BAM! Its a superhero party!

   So, you want to through a superhero party do you? Well that's an awesome idea! Funnily enough I have collated a Kryptonian bucket load of things for you to do...

{courtesy of OCP}

    First, where do we start...? Cake of course! I have a few options that would knock the socks off the Hulk himself.

 {these are from Wants and Wishes, Anders Ruff, thatsawrap2 on Etsy,}

{Jabaya's profile on photobucket, 4GoodnessCake , and Sugar Siren}

   As you can see you can take the easy/lazy route and get yourself some snazzy cupcake wrappers and toppers, or you can make/buy marzipan superhero logos to put on top of the expertly piped cakes. If you wanted the cool assortment of hero power without the effort or price tag of crafted marzipan, you could print out the logos onto a glossy card stock--you might need to back them with foil or baking paper to stop any grease seeping through and ruining the image.

   I personally like the cakes from here, but I would want to make the Superman cakes vanilla with red frosting, the Batman cakes chocolate with the same grey frosting, and Spiderman red velvet with blue frosting. Because I'm a fan of "BAM!"s and "POW!"s I would want to through in a couple of those cakes from here, just to cover all the bases--you could even make them a surprisingly zesty lemon cake for extra punch.

{this league of sugary justice comes from love the day, OCP, 4GoodnessCake, and Hostess}

   From simple to down right challenging, there is a cake for every caped crusader. If I were to do the coloured cake, I would probably only do red, blue and yellow, otherwise it just looks like a rainbow cake. The simple butter yellow cake with toppers would be the perfect exterior for such a colourful surprise. If you wanted to go with the smooth professionalism of marzipan, the Superman cake with spidey web base is an easy amalgam of heroes but I prefer the last cake with its classy Lichtenstein dots and simple city cutouts. For the purpose of matching the candle cake to the cupcakes, I am leaning heavily towards the red, blue and yellow interior cake surrounded by the more intricate superlogo cupcakes.

{an assortment of food ideas from hero subs, healthy buffet and wonder dog, Kryptonite, popcorn, and jelly cubes}

    To feed the aspiring superheroes you need super food, so what about "Hero" sandwiches, "Wonder Dog" hot dogs, Peter Parker delivered "Joe's Pizza" mini pizzas, Superman's "Kryptonite" green rock candy, "Green Goblin's Guacamole" with orange corn chips, and/or "Holy Macaroni!" macaroni and cheese. I have to say I love the idea of a healthy buffet of fruits and veggies labeled with things like "Improves X-Ray Vision" to try and trick the kids into eating more than just sugar, but little cubes of jelly and red and blue coloured popcorn keep the super colours alive. By mixing Pop Rocks into the drinks, they will come to life with their own Kapow!

   For the sugary side of things--otherwise known as CANDY-- why not make sugar cookies in the shape of lightning bolts, bats or diamond shapes, using icing to add any other features like superlogos. Keep the shapes simple by making circles or stars and then icing BAM! and KAPOW! onto them. wrap a few in a cellophane bag and attach a label calling them "Power Cookies". Cakepops are easy to make and accessorize to match the theme of any party--and lets face it, everybody loves to eat 'em--so why not make some in red, blue and yellow, or plain white with coloured sprinkles? MnMs are the easiest way to add a splash of colour to a table and if you're lucky enough to need a couple kilos, you can buy special order colours from the website. If you're like me, then you buy lots of bags and eat all the colours that aren't required...

{porcelain v plastic}

   If the company--cb2--that originally sold those amazing pop art appetizer plates still stocked them I would own a full set and would rave about them to anybody who would listen. Unfortunately, they are out of stock, and have been for some time, so unless you really do know Superman and can get him to fly backwards around the world a few times, they may not be a viable item at your next super party. Luckily, plastic comes in many colours, and you can mix 'n' match till your hearts content.

 {from OCP}

{and Birthday Direct}

   For other decorations like banners and flags why not use comics or copies of comics, cut them out into triangles and sew them onto a length of ribbon to drape around your room or over the table. A fun table 'cloth' I found is actually a plastic tablecloth, white with black doodles all over it so kids can use markers to play naughts and crosses or join the dots or simply colour in the pictures. A cityscape is easy to make out of cardboard as a backdrop for your dessert table or buffet, simply paint it black and use tape to add windows. Keeping it simple with the Protector of the Innocent and the American Way is booth cheap and easy. Tablecloth, plates, cutlery, cups, streamers, balloons; all can be matched in the red, blue and yellow colour theme. By adding small details like masked and caped drink bottles and using cheap masks as napkin rings no supervillain will even think to set foot into your Hall of Justice.

 {bingo cards from Collecting the Moments}

 {I'm sorry, I can't find out where these came from...}

   Now it comes down to games and other entertainment ideas. Why not nominate an unlucky, high energy family member to dress up as a supervillain for a game of supertag? Or set up a treasure hunt to help Superman, with green painted rocks for Kryptonite and foil covered boxes--lead lined to hold in all that radiation--for the kids to collect the nasty stuff in? A villain beanbag toss is easy to set up with print outs of supervillians placed in the bottom of a few baskets or boxes and lined up against a wall or on a series of chairs for kids to through the corresponding superhero beanbag at. Make the beanbags out of cheap material with an iron on transfer of the superheros and fill with barley. Or you could go all in with villain balloons staked around the yard. Stick a villain on each balloon and hand out Nerf guns for the kids to have an epic battle.

{from Anders Ruff, momdesigner, Maddycakes Muse, and love the day}

   By setting up a phone booth, your aspiring superheros can change into their supercostumes for the party. Just use a couple of moving boxes or one big fridge box and cut it up and paint it red. If you don't want to get full costumes then why not just masks and capes? They're easy to make and the materials you can use for them are pretty cheap. With all these costumes, you want some photos to commemorate the occasion, right? So a photo booth is required! A simple silhouette cityscape painted onto a large cardboard sheet, some sound cards with BAM! and POW! and a camera, easy peesy. If you have a printer handy it would be a neat thing to give each child to take home if you printed out their photo and put it into a comic frame--another easy thing to make with a cheap frame from Ikea with a comic page pasted over it.

 {Super P's invites from Anders Ruff}

{Brady's invites from Paper and Thread Studio}

   Last and yet the first thing to be made/bought, is INVITES. Comic strip themed seems to be the common theme, and seriously, why mess with a good thing! They're all easy to make and are simple card printable at home, I believe there are even templates online you can use to make them if your really stuck for inspiration.

   I hope this has at least set you on the right track for an earth shattering Super Hero party. Next up: Spiderman!