Planning a birthday party with a fun, creative theme can be a blast—especially when you get to bring a little piece of Mario’s world into your celebration. If you’re looking for decoration ideas too, be sure to check out my Super Mario Decorations post or the Main Super Mario Birthday party post for more inspiration! For now, here’s a roundup of the Super Mario-inspired birthday party food I served at Naomi’s recent birthday bash. From sweet treats to savory bites, there’s something for everyone to enjoy!
Cake
Originally, I had big plans to bake the cake myself. But as the party date approached, I realized I could take one thing off my plate (pun intended) and decided to order a simple pink buttercream cake from a local baker. It ended up being a more affordable option, and I got to do the fun part—decorating!
I added a Princess Peach plastic figurine to the center, along with some reused foam cloud and star decorations from my son’s Bear-y First birthday cake. To make the decorations more Mario-themed, I drew little eyes on them to resemble Mario characters.
For extra flair, I created yellow and teal fondant circles to represent Princess Peach’s earrings and piped pink buttercream flourishes to mimic the folds of her dress. I finished off the cake with a sprinkle of pink-themed sprinkles I picked up from Woolworths. It was simple but effective!
Drinks
To quench everyone’s thirst, I filled up two big glass dispensers with Peach Iced Tea and Go Kart Fuel—because, of course, no Mario party is complete without the perfect themed drinks. For the Peach Iced Tea, I used Lipton’s Peach Iced Tea sachets mixed with water and added a can of tinned peach halves and syrup for extra sweetness.
The Go Kart Fuel was made with blue Gatorade powder—great for keeping the kids hydrated after all the running around in the sun! I also personalized mini water bottles with labels, which you can find on my Etsy shop if you’d like to use them for your own party!
Food
Now, let’s talk about the Super Mario-inspired birthday party food—where the Mario magic really comes to life!
Fire Power Veges
For the Fire Power Veggies, I got creative with a flower-shaped veggie arrangement. I used celery sticks as the stem and cucumber slices for the leaves. The center of the flower was a cheese and chives dip (but any white dip would work well here). I added two black olive slices to create the “eyes” of the flower. From the middle of the flower, I arranged yellow capsicum, carrot, and red capsicum slices, creating a colourful and tasty fire flower inspired by the Mario universe!
Bananas
Bananas—both dried banana chips and banana lollies—were a nod to Donkey Kong’s love for bananas in both the Mario game and movie.
Fire Power
Cheetos were the perfect choice here, and I printed out a fire flower to sit behind the bowl, representing little fireballs.
Popcorn
To add to the theme, I served popcorn in Mystery Block Boxes. You can find the printable for these blocks on my Etsy shop if you want to recreate them!
Princess Peach Rings
These are just the classic peach-flavoured ring lollies, but they perfectly fit the theme thanks to their flavour. A simple yet effective treat to represent Princess Peach!
Chocolate Gold
These chocolate gold coins were leftover from the piñata but worked perfectly as a nod to the coins you collect in the game. They were a sweet and fitting treat for the theme!
Mystery Blocks
Cheese squares made for a delicious take on the mystery blocks for guests with a more savoury craving.
Star Sandwiches
I used a star-shaped cookie cutter to cut Vegemite, peanut butter, and Nutella sandwiches into fun star shapes. Easy and cute!
Yoshi Eggs
For the Yoshi Eggs, I used multicolour jelly beans from Kmart. They came in a plastic jar that looked perfect for the theme, giving great visual appeal. However, I was told they weren’t the tastiest jelly beans, but they still made a fun and colourful addition to the spread!
Bombs
For these, I made cookie truffles out of chocolate chip shortbread, blending them with cream cheese and dipping them in melted chocolate. I used yellow Smarties for feet and a wooden skewer to pick them up. They were originally meant to be star cookies, but the shortbread crumbled, so I turned them into truffles instead! I served these alongside Malteasers for another take on bombs.
Toadstool Appetisers
I made mini mushroom appetizers using cherry tomatoes, basil leaves, mozzarella balls, and crumbled feta cheese to make white spots on the tomatoes. Served on skewers, they were super cute and tasty and appealed to the adult guests.
Toad Pops
These jumbo marshmallows were dipped in red-colored melted white chocolate, with white chocolate chips added as the spots. I also used an edible black pen to draw the eyes on the marshmallows. These were very “pop”-ular with the kids and disappeared very quickly! (Pun intended.) I did struggle a bit to get the chocolate red, though, so they turned out more pink than I had planned. Pro tip: Stick the pops upright into foam to avoid ruining the backs while the chocolate sets.
Goomba Bites
Mini brownies, made in a muffin tin and topped with edible eyes, were a quick and easy nod to Goombas from the Mario universe.
Toad Cupcakes
I made vanilla cupcakes, using plain white cupcake liners and drawing black eyes on top. They were iced with both green and red icing, and I added white chocolate chips as the spots on top to complete the Toad-inspired look. Simple to make, but they were effective and fun!
Mario Hats
For this fun treat, I took Babybel cheeses out of their wrappers and added Mario logos and red cardstock brims to create mini Mario hats. A little hot glue did the trick to keep the brims in place. I made sure to do a test run by eating the first one myself to make sure the glue wouldn’t interfere with the cheese, and I’m happy to report it worked perfectly! Since you peel off the red wax to eat the cheese, the hats came off with it, leaving no harm to the cheese. A fun and easy Mario-inspired snack!
Piranha Plant Fruit Kabobs
I cut the stems off strawberries to create a Piranha Plant “mouth,” followed by green grapes on wooden skewers. I displayed them inside a large tin wrapped in green foam to look like a warp pipe.
Luigi’s Pizza
To round out the meal, I bought frozen pizzas—both Hawaiian and Meat Lovers—and cooked them up for a hot food option. The square ones fit perfectly on the tray and in the oven.
Tableware and Decor
For the tableware, I used golden star-shaped plates and paper cups in yellow, pink, and red and yellow and pink plastic tableclothes. I also bought tiny wooden spoons for the cake, which I displayed in a mini Pringles can wrapped in green foam to resemble a warp pipe. I also created food labels for each dish, which you can download from my Etsy shop, along with blank ones for your own creations!
As usual, I over-catered and had plenty of food left over (oops), but the kids had a blast and there was no shortage of tasty Mario-inspired birthday party food. Next time, I might just grab an extra palette of water bottles to keep everyone hydrated, especially since we had 26 kids and their accompanying adults!
If you’re planning your own Mario party, I hope these Super Mario-inspired birthday party food ideas give you some fun inspiration!
