Need a fresh idea for planning a unique baby shower? Use a cute cookie cutter as a starting point for a simple yet creative and thrifty baby shower. For example, a baby duck shaped cookie cutter can be used for making invitations, favors, and food while tying the theme together.
Cookie Cutter Choices
The first step is to choose the cookie cutter. You’ll find a wide variety at baking and craft stores, as well as online. Cute ideas include animals, insects, or a classic baby shower umbrella. How about a kitten, puppy, lamb, bunny, teddy bear, baby footprint, handprint, baby bottle, star, ladybug, bumble bee, or butterfly? If the shower is going to be held near a holiday, you may want to go with a matching theme such as a pumpkin, gingerbread boy or girl, shamrock, heart, Easter egg, or spring chick.
Invitations
Once you have your chosen cookie cutter, you’ll need to choose card stock or posterboard. You could buy white and decorate with colored pens or markers, or you could buy suitably colored card stock, such as yellow for a baby duck theme. Also buy enough envelopes that will fit an invitation the size of the cookie cutter.
Next, place the cookie cutter on the card stock and trace around it with light pencil. Repeat this as many times as needed for the correct number of invitations. Cut the invitations out, decorate if desired, with colored pencils, markers, or crayons–remember, the more childish it looks, the better!
Fill in the necessary party information, such as the day, date, time, location, and who the party is honoring. Include registry information, if pertinent. Send out the invitations at least two or three weeks in advance, and include an RSVP date as well as your phone number and/or email.
Place Cards or Name Tags
Once again, simply trace around the cookie cutter on suitable paper or card stock to make unique and theme-fitting place cards or name tags. Cut these out, then write in the names
Food
What will you be serving at this cookie cutter baby shower? Cookies, of course! But that’s not all. You can use your cookie cutter to cut out fancy little sandwiches. You can even use the cookie cutter as a template to easily decorate the cake. For example, bake a sheet cake, frost it with blue icing, then gently press a baby duck cookie cutter onto the cake top (multiple times, if there is room) and then remove. You now have an easy pattern to follow! Just fill in the shape with yellow frosting in a pastry bag fitted with a star tip. Suddenly you have a baby duck swimming on a blue pond!
Decorations
Use a blank roll of paper and blank tablecloths and get to work tracing that cookie cutter to make a special banner and themed tablecloths.
Cookie Eating Contest
This party game is a riot. It will make you feel like a child again! Bake cookies with holes in them so that they can be strung up from an overhead beam of some kind in the party room. The guests line up, one at each dangling cookie, and the woman of honor counts to three. On three, the guests start gobbling their cookie as best they can–with hands behind their backs! The first guest to finish their cookie wins! You’ll want to take pictures of this game!
“Decorate-Your-Cookie” Game
This gives the guests something to do while the woman of honor opens gifts. Supply a various assortment of cheap plastic decorating bags filled with colored frosting. Give each guest a cookie and tell them to decorate it any way they choose. When complete, each person delivers the cookie to you, and you will place it on a pre-numbered sheet (one number for each cookie). Tell the guest to remember the number that their cookie is placed on.
When the woman of honor is done opening gifts, she will choose her favorite decorated cookie from the tray. The guest who decorated it wins a special prize. But everyone wins a consolation prize–they get to take their cookie home (or eat it right away).
Note: Laying each cookie on a number makes this anonymous so no one can accuse the woman of honor of playing favorites!
Party Favors
If you are looking for additional favor ideas besides the cookies themselves, read on. For simple but delightful favors, use a ribbon of light pink, blue, or yellow to tie a cookie cutter to a sugar cookie recipe for each guest. Alternately, forgo the cookie cutters, if too expensive, and just give nicely printed recipe cards.
And that’s how you throw a cookie cutter baby shower that will be unique, memorable, fun, and delicious!