Doctor Who Party

My children (and their cousins, friends, grandparents and parents) have recently become obsessed with Doctor Who.  (Er...it does make some of us a *little* ashamed about teasing my husband in the 1980s and 90s for being a fan.)  It was no surprise, then, that our latest birthday party had to have a Doctor Who theme.  What was a surprise was the short amount of time we had to plan the party.  My son originally wanted a zombie party, then changed it to a Lego party, and then about two weeks before the party, changed it to Doctor Who.

Big problem:

 In the U.S. it is just about impossible to get Doctor Who party supplies, toys, or anything related to the Doctor.  And with only two weeks, I didn't have time to order anything online.

Big solution: the Internet!

We found so much inspiration from other obsessed fans, that before long my boys were making sonic screwdrivers from Legos and more.  (The one below belongs to the Master.)

Here are some of our party supplies: 

I took an old metal cookie cutter of a duck and reshaped it to form a Dalek.  My youngest son decorated the cookies with M&Ms. 

We wrapped up the cooled cookies and put one in each goody bag.  I made the goody bags from plain blue bags on which I glued printed parts of the TARDIS.  I filled them with the cookies, some Nerds (how could I resist hinting that we're all a bunch of nerds?), and other candies.  My boys also made guests some fuse bead Daleks. (You must be aware of our fuse bead obsession by now.)

Our centerpiece was a cupcake and gingerbread scene of some Daleks surrounding the TARDIS.  Look out, Doctor!

The main activity of the party was the creation of a stop-motion Lego movie about the Doctor and Rose battling some Daleks. Here we see Rose falling as the Daleks attack the TARDIS.  Dramatic!

After the animation film session, the whole family gathered with some friends to light those Daleks afire and sing Happy Birthday to my newly-turned-eleven-years-old son, who was delighted with the party.



Daleks vs TARDIS

For our Doctor Who party, we made a cake display with a gingerbread TARDIS and some hostile Dalek cupcakes.  I was inspired by the breathtaking work online.  Ever try an online search for 'Dalek cakes'? Who knew so many people were making Dalek cakes?

To make the Dalek cupcakes, I modified Tofu Guru's decoration technique by making six extra-deep cupcakes (found an extra deep cupcake tin at Michael's Craft Store) with one shallow cupcake on top of each one.  I used two boxes of spice cake mix to make the six Daleks and an extra dozen cupcakes for the party.

To make the gingerbread TARDIS I fashioned four walls and a graduated series of squares for the roof.  I used a box mix for the gingerbread.  I really should have made my own gingerbread, but I was pressed for time.  The problem with using the box mix is that it often produces a softer gingerbread than does a recipe from scratch, I find.

Before baking the gingerbread, I pressed a clean Lego window to make the window shapes, and then used the opposite side of the Lego to press the square shapes on the TARDIS doors and walls.

I used a bottle of gin as a rough template and to help support the walls as the royal icing dried. The royal icing was made from meringue powder, which I always keep in the pantry.  (You never know when the urge will strike to make a gingerbread house.)

For the roof I stacked the squares and iced them, allowing the roof to dry completely before adding it to the TARDIS.

To give the TARDIS that lovely blue color I covered it liberally with blue sprinkles.  It wasn't easy sprinkling the walls, so I ended up using a spoon to blend those sprinkles into the wet icing.  I covered the top two smallest squares with yellow sprinkles before adding them.

Inside the TARDIS, I put a tall plastic cup to support the heavy roof.  No one will see the cup, and anyway, we all know that the TARDIS is bigger on the inside.