Simple Ideas For a Sweet Donut Inspired Birthday Party

My oldest and my (current) youngest both celebrate birthdays in early August. I love having the opportunity to combine the celebrations into one big party with family and friends. This year, we chose a donut inspired birthday celebration, since my kids LOVE all breakfast foods. (And weekly donut outings with my dad are their favorite part of the weekend!) Keep reading to check out all the fun donut details we worked into their recent birthday brunch!

This post is NOT sponsored.

IDEAS FOR A DONUT INSPIRED BIRTHDAY PARTY

Make Your Mark

I wanted to create a simple ‘guest book’ of sorts, to remember everyone who came to celebrate with us this year. I grabbed a 12″ x 12″ wooden panel from the painting section of the craft store, as well as some white and brown acrylic paint. Using a pencil and some bowls, I sketched out the outer + inner circles of a donut on the panel. I free-hand drew some frosting squiggles, and then painted each part with a few coats of paint. Next I used a black fine tip permanent marker to trace the shape outlines. At the party, I set out a jar of several colors of extra fine tip permanent markers, so guests could sign their names. It turned out so cute, and the boys are excited to hang it in their new room. (In the next few months, the older 2 will begin sharing a room in anticipation of the baby’s arrival!)

Donut Decorating

Whenever we have a big group of kiddos coming together, I like to put out a simple craft to help keep them busy. This one was perfect for the theme, and a wide range of ages enjoyed working on it. They even got extra creative and turned their paper donuts into donut hats, so clearly, this was a hit!

Supplies:

• Thin white paper plates.
• Scissors.
• Crayons / colored pencils / markers / gel pens.
• Stickers. (Optional, but fun!)

Directions:

1. First, cut the center circle from the paper plates to create a donut.
2. Encourage kids to use crayons, etc. to add color to their donuts.
   1. Sprinkles, frosting, etc. are all perfect add-ons to draw onto donuts.
3. Have kids add stickers to their paper donuts for a special touch!

Brunch Menu

I wanted to keep our menu as easy as possible. I chose 3 basic slow cooker recipes for the main dishes, so I would not be worried about cooking as guests arrived. We ultimately served a breakfast bake loaded with veggies, eggs, and meat; some cheesy hash brown potatoes; and a blueberry cinnamon french toast bake.

To round out the menu, we also set up a cereal + yogurt bar. Guests loved creating their own parfaits using vanilla yogurt, several kinds of fresh berries, and honey. We also offered a few types of cereal, as well as bananas. Guests could choose coffee, orange juice, white milk, or chocolate milk to drink with breakfast. Because the day was so warm, we also supplied plenty of bottled water as well.

Of course, no donut inspired birthday brunch would be complete with donuts! Along with a variety of donuts, we also served bagels with butter or cream cheese, and several kinds of muffins I had baked the evening before. Everyone said they loved the idea of serving brunch, and even the pickiest little eaters found something they liked.

Decorations

I decided to keep the decorations as easy as I could. At our local dollar store, I got lucky when I found donut wall decals in packages of 6. These were so simple and cute that I bought 5 packages to use as the bulk of our decorating. I also grabbed a large package of donut inspired party cardboard signs at the craft store, and hung them with tape. I chose basic white round tablecloths from the dollar store for the majority of the tables, but did grab a few sprinkle-printed ones for the activity tables. For centerpieces, we filled Mason jars with generic fruit rings cereal, and put a bright flower in each- so simple, colorful, and perfect for a brunch! I used my felt letter boards to spell out what each station was, making it easy for guests to see what was available.

Sweets + Treats

We ordered some simple cupcakes from the grocery store for the main dessert. I added some donut cupcake toppers I created using stickers and toothpicks.

For one fun extra goodie, I created some simple sweet ‘bacon and eggs’ bites that were inspired by this cute idea from Meal Hack.

#thebigone really also wanted some donut cookies, so I found a way to create some miniature versions of cream filled donuts- a fammily favorite!

Ingredients: 

• Nilla Wafers
• Chocolate ready made cookie frosting.
• Vanilla or cream cheese style ready made cookie frosting.
  • We bought our cookie icing at the craft store, already packaged in a piping bag.
• Colorful nonpareils or other sprinkles.

Directions: 

1. Lay out Nilla Wafers on a baking sheet.
2. Use chocolate cookie frosting to cover top of each cookie.
   1. The icing tip does not need to be fine for this- larger works a bit better.
3. Allow chocolate frosting to settle and set slightly.
4. Use white cookie icing with fine tip to drizzle icing across each cookie.
5. Add sprinkles or nonpareils to white icing.
6. Allow cookies to set for 4 hours before stacking.

Donut Hole DIY

This activity was seriously a HUGE hit with the kids at our party! It requires some adult supervision because of the heat + skewers, but it’s totally worth it. Honestly, the grown ups seemed to enjoy it too!

Supplies:

• Plain (‘old fashioned’) donut holes.
• Bamboo skewers.
  • Long lollipop sticks would work also.
• Candy melts.
• Assorted sprinkles + decorations.
  • We used muffin tins to hold ours, which worked perfectly. Regular bowls would also be fine.
• Somewhere to melt the candy.
  • We wanted to keep it simple, so we filled a crock pot with water. We put a smaller container filled with candy melts in the water, letting them heat while the party started.

Directions: 

1. Use a skewer to pierce a donut hole.
2. Dip the donut hole in the candy melt.
3. Dunk the candy covered donut hole in your desired sprinkles.
4. Next, let the donut hole cool a bit.
5. Finally, enjoy your custom created treat!

Wardrobe

My boys and my husband each had special shirts I ordered for the party! My friend Amanda owns Sweet Ginger Studios, and we worked together to create these adorable shirts. They were a huge hit at the party- everyone commented about how perfect they were. I know all three of them will continue to wear them going forward, so they were a great purchase. If you’re looking for custom shirts, bags, or anything else, be sure to contact Amanda and see how she can help your vision come to life!

Have you ever attended or hosted a donut inspired birthday celebration? What other themes have been some of your favorites?