As you may know by now, I had a Shimmer and Shine themed birthday party for my now 3 year old daughter Naomi. I wrote all about that on the main post but this post goes into more detail about the cake that I decorated and the food and drinks that I served for the party. When I pick a theme for a party I like to go all in with that theme and that includes with the food, drinks and cake! So read on for all the details about my Shimmer and Shine birthday party food.
Food
Each of the food platters I made for the party related back to the TV show. I also created little food name labels to sit in front of each plate with a reference to the show. You can download my food label printables from my free resource library if you sign up to my monthly newsletter. I didn’t really get a photo with all the food on the table at once because I didn’t want to cook the hot food too early and it to go cold. So once I finally added them to the table all the popcorn was gone and the other treats were rather diminished.
Zazzleberry Cupcakes
If you haven’t watched all the episodes of Shimmer and Shine with your child like I have, Zazzleberry Cupcakes are from Season 4 the “Zeta’s Sister” episode. Although I swear in an earlier episode Shimmer and Shine call them Frizzzleberry Sparkle Cakes but I can’t find any proof of that anymore as Stan has just taken Shimmer and Shine off it’s platform much to my daughter’s dismay. That’s the name I had originally put on my labels. Anyway whatever they are called, this is my take on them.
Red velvet cupcakes in blue casings with pink icing and raspberries topped with homemade character toppers. The printable templates for these are available in my free resources library. Just print one standard copy and a mirrored copy and cut them out. Glue them together with a tooth pick in between and you are good to go.
I also sprinkled some Rose Red Edible Crafting Dust on top for some sparkle but the consistency wasn’t quite right for sprinkling. It might have worked better mixed into the icing but I was hesitant in case it ruined the icing. Let me know if you try it and it works or if you have a better idea for in the comments below.
Another option for cupcakes are from the very first episode “The Sweetest Thing” or “Cupcake Catastrophe” when Leah wishes for help making them. There are lots of issues of course but they get there in the end and the cupcakes are super cute! There is a YouTube video which takes you through all the steps on how to make these. I made a food label for these as well but didn’t end up making them myself. Feel free to choose whichever cupcakes you fancy! Don’t feel like you have to make both. One of cupcakes was plenty!
Dragon Princess Popcorn
Popcorn is always a party favourite. In Season 1 Episode 3 “Lights! Camera! Genies!” Leah and Zac are about to watch “The Dragon Princess” on TV, but Shimmer and Shine end up making the movie’s characters real. Leah also makes a wish for more popcorn and Shimmer and Shine go overboard and fill the entire kitchen. For our party, I found printable popcorn cartons online. They went super quickly and were very popular with the kids. I’d recommend making more than I did!
Hotdogs
Hotdogs is another fairly self-explanatory party food. They are one of Zac’s favourite foods so I think they pop up in the show multiple times. Instead of going for your regular hotdog our plan was to make mini hotdogs for little hands. You can get mini hotdog buns but they are super expensive. So we went with the cheaper option of just cutting regular hotdog buns in half. We then added cheerios or cocktail frankfurts instead of your regular hotdogs, adding tomato sauce on top.
Pigs in a Blanket
Pigs in a blanket are a fairly self explanatory food. Just buy them from the freezer section and cook them in the oven. These match the theme with reference to Season 1 Episode 4 “What a Pig Mess”. When Leah ask her genies for more pigs in a blanket for the party, they give her real pigs wrapped in a blanket and the piglets cause trouble.
Magic Carpet Mini Pizzas
I got the idea for this food from The Healthy Mouse blog post. She uses purple potatoes on top of naan bread as the base of the pizzas with red and yellow capsicums as toppings. I couldn’t find any purple potatoes. My initial plan was to blend up normal potatoes with red (purple) cabbage but on the day I was short on time, so I just used blue food colouring to give the potato a suitable colour. That worked great but the guests were a little unsure in eating them because it looked like icing.
I added cheese on top of mine instead of in between the naan layers and I just cut the naans into quarters so they weren’t really the right shape again because I was pressed for time. If you have more time I’d recommend following the recipe more thoroughly for better looking magic carpets. They tasted yummy though.
Shiver Cones
Once Leah gains access to Zahramay Falls and visits Shimmer and Shine in genieworld, we are introduced to all the special treats they have on offer there. Shiver Cones are a go-to treat that turns up in many episodes. From looking at them in the show I would say they are essentially shimmery pink and blue ice-creams. To avoid the massive mess that would make with 3 year olds, I put my own spin on it.
They still look like ice-creams but they are really made by stuffing a giant roasting marshmallow into the cones, covering with buttercream icing and rolling in silver sprinkles. I kept it simple by making them white. That meant I didn’t need as much icing as if I had gaps it blended in with the marshmallow. But you could make them pink and blue to match the show better if you wanted to. Warning they are indeed full of sugar but I allow it just once a year. They were very popular with the kiddos as well but I found discarded cones all over the place after the party.
Dragon Cookies
If you aren’t that familiar with the show, Nazboo is Zeta’s pet dragon and side kick. Zeta is a sorceress who keeps trying to become the most powerful person in Zahramay Falls but continually gets her plans foiled by Shimmer, Shine and Leah. Zeta and Nazboo only get introduced in the second season. Nazboo is always asking for 3 things in the show, tummy rubs, squeaky toys and cookies! One episode he gets a magic robe and the first thing he magics up is a dragon cookie. That cookie is what I based mine on.
I printed the below template, cut them out and laminated them so I could use them as a guide to cut out the cookie dough with a sharp knife. As you can see they turned out much bigger once they were baked. The recipe I used was from Created by Diane. To prevent them for sticking to my hands, the counter top and the template, I ended up having to add a ton more flour. I also didn’t add as many choc chips as it suggested as I thought I would be able to get a clearer shape with less chips. It was super time consuming as well but it made a lot of cookies! I ended up with more than double the cookies than I put out. You could probably halve the recipe no worries.
Adding less choc chips plus all the added flour meant that the cookies weren’t very sweet which was actually a good thing. Once they were partially baked, I added the sprinkles on top and the choc chip eyes. They sprinkles didn’t stay attached very well though. Comment below if you know of a better method!
Drinks
For drinks I went with Genie Juice and Zeta’s Potions. There wasn’t really a hard and fast recipe for these. I selected drinks with the desired colours and mixed them together. The Genie Juice did end up rather more orange than pink though. The mistake was adding pineapple juice.
For Zeta’s Potions I bought black currant juice, grape juice and blackcurrant mineral water. For the Genie Juice I mixed together watermelon coconut water, guava juice and apple berry mineral water. I also had lemonade on hand to bulk either of them out if needed.
Cake
I’ve never really enjoyed baking cakes all that much but I do like decorating them. So this year I was a little bit lazy and just bought a pink drip cake from Coles for $25 to decorate myself. It was the perfect size for our 20ish guests with a few pieces left over. I bought these Shimmer and Shine figurines online and used buttercream to secure them to the cake. Shimmer, Shine, Tala and Nahal were the only ones I used but there were many more characters if you feel the need to add more.
For the backdrop of the cake, I printed off a picture of Shimmer and Shine’s Genie bottle castle/temple and attached it to a couple wooden skewers. The Coles cake was about 18cms in diameter if I remember correctly so I printed the castle to be 13cms wide.
I then made a magic carpet and some fondant clouds with the template below. Naomi loved it so much that she threw a bit of a tantrum when I cut into the cake, saying I’d ruined it. In her mind, it was too good to eat!
There was plenty of food leftover and we had 8 kiddies and 12 adults. I don’t think anyone knew the show that well to appreciate all my references to it with the food. Naomi had the best time ever and I really enjoyed planning it so that’s all that matters to me. I hope this is helpful if you are planning your little ones Shimmer and Shine birthday party food. If you do make anything from above, let me know how you go. Don’t forget to check out the other Games and Crafts post around my daughter’s Shimmer and Shine birthday party for more inspiration!
