This has probably been written somewhere but I am needing ideas. My youngest is turning 3 soon and we are doing a cupcake decorating party! After I made the invitations I thought I lost my mind. Oh well. I need some ideas on toppings for the kids. I have thought of the basics sprinkles and mini m&ms and crumbled cookies. What else would you recoommend? I was really wanting to stay away from the colored sugar just for the simple fact it tends to be a little hard to get all cleaned up--just what I have been told. Also I was talking to my oh so wonderful mother and she said that having to spread the icing on would be to much work. I was thinking if it was in the bags more would get wasted than used. The parents are invited to stay and have fun too. I am starting to think this wasnt such a great idea.

Not had a party but my 5yr old and her friend di some yesterday and they didnt make that much mess at all lol

I put a few different sprinkles etc on to a high sided plate so nothing could roll off.

I left some cakes un-frosted and let them use some of those ready done icing writing tubes and then frosted a few cakes myself for them to sprinkle stuff on.

I also rolled out some chooclate fondant to cut out some mini bears and some pink fondant to cut some mini butterflies/flowers and lay them onto to greaseproof paper for them to use.

They really enjoyed themselves so will probably do it for her bday with a few friends and maybe some sugar cookies too.

I've put a pic of the ones my daughter did in my photos

As a future idea...one really fun thing to do is have a cookie party! Make cut out cookies and then 2 days in advance, flood them with plain white royal icing (like Antonia's recipe).

Then, have some food markers you won't need (or buy some Wilton ones with a craft store coupon) and let the kids color the cookies!

Its fun, and its not nearly so messy as having them do icing. They'll get color on themselves but at least you won't have a huge cleanup.

There is a cupcake shop here that has a "decorate your own" bar for the kids. I took my grandson there and they had all kinds of sprinkles, gummy worms, Fruit Loops cereal, mini chocolate chips, and marshmallows, as I recall. My grandson had a blast making it (but not eating it!), but it was a bit pricey because you paid by weight. Those gummy worms add up!