A "Wild" Zhu Zhu Party

Thanks to Mom Select and Zhu Zhu Pets for the inspiration for what my now-4-year-old daughter has breathlessly deemed "the best birthday party ever"!

We were selected to host a party featuring the new Wild Bunch Zhu Zhu Pets. These 4 critters are aptly named: ZuZu (a hedgehog), Sweetie (a pink bunny), Rocco (a raccoon) and Stinker (of course, a skunk) and were the hit of the party- for the kids and adults.

We played a couple of games- including racing pets using only noses to start- and guide- them.

The second game pitted the bunnies and raccoons against the skunks and hedgehogs in a type of hide & seek. You'll have to take my word that it was fun because my Flip Video decided to tape everything in brilliant fuzziness.

What the kids enjoyed most, though, was the fact that we moved our Zhu Zhu tracks outside! The Wild Bunch were enjoying the beautiful Iowa day- and everyone got to take home a Zhu Zhu pet!

Of course no birthday party is complete without cakes. And the Zhu Zhu's inspired me... I created two, as we were celebrating 2 birthdays. I used this Zhu Zhu Birthday Cake post as my template for the bunny and the hedgehog.

I began with a Wilton 3D Egg Pan (we have a local library that has cake pans to check out), two cake mixes and a plain buttercream frosting recipe.

Bake cakes according to directions and cool completely. After the cakes are completely cooled, cut one to create a flat surface so your Zhu Zhu doesn't roll away.

Add food coloring to your frosting to match your Zhu Zhu pet (I used melted chocolate for the hedgehog) and frost each cake with a thin layer. This is called the "crumb layer" Which simply means it catches all the crumbs. It doesn't have to be neat. You will refrigerate this for about 30 minutes.

Bunny Crumb Layer

Hedgehog Crumb Layer

Next you will frost your cakes. For the bunny I frosted entirely in pink and then texturized by touching my frosting knife flat on the frosting and pulling up. This made it look "fuzzy".

I made the hedgehog's fur by adding shredded coconut to the tan/chocolate frosting to build the fullness it needed without having an insane amount of frosting.

I used white decorator frosting for the bunny's cheeks as it is much more firm than buttercream. I just kind of "blobbed" it on the front and maneuvered it around until I had the effect I wanted.

I used Jelly Belly's for the noses, brown M&Ms for the eyes, large pink marshmallows cut apart for the bunny ears and a round gummy candy, cut in half, for the hedgehog ears.

The finished cakes were fun, very easy to make and the hit of the party!

Disclosure: The Zhu Zhu Pets were provided by Mom Select. I was not compensated for this post.