make the cookies for the cookie and cream icing! We had "Pick your Nose" cups for lemonade.

The people are really friendly and the prices are quite reasonable. They even gave us coloring sheets for the party which helped to occupy the kids for quite a while!

I also had the girls decorate their own tea cups. We had a slight disaster with the sharpies and now my coffee table is covered in ink. We're going to be test driving the Magic Eraser today!

To top it off, all of the girls got cupcake favors. Michael's had a ton of cupcake themed stuff in their dollar section. I got the napkins, plates, ribbon, stamps and invites. The bigger cupcakes are made of paper and they have stickers inside. The smaller cupcakes have lipgloss. We had one baby attend the party so she got a rubber ducky.

Molly had a great time at her party. I had a lot of fun planning it but I am glad it's over until next year!

Sugar + Sunshine Bakery

6 Market Street

(Plainsboro Village Center)

Plainsboro, NJ 08536

609-936-3777

EDIT: The Magic Eraser worked! We were cautioned not to use it on wood but we tried everything else! The Eraser removed Sharpie from our coffee table. The finish seems a bit irritated but we're going to get some conditioning wipes from Method to soothe it.