7 Layer Play Dough Birthday Cake

Gigi turned 3 this weekend which means I spent all day Saturday putting together a party with Ev and my cuz over at Design Blahg, Erica, putting together a purple ballerina party from 6:30 am to 4 pm, when the first guest arrived.  Every year Ev and I promise ourselves we’re not going to wait until the last minute, and every year we give each other this look around 3 o’clock like “what is wrong with us??”  At least we’re in it together and this party was no exception.  With a big team effort, we put together a great party and everyone had a blast.  The surprise hit at my girl’s 3rd birthday party was this 7 layer play dough birthday cake.  The kids LOVED this invitation to play and shockingly not one person tried to put it in their mouth, even though it looked totally delish.  I did hear that one adult tried to sneak a little taste though and got quite a surprise.

It’s amazing what some star wands and cupcake holders from Party City will do.  (I checked and you can also get these star wands and these cupcake liners here) I whipped up some pink and lavender play dough on the fly, using this recipe.  On a whim (always my best ideas happen with about 5 minutes to spare) I made seven pancake layers, stacked them up and cut a big slice out of the “birthday cake.” I’ve made sculpey seven layer cakes before and I guess they were floating around in my mind.  I put some play dough balls in cupcake liners and we popped in the star wands.  Who knew that this would hold the kids attention for 45 minutes!

Everyone had a blast playing with the wands, pressing and patting the play dough on the plates and singing happy birthday to everyone at the table.  It was great to have plenty of wands because the kids definitely liked collecting them and pressing them into the play dough.  They made the coolest prints too.  It was so much fun to watch kids discover different ways to use the materials.  Lots of creativity was happening.  Somehow I didn’t get a pic of the birthday girl playing, so you’ll have to take my word for it that she was very happy.  These are her hands at least.

Everyone had so much fun with this cake!  It was just smiles all around.  What a pleasure! I will definitely be trying this again for art play group.  A rainbow 7 layer play dough cake is definitely on the menu!

If you’re looking for more super fun ideas to do with your 3-5 year olds, check out this awesome ebook.  It’s full of great open ended ideas and a bunch of printables that are super fun.