Star Wars Goodie Bags

They have these cute chunky looking figures now for ages 4+ that are practically unchokable in all sorts of characters (Transformers, Marvel Comics, Indiana Jones and Star Wars). They come in packs of two for about $7. I bought 5 packs of them and tied one character to each goodie bag. I made from them out of squares of cellophane (red cellophane if the character was from the dark side, green cellophane if they used the force for good). I couldn't find anything else Star Wars related that I could afford so instead I filled them each with a noisemaker, a punch balloon, 2 giant lemon heads (cherry heads, etc.,), two fruit flavored tootsie rolls (I saved all the vanilla flavored ones for myself), a push pop, 3 solid milk chocolate balls from See's, two citrus melts from See's, and a mini pack of Dots (the birthday boy's favorite candy).

I took five boys home from the party including one of my sons. That was when the candy trading started:

"I've got a lemon head I'll trade for an orange head, who'll give me a orange head?"

"I'll give 2 chocolate balls and a citrus melt for a push pop."

"Two tootsie rolls, here who'll give me a pack of Dots for two tootsie rolls?"

 . . . that went on for awhile until my son figured out that by blowing up his punch balloon to the size of a water melon and then sticking the noisemaker on the end, he could make what sounded like the loudest, most annoying scream ever. It was fortunate that I was in such a good mood because all the boys decided to copy him and then tried to scream louder than the noisemaker/balloon combination. The car ride was about 45 minutes long, but my son was having a great time and really that was the end result we were going for that day.

Star Wars Cupcakes or the Force was with me

These were a little complicated to create, but totally worth it for my kids' reactions as well as the kids at the party. If I had had time I think I would have tried to make several characters including Princess Leia (Cinnabon cereal for her hair buns), Jabba the Hut and Chewbaca, but we had just got back from a trip to Europe a couple days before I had to make them so I settled for one good and one evil character. I found that the less detail I put on them, the better they looked.

Yoda:

To make his ears I used Famous wafers which I heated for 15 seconds in the microwave and then cut with an angel shaped cutter and then removed the excess. I cut slits in frozen donut holes and then tucked the cookie ears in. The heads were then attached with frosting to the cupcakes which had already been dipped and swirled in white frosting. I stuck them in the freezer to harden while I made noses and eyes. The eyes were created with tiny white gum balls and cola flavored tootsie roll frooties (I don't know why they are green). I also made noses from pea size bits of same tootsie rolls by making a crescent shape and rolling the ends under, then making creases between the nostrils and bulb of nose. When the Yoda heads were frozen enough, I dipped them in warm green frosting and slopped frosting all over with a spatula and let the excess drip off. When the frosting had hardened enough, but not too hard I stuck the eyeballs and nose on, then added pupils and white dots for shine. I also added a smile which my kids told me was wrong. Smile Yoda does not. Then I added brown to the front for his shirt he wears under his white robe and stuck an old fashioned lemon-lime flavored candy stick in for his light saber.

Darth Vader:

For Darth I used stacked mini cupcakes upside down on top of a regular cupcake and then topped those with 3/4 of a donut hole. I had to trim the mini cupcakes at an angle to get them to look more like the helmet. Then I used a grape starburstish candy for the part of the mask he breathes through. I should have used a regular tootsie roll to match the flavor of the cupcakes. The whole thing was frosted together and frozen. I added black food coloring to a can of dark chocolate frosting and dipped and swirled all my Darths. When the frosting was sufficiently hardened I put Crows (licorice flavored gum drops that had been cut horizontally in half) on for the eyes and silver dragees for helmet details. I then frosted a line along the side and front to give the helmet shape a little depth. All my Darths had old fashioned raspberry candy sticks for light sabers.