The word “princess” brings up so much, where should you begin? While Disney is the obvious go-to, there’s still a lot you could do with a princess theme. We’ve included some helpful ideas below.

Princess Party Invitation Scrolls

Giving a party guest a scroll is not only thoughtful, but it’s also a fun and easy activity you can make with your daughter. Best of all, you can get most of the materials to make the scrolls from a dollar store or specialty craft store such as Michael’s.

Materials (For 10 Invitations)

• Elmer’s glue is the easiest, but you could also use a glue stick.
• 10 Dowel Sticks
• 20 Wood Beads.
• 5 x 11 Cardstock
• An invitation design
• A Paintbrush
• Gold paint
  • Optional: Calligraphy pen.
• Gold ribbon
• Scissors

Instructions

1. Design a regal party invitation on digital software such as Photoshop.
2. Paint the dowel sticks and wood beads gold with the paintbrush and gold paint.
3. As you wait for the materials to dry, print out the invitations on the cardstock — four invitations per sheet of cardstock.

• Optional: You could write each invitation by hand with a calligraphy pen for a more authentic medieval look.

4. Cut out the invitations into small rectangles.
5. Once dry, insert the wood beads on the dowel sticks.
6. Lay an invitation flat on the table and place a line of glue on the very top and bottom of the sheet.
7. Place the wooden dowels on the glue line and tightly roll the paper around the sticks, doing this for both the top and bottom of the invitation.
8. Once the glue has dried, roll the rest of the invitation into itself until no more of the invitation shows.
9. Cut out a strip of gold ribbon to tie a bow around the invitation.

Voila! You now have 10 scrolls to give to your daughter’s party guests. Kids will love untying the scroll to reveal an old-timey message that perfectly matches the theme.

For better authenticity, use scroll invitations if you’re doing Snow White, Cinderella, Aurora, Belle, Ariel, Mulan, Rapunzel, Merida, Elsa, or Anna for your party’s theme. If you’re incorporating multiple medieval princesses into the party’s theme, even better!

Heart of Te Fiti Cookies

As the most recent addition to Disney’s princess cast, Moana has struck the hearts of millions of viewers for her honest bravery and persistence in the film. She saves the day by returning the Heart of Te Fiti to its rightful owner and saving her island from destruction.

If your child loves Moana as well, they’ll love seeing the Heart of Te Fiti in edible form. The recipe isn’t even that hard to make.

You can follow a video tutorial here or a written recipe here.

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 egg yolks
• ¾ cups of sugar
• ¾ cups butter
• ¼ tsp fine sea salt
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• ½ tsp electric green gel color (or some other bright, lime green)
• ½ tsp green gel color (or dark green).

Instructions

1. Preheat your oven to 350°F.
2. Mix the cream and sugar until smooth and creamy. It’s better to use a hand mixer for this, but a wooden spoon works as well.
3. Add in the egg yolks. Continue stirring or beating until thoroughly combined.
4. Put in the vanilla extract, incorporating well.
5. Add the salt and flour, beating until thoroughly combined.
6. Add the light green gel to the dough and mix until you get the color you want.
7. Cut the dough in half and wrap it in food-safe plastic. Put the dough in the refrigerator for 10 minutes.
8. With the second half of dough, add the dark green gel color and mix well.
9. Wrap the dark green dough ball in plastic and pop it in the refrigerator for 10 minutes.
10. Once the dough has chilled, remove them from the fridge and unwrap them from the plastic.
11. Roll the dark green dough ball into a rectangle approximately the size of a sheet of printer paper.
12. Do the same with the light green dough ball. Make sure the rectangles are the same size.
13. Place the light green sheet of dough on the dark green one.
14. Gently roll the sheets of dough until they’re thoroughly stuck to each other.
15. Roll up the dough as tightly as you can, making a cylinder out of the dough. You should see the light and dark greens swirl into each other.
16. Cut off the ends so that they’re even and flat.
17. Wrap up the dough in food-safe plastic wrap and place it in the freezer for 10 minutes.
18. Once 10 minutes have passed, remove and unwrap the dough and place it on a cutting board.
19. Cut ¼ inch slices of cookies off the dough cylinder and place them onto a cooking sheet.
20. Once all the cookies have been cut and placed, evenly spaced, on a cookie sheet, you can decorate the cookies with six dots starting on the light green center and moving out. Doing so gives greater accuracy toward the movie’s Heart of Te Fiti.
21. Bake the cookies for 12 to 15 minutes, removing the cookies from the oven before they turn brown.
22. Let them cool before placing them on a serving tray.

You not only have one but about a dozen Hearts of Te Fiti to fill your guests’ stomachs with. Enjoy the raw power you’ve just created to save Moana’s island while creating something that will be a hit with the guests.

Mulan Cherry Blossom Cupcakes

Lots of young girls love Mulan not only for the amazing soundtrack but for the titular character Fa Mulan. She saves all of China from the Huns and brings honor to her family, which resonates with the bravery and protective nature a lot of young girls have.

Mulan shares a special moment with her father under a cherry blossom tree, where he encourages her not to fret about having a poor time with the matchmaker. It’s at that moment she steels her resolve to bring honor to her family.

To honor Mulan, you can make chocolate cookies decorated with cherry blossom icing. While you can make cake and icing combination you’d like, we’re going to show you how to make a chocolate cake with cherry buttercream icing.

For the Chocolate Cupcake Base

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 eggs lightly beaten (preferred at room temperature)
• 1 cup milk
• 1 cup hot water
• 1 ½ tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• ¾ cups natural cocoa powder, unsweetened
• ⅔ cups canola or vegetable oil

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
2. Line the muffin tin with cupcake liners. Alternatively, you can lightly grease the tin with oil and flour.
3. In a medium to a large bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients: flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Mix until thoroughly combined.
4. Stir in the milk and canola oil until evenly combined.
5. Add in one egg, stirring until thoroughly mixed. Then add the other egg and mixing afterward.
6. Include the vanilla extract, stirring it in.
7. Add the hot water in increments, mixing the small bits of water in until it is evenly combined. Keep stirring until it’s an even texture.
8. Add cake batter to the muffin tins, filling them ⅔ of the way full.
9. Bake for 18 to 22 minutes. Have a toothpick or butter knife ready to test if the batter is cooked all the way through.
10. Let the cupcakes cool before frosting.

For the Cherry Buttercream Icing

Ingredients

• 1 cup, or 2 sticks, of butter — softened at room temperature
• 5 cups powdered sugar
• ¼ cups Maraschino Cherry juice

Instructions

1. Cream together the butter and powdered sugar until evenly combined. It’s best to do this with a mixer, but you can do it by hand.
2. Beat the mixture until creamy.
3. Add the Maraschino Cherry juice. If the frosting is too wet, add small bits of powdered sugar until you reach the right consistency.

How to Make Realistic Cherry Blossom Out of Icing

First, grab a piping bag and scoop your icing in there. Then place a 104 Wilton tip on the end. If you don’t have that tip, try to find one that’s thin as flat as you can go.

On a cooled cupcake, create the petals one at a time. There should be five petals placed next to each other.

Stack the petals on top of each other, not on the spaces in between the petals. Stack up the petals three layers tall.

You can watch this video for an excellent guide on how to make cherry blossoms out of icing. It’s a lot harder than it looks — especially if you’re not a pastry chef or create many designs out of icing, but you’ll get the hang of it.

Real cherry blossoms have a pink center to them. If you’d like, you can separate some of the icing you made and add more Maraschino Cherry juice to it, making it pinker.

If you don’t want the extra hassle, you can stick a small pink or red candy, such as a skittle or M&M, in the center.

The Final Product

You’ll have beautiful pink cherry blossoms on delicious chocolate cupcakes. Not only do the flavor profiles match each other (cherry goes well with chocolate), but you can add some delicacy to Mulan’s rough and tumble exterior.

Princess Tea Party

One activity older party guests, from ages 8 to 11, can do is have tea and small cookies on a small table. The kids will love chatting with each other and pouring out tea out of very regal teapots into equally royal teacups.

For added effects, you can dress up the birthday girl’s dad in a suit to act as her butler, pouring tea and replenishing cookies when needed. She’ll get a kick out of doing that for the day.

Better yet, you place paper crowns on the plates of the party guests so that everyone at the table can feel like royalty. Everyone can feel magnificent at the birthday party, but you can make an extra special crown to honor the birthday girl.

Princess Tea Party Materials

• It would be best to use non-caffeinated tea like chamomile or mint. Better yet, you can use a colorful fruit tea that also has low caffeine.
• Snacks for the tea.
• A lightweight teapot and a teacup for each guest. It’s best not to drink out of plastic for health reasons, but glass and metal drinking apparatus could get too heavy for small children to lift. Perhaps try to find a porcelain set you wouldn’t mind the kids using (or perhaps abusing).
• Plates for each of the guests.
• Paper crowns for everyone to place on their heads.

(Not) Poisoned Apples

Snow White was known to bite the infamous poisoned apple that caused her to fall into a deep sleep. While an evil witch might have poisoned her apples, you can redeem the apple’s name by making some sweet — and not poisoned — ones out of a kid’s favorite treat: Rice Krispies.

Imagine your child’s glee as they bite into an apple and thrust it victoriously up in the air. She’s the one who’s immune to the witch’s tricks!

You can find the original recipe for this idea here.

Ingredients

• 6 cups of Rice Krispies cereal
• 4 tbsp butter
• 5 oz marshmallows
• Red food coloring
• Tootsie Rolls
• Green Fruit Roll-Ups

Instructions

• Melt the butter over low heat in a medium saucepan.
• Add half the marshmallows and stir until evenly mixed.
• Then add the rest of the marshmallows, stirring until completely incorporated.
• Add about 15 drops of the red food coloring into the butter and marshmallow mixture. Stir well.
• Add the Rice Krispies into a saucepan. Thoroughly coat the cereal with the sticky mixture.
• Once evenly mixed, remove the Rice Krispies from heat and let them cool for about 5 minutes.
• Butter your hands and press the mixture into balls, pressing a small divot at the top where you’ll later place the stem and leaf. Place the apples on a serving tray when done.
• Cut the Tootsie Rolls in half and place them into small divot you made on the tops of the apples.
• Once all the apples have stems, cut the green Fruit Roll-Ups into diamonds and place them next to the Tootsie Roll stems like leaves.

You should now have a pan full of apples to serve your child’s guests. You can make lots of gimmicks out of it, such as placing a sign next to them saying “The Witch’s Stash” or something to that effect.

Whether you go for the Snow White effect or simple “Princess in the Woods Who Needs to Collect Food for Herself and Her Woodland Friends” vibe, these Rice Krispy apple treats are the way to go.

Decorate Your Own Pizza Crown

Kids love a lot of things, but they especially like pizza and decorating things themselves. Why not combine their two favorites into one activity?

Your child and her party guests can decorate their own pizza with various “jewels.” Those jewels could be olives, square pieces of ham or yellow cheese, strips of bell peppers, whatever else you think your party guests will like.

You’ll have to prepare the pizza dough, sauce, and cheese while the guests are there, but more prep work before the party means less stress when the party is in full swing.

What You’ll Need

• Ample amounts of pizza dough
• Marinara sauce
• Mozzarella cheese
• Toppings that have been cut into various “jewels.” This can include:
  • Square pieces of ham
  • Diamond-shaped red and green bell peppers.
  • Circles of banana peppers
  • Pepperoni (you can get away leaving it as-is)
  • Olive halves

Instructions

• Before the party begins, roll out the pizza dough into rectangles.
• Cut triangles from the top of the dough to create the shape of a crown.
• Do this for as many guests as you anticipate.
• Spread marinara sauce onto the crowns.
• Then sprinkle cheese onto the marinara sauce.
• Wrap the crowns and place them in the fridge until they’re ready for decoration.
• Cut up all the pizza toppings into their various jewel shapes.
• Place the toppings into Tupperware until they’re ready to be used.
• When it’s time to eat pizza, you can bust out the prepared pizza and toppings and let the kids decorate.
• It’s best to preheat the oven at 350°F while the kids decorate.
• Once the kids have finished decorating, bake all the pizzas in the oven for 10 to 15 minutes.
• Let the crowns cool before giving them back to the kids.

The kids will enjoy their pizza, and you’ll enjoy the minimal labor it took to make it. They did all the decorating, after all. They’ll love eating their regal creations made with some of their favorite toppings.

Having the guests decorate their own crown not only involves activity that can keep the kids from getting bored but fill their appetites as well — the perfect combo.

It’s best to do this activity for older children, aged 6 and up.

An Elsa or Anna Birthday Cake

Who doesn’t love the lovable ice queen Elsa and her awkward yet adorable sister Anna? Frozen broke world-wide records for being the highest-grossing animated film ever, according to the Guinness Book of World Records.

The lovable characters in Frozen also stole the hearts of children everywhere. If your child loves Elsa and Anna, she’ll love seeing them as their birthday cake — with Elsa or Anna dolls included as a gift.

This recipe is relatively simple to make. You just need a lot of cake to do it.

For a video tutorial on how to make a Frozen-inspired cake, click here.

Ingredients

• 1 one-inch tall round cake, approximately 8 inches in diameter
• 1 two-inch round cake, approximately 8 inches in diameter
• 1 semi-circle shaped cake, approximately 8 inches in diameter.
• Light blue frosting for Elsa or dark blue frosting for Anna
• Other color frosting for decoration

Materials

• A cake tray (preferably one that spins for an easier time frosting the cake)
• Spatula
• Wide piping tips
• Fine piping tips for decoration
• Elsa or Anna dolls.

Note: You can make the cake whatever flavor you want. Just make sure the diameters are the same for every cake you bake.

Instructions

1. Once all the cakes have baked and cooled, place the two-inch cake on the serving platter.
2. Cut out a two-inch hole in the center of the two-inch cake.
3. With the wide nozzle piping bag, frost the top layer of the two-inch cake.
4. Place the one-inch layer of cake on top of the two-inch layer.
5. Cut out an approximately two-inch hole in the center of the one-inch cake.
6. With the wide nozzle piping bag, frost the top of the one-inch cake.
7. Place the round cake on top of the one-inch layer.
8. Carve out an approximately two-inch hole in the center of the round layer of cake.
9. Frost the outside of the round cake layer, then frost the rest of the cake to make a crumb coat.
10. Stick the crumb-coated cake into the freezer for about ten minutes.
11. Remove from the fridge and add a second layer of frosting.
12. Disrobe the Anna or Elsa doll and place it in the cake’s center. It’s best to place the doll’s arms up, so she’s making a Y shape. That way, her hands don’t accidentally disrupt the icing.
13. Decorate the cake as you’d like. Once again, a spinning cake tray makes this process easier, but you don’t need it.
14. Let the icing harden before serving.

Not only does this cake give your child their favorite Disney princess in sugar form, but it also gives her a fun doll to play with once the cake gets eaten. It’s an excellent and thoughtful present for parents who want to give their child the best birthday possible, creating a memory your child won’t let go (pun intended).

While this list mostly focused on the traditional Disney princesses from Snow White to Elsa, you could adapt the ideas on this list to other princesses your child might like, such as Anastasia and Fiona from Shrek — especially for the cake with the doll in it.

Creating themed birthday parties not only satisfies your child’s desires but allows you to stretch your imagination and resourcefulness. We hope this list helps gives you some ideas so that you can make the best birthday possible for your child.