Rainforest Party Pictures and Cake

This is the *only* slightly suitable picture I have of the cake I made for the Munchkins rain forest party. I (literally) finished decorating the cake as guests walked through the door. Not only am I Marvelously Messy....I am also Marvelously Unorganized. C'est la vie!!

This cake was totally fantastic. Easily the best Chocolate cake I have ever tasted. 

Here is the recipe (from About.com)

Prep Time: 25 minutes 

Cook Time: 35 minutes

Total Time: 60 minutes

Ingredients:

• 2 cups flour
• 2 cups sugar
• 3/4 cup cocoa
• 1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup whole milk
• 1/2 cup oil
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1 cup boiling water

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and dust with cocoa two 9" layer cake pans. Set aside. In large bowl, combine flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Stir with wire whisk until blended. Add eggs, milk, oil, and vanilla and beat well with wire whisk or mixer until combined, about 2 minutes. While beating, heat water in microwave oven to boiling. Stir boiling water into cake batter.
Pour the thin batter into the two prepared pans. Bake at 350 degrees F for 30-35 minutes or until cake pulls away from sides of pan, top springs back when lightly touched, and a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 5 minutes, then remove from pans and cool completely on wire racks.

After the cake had cooled we made a really basic buttercream frosting and I frosted the cake smoothly. Then, I colored some fondant with food coloring, rolled it, and used some flower cookie cutters to make different layered flowers. I rolled out some green fondant for vines. Voila!!

The house was decorated with lots of green balloons and some rain forest games. This felt rain forest puzzle was a fun addition:

It is a flat (can be framed or unframed) painted felt panel with all kinds of felt rain forest animals to place all around the board. Too cute.

In one room of the house I used cardboard to make a tree shape and draped some green crepe ribbon around it for vines. As well as a "canopy" of green balloons:

I found some tropical card stock paper birds in iParty which I placed around the house. Cheap floral vines were draped around the furniture and on doorways. 

I was planning on using a sound machine to play a rain forest background noise....but amazingly enough we lost power right as the party started to about ten minutes before it ended. Good thing we hosted it during the day!!

If you would like to see the rest of the decorations for the party you can find the rain forest pinata HERE and the party hats HERE.

I linked this post up to these fabulous linky parties:

Show and Tell @ Blue Cricket Design