My Girl Scout daughter LOVES camping, and wanted a woodland themed birthday party with lots of cute food in the shape of woodland creatures. It’s been a hot minute since I threw a big birthday party with themed food, but I think we pulled it off! She helped me assemble a lot of the dishes and she helped decorate the cake. We’ve come a long way from her Berry Sweet First Birthday Party!
Since groceries cost an arm and a leg these days, I tried to stick to a budget of less than $125 for all the food (cake included), and I SUCCEEDED! Aldi is the best for buying groceries on a budget, so I’ll break down each platter with the ingredients and what I spent on each one in the hopes that you can recreate it for your own forest lover who is wild and full of wonder. This cute forest animal print on etsy is one of her faves, so we used it as inspiration!
Here are all the Woodland Themed Birthday Party Food that we assembled for Camp Caroline’s 9th Birthday Party!
Fox Face Veggie Tray
This cute lil fox came together using baby carrots, celery, orange and red bell pepper, and white mushrooms on a bed of leaf lettuce. The ears and cheeks are slices of havarti cheese, while the nose is a black olive and the whiskers are green onion. Ranch dip inside black tidbit bowls created two eyes with more black olives for pupils. To save more money, you could easily leave off the leaf lettuce, bell pepper and mushrooms.
- baby carrots $1.35
- celery 1.99
- 3 pack bell pepper 2.59
- white mushrooms 1.99
- leaf lettuce 1.99
- havarti cheese slices 1.29
- green onions 1.05
- can of black olives 2.05
- 16 oz sour cream 3.98
- ranch dip seasoning pack 1.18
Total: $19.46
Owl Fruit & Cookie Dip
Caroline took a cooking camp over the summer and learned to make this fruit dip. She declared that we HAD to make it for her party, and she was right. It was the best fruit dip I’ve ever whipped up! Here are the ingredients:
- 1 block cream cheese $3.90
- 1 container whipped topping (in freezer section) .99
- Half a bag of marshmallows, melted ( or one container marshmallow fluff) $1.25
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar 2.09
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (from the pantry)
- red grapes 3.80
- strawberries (cut in half for beak and ears) $2.55
- vanilla sandwich cookies $2.75
- blueberries (for eyes) $2.75
Total: $20.08
Raccoon Cookie & Pretzel Platter
- Chocolate sandwich cookies (came in same package with vanilla)
- Peanut butter pretzels 5.49
- White chocolate for dipping $3.97
- Mini twist pretzels $2.35
- pretzel sticks 2.35
Total $14.16 (You could easily leave off the peanut butter pretzels, but I use them for my kid’s snacks so I needed them anyway)
Mini “Mushroom” Village
These were hands down the biggest hit of the party! They kids DEVOURED them so fast I barely got a photo. Just chop the tomatoes in half, chop the string cheese in differing lengths, and stick them together with a toothpick. Easy peasy. I had toothpicks at home, so those weren’t in my grocery bill.
- 1 Package Mozzarella String Cheese, cut in different lengths $2.59
- Gourmet Medley Tomatoes, 12 oz $2.99
- Six Cracker Assortment $3.89
Total: $9.47
Dirt Cake with Gummy Worms
This is a budget twist on an old favorite. Rather than spending almost $6.00 on a package of Oreos for the “dirt”, I bought a $1.00 devils food cake mix, baked it and crumbled it up. WAY cheaper! I colored the white chocolate with green food coloring, poured it into a ziplock, snipped the corner off and squeezed it out onto parchment, using the hazelnut wafer rolls as tree trunks.
- 2 packages Instant Pudding Mix $1.90
- 1/2 gallon milk $4.19
- Hazelnut wafer rolls $4.09
- Devils Food cake mix $1.09
- White chocolate (with green food coloring added)
- KitKats to create a log “path” $2.09
- marshmallows as mushrooms
- gummy worms $1.09
Total: $14.45
White Chocolate Pretzel Matchsticks
These white chocolate and pretzel “Matchsticks” were another huge hit with the camper crowd. My daughter made them by dipping the tip of a pretzel in white chocolate then rolling it in red sanding sugar. She stuck them into the top of her undecorated birthday cake so they dried like real matchsticks.
- White almond bark
- Pretzel sticks
- Red sanding sugar (from my pantry)
Hedgehog Cheese Ball
Mix together a bacon cheddar ranch cheeseball. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate in the shape of a little hedgehog. Cover him in pretzels and he turns into the cutest cheese ball in the whole forest!
- 12 oz shredded sharp Cheddar cheese $3.09
- Green onion
- 1 lb Premium sliced bacon $3.99
- 1 block cream cheese 3.90
- 1 package ranch seasoning mix
- pretzel sticks
- Black olives for eyes and mouth
- Total $10.98
I supplemented the Woodland Themed Birthday Party Food spread with a few other snacks, cubes of colby and pepperjack cheese,
- “morel mushroom” puff corn $2.55
- “fox tails” cheese puffs 2.15
- “forest berries” (blueberries and muscadines) $3.85
- chocolate sea salt caramels 3.59
- pepperjack and colby cubed cheese with crackers 1.75 each
- graham crackers 2.45
- candy corn $3.97
Total $22.06
The Mushroom Cake!
I used my White Caramel Wedding Cake recipe for this, and made cute little mushrooms from freeze dried chocolate covered strawberries on top of a tootsie roll that was dipped in white chocolate. They were simple and perfect! For this cake I only had to buy:
- 2 boxes white cake mix $2.18 ea
- eggs $2.85
- butter $4.19
- powdered sugar $2.09
- freeze-dried chocolate covered strawberries $3.85
- tootsie rolls (dug from my candy stash)
All total for this spread of cute food PLUS her cake, I spent right under $125! Since the food was the main party decoration, I feel like that is a great deal! Happy birthday to my sweet Caroline. Love you forever, baby girl.
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