How to throw the ultimate birthday party!

It's our 10th birthday! So we thought we'd throw the ultimate birthday party to mark the occasion, as well as showing you how to hand-make everything so you can celebrate with us at home! From biscuit invites, to DIY balloons this party really has everything to wow your guests. So, Biscuiteers cordially invite you to their 10th birthday party...

How to: Tiered Birthday Cake
How to: Gold Spot Balloons
What you'll need:
Cleaning sponge
Sharp scissors
White or clear balloons
Gold paint

• Take your sponge and carefully cut out a cylinder with a pair of scissors, set to one side.
  - Blow up your white or clear balloons and tie the ends.
  - Pour some gold paint onto a plate, dab the end of your sponge into the wet paint.
  - Gently press the sponge onto a balloon like a stamp, and repeat until the balloon is evenly covered in spots.
  - Set to one side to dry for 10 minutes. Repeat until all your balloons are covered in gold spots!

How to: Biscuit Party Invites
What you'll need:
Rectangle vanilla biscuits - recipe, follow our golden rules here
Edible gold paint
Food-safe paint brush
White line icing, Black line icing, Gold line icing, White flood icing – icing recipe and guide

- Use your white line icing to outline your rectangle biscuits. Leave to dry for 5 minutes.

- With a back and forth motion, use your white flood icing to fill in the rectangle biscuits.

- Pop back on a baking tray, and into your oven to dry for 40 minutes at the lowest possible temperature.

- When your biscuits are dry, use your white line icing to pipe a scattering of small dots across the top of the rectangles. Leave to dry for 10 minutes.

- Take your paint brush and dip into your gold edible paint, carefully paint some of the dots.

• Finally, finish off your invites by using black and gold line icing to pipe the details of your party and the recipient’s name onto the biscuits. Follow our guide to writing with line icing here.

How to: Surprise Birthday Cupcakes and Biscuit Toppers
What you'll need...
For 12 Vanilla Cupcakes
Paper cupcake cases
175g unsalted butter (room temperature)
175g caster sugar (sifted)
175g self-raising flour (sifted)
2 teaspoons vanilla essence
3 eggs.
For Vanilla Buttercream and decoration
250g unsalted butter (room temperature)
500g icing sugar (sifted)
2 teaspoons vanilla essence
1-2 tbsp milk
Piping Bag
Nozzle (we used a Wilton 1M)
Gold sanding Sugar or Sprinkles.

Preheat your oven to 170°C / Gas mark 3.
Prepare your cupcake tray with 12 paper cupcake cases.
Top tip:
Add a spoon of rice into the bottom of each section of the cupcake tray, then place the cupcake cases on top of the rice. The rice under the cases will soak up any extra grease and keep the cases looking clean and pretty

Beat together the unsalted butter and caster sugar - whizz together in an electric mixer for 5 minutes or until light and fluffy.
Then slowly add in the eggs and vanilla essence, add in the eggs one at a time until combined into a smooth yellow batter.
By hand, fold in the self-raising flour until you have a silky-smooth mixture. You will need to scrape down the sides of the bowl several times to ensure all your batter is mixed well!
Take your smooth batter and fill your cupcake cases, use about 2 tbsp of mixture per case.
Place your cupcakes on the middle shelf of your preheated oven and bake for 15 minutes or until an inserted skewer comes out clean. Keep an eye on them - they will be just perfect when they slightly bounce back to the touch and the top of each cupcake looks slightly sticky.
Leave your cupcakes to cool for at least 30 minutes. Whilst your cupcakes are cooling it’s time to make your buttercream!
Using a stand mixer or electric hand whisk, beat the unsalted butter until light and fluffy (about 5 minutes).
Slowly add the icing sugar to the butter in batches, beating together until well combined.
Once your cupcakes have completely cooled, take a sharp knife and cut a small hole in the top of each cupcake. Take your golden decorations and sprinkle into the centre of each cupcake and then replace the top of each cupcake.
Take a piping bag with a star nozzle piping tip (we use the Wilton 1M that you can find here) and spoon in your vanilla buttercream carefully.
Hold the piping bag vertical and in an spiral motion starting from the centre of the cupcake pipe the buttercream generously onto your cupcakes.
You can be as creative as you like with the decoration of your cupcakes. We made little biscuit toppers and inserted them into the cupcakes. You can follow our simple biscuit recipe here and our step by step guide to icing the perfect biscuit here.

How to: Initial Biscuit Glass Toppers

What you'll need...
- Small circle (approx. 1-inch diameter) vanilla biscuits - recipe here, follow our golden rules of biscuit dough here
- Beige line icing & Beige flood icing – icing recipe here
- Edible gold paint
- Food-safe paint brush
- Before baking your biscuits, use a sharp knife to cut out a slot on the radius of each of your dough circles.
- Once your biscuits are baked and have cooled. Use your beige line icing to outline each circle. Leave to dry for 5 minutes.
- With a back and forth motion, use your beige flood icing to fill in the circle biscuits.
- Pop back on a baking tray, and into your oven to dry for 40 minutes at the lowest possible temperature.
- When your biscuits are dry, take your paint brush and dip into your gold edible paint. Then paint the surface of each biscuit. Leave to dry for 10 minutes.
- Finally, finish off your glass toppers by using beige line icing to pipe the initials of your party guests onto the biscuits. Follow our guide to writing with line icing here.

How to: Gold Sugar Rimmed Prosecco Glasses
What you'll need...
- Beige flood icing – icing recipe here
- Plates x 2
- Prosecco glasses
- Prosecco
- Gold sanding Sugar or Sprinkles

• Pour your beige flood icing onto a plate.
  - Tip out your gold sanding sugar or sprinkles onto a plate. Set to one side.
  - Take a prosecco glass and holding the stem, turn it upside down and gently press the rim of the glass into the flood icing.
  - Whilst the icing is still wet, dip the rim of the glass into the sugar / sprinkles.
  - Turn the glass up the right way and set to the side to dry for 10 minutes. Repeat until all of your prosecco glasses are rimmed with sugar.
  - Top up your glasses with cold prosecco, pop your initial biscuits on the glasses rim and serve!

How to: Biscuit Bunting
Follow our guide to making biscuit bunting here.
How to: Gold Painted Macarons
What you'll need...
Edible gold paint
Food-safe paint brush
Gel or Paste food colourings
Homemade Macarons: follow our guide to making French Macarons here.

We followed the above recipe to bake our delicious macarons. To go with our party theme, we separated the mixture in to different bowls and mixed in several different food colour gels before piping and baking.
Once the macarons have been baked, cooled and filled take your paint brush and dip into your gold edible paint. Then in a strip across the top of the macaron shell, brush a thick line. Leave to dry for 10 minutes and then serve!