My First Dessert Table a.k.a. An “Ender’s Game” Themed Baby Shower

One of the things I was busy doing last week was planning/decorating for my brother and SIL’s baby shower which was on Saturday at my mom’s house. Their favorite book is “Ender’s Game,” which they are naming their baby after, so I tried to incorporate the book into the baby shower theme without getting too weird about it (Manda wanted to make everything ALIENS!). Instead of going full Battle School, I went with stars and a couple images of Ender.

As always, I started with a sketch to plan out the colors and items on the dessert table. I have never created one of these tables before, so I did lots of research on the internet first!

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The real thing had a few changes, but overall, I thought it was funny how the drawing translated to real life!

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So, the ginormous watercolor on the wall doesn’t really go with the theme, but, you know, you don’t touch your mama’s ginormous watercolor.

Manda helped with a lot of the decorating the night before, hanging stars, stringing streamers. It was a lot of fun! I told her she should start a party-planning company, and I’d work for her. She said I should start the company, and she’d work for me. I told her I was tired of being the boss!!!

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I tried to name the desserts with Ender’s Game themes. The thing is, I have never read the book, and I didn’t have time to read the book. I put out a call of HELP on Twitter and was really lucky that Brie had read the book five times and sent me a long and informative email! Thank you!! I also ordered the first Ender’s Game graphic novel and scanned an image of Ender for the cupcake toppers, which I printed out and hot glued to tiny dowels from Michaels.

Shower7I made mini-pancake lollipops because (a) my brother loves pancakes and (b) I’d recently seen a post somewhere about these minis, and it just seemed perfect. Here’s the recipe I used from No. 2 Pencil.  I was having trouble flipping my pancakes with the sticks, so I made the pancakes without them and stuck the sticks in afterwards. My batter was thick, so my mini pancakes remained thick, and poking the stick in was no problem. I could see that if the pancakes were too thin, you’d just wreck them with the stick later! Clearly, mine didn’t turn out as pretty, but they were still really yummy.

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I chose peach-flavored candies because my sister-in-law likes peach gummies, and also owls! The little foil-wrapped lollipop stands are just styrofoam balls cut in half. I had tons of leftover styro balls from building my Renegade booth last Christmas.

Instead of buying individual bottles of sparking lemonade and adding food coloring to match the colors, we went with one jug of un-colored sparkling lemonade with fresh mint leaves.

Shower11Hairy also made a giant batch of paella as requested by my mom.

I kinda knew we would have a lot of candy leftover because lollipops sort of seem more like a little-kids thing, but I liked what they added to the table aesthetically! The PB&J sandwich stars and the pancake pops seemed to the most popular items. If I ever create a dessert table again, I definitely need take the time to work more with different vertical heights for everything, but overall, I was happy with the way everything turned out and thought it looked very cheerful.

The Ender’s Game movie is coming out later this year, so if you don’t have time to read the book either, you can check out the film!

25 Comments on “My First Dessert Table a.k.a. An “Ender’s Game” Themed Baby Shower”

  • zambicandy

    says:

    Damn that looks fabulous. I wanna do this for somebody someday!!

    • TwinkieChan

      says:

      Thank you, Zambi! Maybs you can make one for someone’s bday!

  • Teiva

    says:

    A friend of mine from college was given the name “Ender” when he joined an Independent group (pretty much a Frat without the greek). He ended up naming his son Ender! You did a great job with the party!

    • TwinkieChan

      says:

      Thanks, Teivs! I had no idea that other people were naming their kids Ender, too!

  • Lee

    says:

    I wondered who the orange flyboy is supposed to be! Obviously, I have not read the book neither!!

    • TwinkieChan

      says:

      I wonder if there will be a family outing to see the movie 😛

      • Lee

        says:

        Sure! We should bring baby Ender too!

  • Jaci

    says:

    Thank you thank you thank you! We loved the shower and are so lucky to have such a thoughtful and creative sister(-in-Iaw)!

    • TwinkieChan

      says:

      Yay! I am glad you guys liked it! Also happy we didn’t make it too weird and crazy hehehhe.

  • Danielle

    says:

    That came out so spiffy, I love it! I’ve never read it either but it looks really cool anyway. Especially digging the sandwich stars and how you displayed the lollipops. What an awesome sister you are!

    • TwinkieChan

      says:

      Thanks, Miss D! A funny thing I’ve learned is that PB&J sandwiches cut out as shapes, always does really well at a party! Ahahah.

  • GD! Sensational! You rocked it all! And the paella looks delicious! YUMMY!!!

    • TwinkieChan

      says:

      Thanks, Renee!!

  • Nicole H

    says:

    I didnt read the book and know next to nothing about the story, but I think you did a fantabulous job! Everything looks delish and space-age-y at the same time. Marvelous 🙂

    • TwinkieChan

      says:

      Thank you very much! We can all see the movie in the Fall and figure it all out! hehe

  • Kaitlyn

    says:

    Thanks!! I have to do an Ender’s Game themed Theme Park and it has to have two restaurants, so this helped a lot!!!!!!!!!!!!

    • TwinkieChan

      says:

      Wow, that sounds like a really huge project!

  • Mia

    says:

    Great job. I was curious about what program you used to sketch out the dessert table. It looks awesome.

    • TwinkieChan

      says:

      Thanks so much!

      • Ashley

        says:

        Yes what program did you use to do the mock up? It looks so cool!

        • TwinkieChan

          says:

          Photoshop 🙂

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