Vintage Farm Fresh Birthday Party

What could be sweeter than a celebration full of pink and sweet animals? Those are just the favorite things for this birthday girl – Madeline – who enjoyed a Vintage Farm party styled by her talented Mom! Birthday girl wanted a “pink farm birthday – with chocolate chips“, so that’s just what she got.. and it’s SO CUTE! “I designed a vintage pink collection for her in pinks, creams and browns, with lots of cows, pigs and chickens to round out that farm feel. To keep it feminine and girly, I alternated floral, gingham and striped prints,” shared Gretchen (mom).

How sweet + delish do these Cookie Butter Cheesecake Shooters look?! WELL, scroll on down for the RECIPE!

Ready for the cute details to this party?! Gretchen gave us the full scoop to her inspiration, design details, and all the birthday girl’s favorite elements to her party!

“I am not the best about sticking to a budget (just ask my husband), but I do try to use things from around the house and homemade treats whenever possible to keep costs under control. But, I also know when to delegate. You see, icing and I do not get along. At all. So I delegate cookies, cake and fondant work to some truly fab ladies who have mad skills. The rest of the treats are dressed up homemade or store bought treats, like the simple cake and cupcakes purchased from Whole Foods that were jazzed up with some fondant creations. So believe it or not, this did end up being a budget party.

Miss M requested lots of chocolate chips and cookies, so I made sure everything served had chocolate chips or cookies in the recipe, as well as some of her favorite treats. I served sugar cookies made to look like cows and faux chocolate chip cookies by the fabulous Cookies With Character, fondant chocolate chip cookies by Edible Details topped a store-bought cake, chocolate cupcakes, homemade cookie cheesecake shooters (see the recipe below), chocolate truffles, and homemade chocolate chip sandwich cookies, with many of the treats being dairy-free to accommodate my son’s dairy allergy.

For beverages, I served pink lemonade and chocolate almond milk. The milk bottles were actually Starbucks frappucino bottles that I removed the labels from, and then covered with “Farm Fresh” bottle labels from my collection and some chocolate brown ribbon. The pink lemonade was served in ordinary mason jars decorated with lace ribbon, flower mason jar lids from Mindy Mae’s Market, paper straws, and straw flags from my collection.

For decorations, I used antiques from my own collection and from my favorite local flea markets, Good Ju Ju and The Fleating Flea. Flea market finds included a rustic, chippy old barn door placed on its side for my back drop, an old vintage milk crate to elevate the cake stand, and a rusty metal cow. To bring the outdoors in, I used two vases from my milk glass collection and filled them with wildflowers found in our neighborhood, and roses and hydrangeas from the garden.

I decorated a large “M” for Madeline that I found at a hobby store by spray painting it brown and then decorated with homemade pink and green felt flowers attached with glue dots to the corner of the initial. It made the table pretty, and now Miss M has a special reminder of her big day.

I reused the doily bunting I made for my Grandmother’s party, which is simply old crocheted doilies folded over twine and sealed with a bit of hot glue. I used doilies picked up from flea markets and old, stained doilies from our family that were able to be given a second life (folding over conceals the stains). I have also seen crocheted doilies at Dollar General, which would also work well in a pinch.

To give the food labels and milk bottle labels more of a vintage flair, I used a Doily Lace edge punch from Martha Stewart Crafts (picked up at Hobby Lobby). It really added a special touch and made an ordinary strip of scrap book paper look like lace.

I created flag toppers for the cake and to give the sandwich cookies some flair using the tutorial from One Charming Party.

For party favors, I gave away glassine bags filled with homemade chocolate chip cookies and a treat bag topper from my collection.

The birthday girl wore a party hat from Prop Shop Boutique that Jessica custom made to go with our shabby chic look.”

Speculoos Cookie Butter Cheesecake Shooters

Yield: 12 servings
Prep Time: 15 minutes

Ingredients

• 12 Anna’s ginger thins cookies, crushed into crumbs*
• 1 – 8 ounce package cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup Trader Joe’s Speculoos Cookie Butter*
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 – 8 ounce tub frozen whipped topping, thawed
• whipped topping, optional
• Biscoff cookie crumbs, optional

Directions

1. Sprinkle 1-2 tsp of crushed cookies in the bottom of your shooter glasses.
2. Beat the cream cheese and Cookie Butter on medium-high speed until smooth and creamy, about 3 minutes. Add vanilla and mix to combine. Gently fold in the whipped topping until well blended and no streaks remain.
3. Snip the corner off of a sandwich bag (or use a pastry bag if you’re fancy), and pipe the filling into the shooter glasses. Refrigerate for at least an hour before serving.
4. If desired, garnish with whipped topping and cookie crumbs.

 

* Anna’s ginger thins were purchased at Walmart. Cookie Butter was purchased at Trader Joe’s, but Biscoff spread could be substituted.

CREDITS + RESOURCES

Printables | Three Little Monkeys Studio
Fondant cookies | Edible Details
Cookies | Cookies With Character
Cake and cupcakes | Whole Foods
Flower Mason Jar Lids | Mindy Mae’s Market
Paper straws, glassine bags, plates and napkins | Shop Sweet Lulu
Custom Party Hat | Prop Shop Boutique
Photography | Draussen Photography
Lollipop sticks | Confetti Sunshine