Published: 02/08/2010 by Fairy themed parties

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This elfin hideaway is more than a treat — it's a fun activity for a fairy-themed birthday party, or for a nature- or garden-themed gathering. Give each guest a bare structure assembled from a cupcake or a store-bought pound cake, then provide a variety of frostings, candies, and cookies and let kids go to town.

INGREDIENTS:

* 2 pound cakes (16-ounce loaf and a 10-3/4-ounce loaf)
* 1 large cupcake
* Butter biscuit cookies
* White frosting and chocolate frosting
* Jelly beans
* White bark chocolate
* Green and yellow Tootsie Rolls
* Chocolate-covered cookies and tennis biscuits
* Nonpareils
* Mini marshmallows
* Sugar wafers
* Pretzels
* Starburst candies
* Flower-shaped decorator candies
* Biscotto-like cookies
* Leaf-shaped butter cookies
* Miniature vanilla wafers
* Chocolate and peanut butter chips
* Green food coloring
* Waffle cones
* Chocolate wafers

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Butter Biscuit Bungalow: Butter biscuit cookies make great roofing. Working from the lower edge, gently press the cookies onto the frosted cake, then pipe on a line of frosting and add a jelly bean peak.
White bark chocolate windows stand out nicely against dark frosting. For shutters, we used green Tootsie Rolls, quartered lengthwise. The door is a chocolate-covered cookie. Use jelly beans to give your cottage an earthy foundation.

2. Cozy Cupcake Hut: Chocolate-covered cookies and tennis biscuits make appealing chimneys and doors. Is it snowing in your fairy village? Try a roof of nonpareils! A foundation of mini marshmallows might be in order too.

3. Sugar Wafer Chalet: We used sugar wafers and a pretzel rod for this simple peaked roof.
To make the doors and windows, warm Starburst candies in the microwave until they're just pliable, about 5 seconds, then use a rolling pin to flatten them. Cut out the desired shapes and press them in place.
We pressed on a pretzel window box, then filled it with flower-shaped decorator candies.

4. Birch Bark Abode: The marbling technique on this birch house is marvelously easy. Just frost the base white, then dip the tip of a table knife in chocolate and drag it across the cake, gently swirling the colors. The roof is made of a biscotto-like cookie, and the chimney, a yellow Tootsie Roll.

5. Leaf Cookie Lodge: Butter cookie leaves are always popular with fairies. The door is the unfrosted side of a half-dipped fudge graham.
To round out your cabin, press on a pair of miniature vanilla wafer windows.
For a quick and easy foundation, alternate chocolate and peanut butter chips.

6. Waffle Cone Trees: Use food coloring to tint white frosting green. Generously frost a waffle cone, then use a fork to pull the icing into boughlike peaks.

7. Delicious Dirt: We used crushed chocolate wafers for our forest floor.

8. Tiny Toadstools: Microwave a red Starburst candy until just pliable, then roll it into a ball. Flatten one side, then use a dab of frosting to attach a marshmallow base. Pipe on frosting dots.

9. Make it easy! Before the party, assemble a variety of unadorned houses for guests to decorate later. We used two store-bought pound cakes — a 16-ounce loaf and a 10-3/4-ounce loaf — and one large cupcake for the five structures here.

ENJOY!!