Manic Mama Miles: Elmo Carnival Snacks

For Addy's Elmo Carnival, I kept it to the standard party food. Cupcakes are my favorite of course, so we had Elmo Cupcakes (click here for that post) & Carnival Popcorn Cupcakes (click here for that post).

I got some pink cotton candy to put in popcorn containers. How had I forgotten how good pink cotton candy was? I am sure all the parents LOVED the fact that I was providing the kids with straight sugar...but hey, what's a 3 year old birthday party without lots of sugar? ; )

To make parents feel better about all the sugar...I also had an Elmo vegetable tray with cherry tomatoes, carrot slices & olives. I had small bowls with Ranch dressing for the eyes.

I also had an Elmo fruit tray with strawberries, cantaloupe & blueberries. I used cream cheese fruit dip for the eyes.

Confession of a non-baker...This is my sad, sad Elmo cake below. I tried to make a circus cake for the Elmo head to sit on. It was pink & I was going to put red stripes on it. In my head, it was going to be so cute. I made two round cakes with my boxed cake mix, evened them out & stacked them on top of each other with icing in between the two layers. Then I iced the cake with pink cream cheese frosting. It looked great. Then I started on the Elmo head. I used the same clear Pyrex small bowl that I used to make Addy's owl smash cake & Addy's apple cake . I used chocolate cake mix & baked half in the bowl & then baked the other half in the bowl after I cooled the first half. I know, I know. One day I will invest in just another bowl to bake them at the same time. ; ) Then I took cream cheese icing & tinted it red with food coloring. I couldn't find big sugared eyes like the small ones I used for the Elmo cupcakes so I used the icing from the inside of an Oreo. I could have just used regular vanilla icing & put it in the freezer for a while to harden, but this was straight impulse & I just stuck the Oreo icing on the face & went with it. I used Reese's pieces for the nose & the mouth. I will be the first to admit that Elmo looks a little creepy. Sort of Lego head meets an Alien, but whatever. I stuck him under the big marquee lights & hoped that nobody noticed in the lighting. ; )

Well if you look at the picture below, you will notice that the bottom of Elmo looks a little weird & that he is not sitting on this circus cake that I mentioned. Yeah...about that. So I put Elmo's head on top of my circus cake...and he smushed my cake. Like I mean the sides of the cake gave out & everything. I guess the center wasn't as strong as it should have been. I don't for-real bake (Captain Obvious, I know), just boxed stuff for the most part so maybe you bakers know some tricks like letting it set in the freezer or something before stacking...yeah, I don't know. I just know that Elmo's big, weird, Lego-Alien head crushed the other cake so he had to sit all by his lonesome on the cake tray. So there ya go. My creepy, lonely Elmo head. : )

I also served popcorn in little popcorn boxes & caramel apples. I have no idea why I don't have a picture of the caramel apples, but I bought them at Walmart in a 3 pack. I like to try & DIY as much as possible, but making caramel apples when you are short on time was not something I felt like trying my hand at.

This was the spread. You can see the two little trays on each side of the cotton candy, yeah, that's the poor caramel apples that didn't make it into a picture. : ) Well, now I'm hungry & want a cupcake...Happy Wednesday everyone!