Hamburger Theme Birthday Party

My boyfriend loves a really good hamburger so when I was thinking about what kind of birthday cake to make for him, this idea kept popping into my head. I'd also seen a cookery course I wanted to take him to as a present, where you learn to make your own burgers from scratch (these days possibly the only way to make sure they don't contain horse). Then I realised I could do more than just a cake and actually make his birthday burger-themed!

If you google fast food, burger or hot dog-themed party you get some amazing results, many featuring families in America who have thrown a birthday party for their child on that theme, complete with a rotating hot dog stand and table of condiments for the children to assemble their own fast food snacks. Not having the space/capacity/time/money to do anything like that - and bearing in mind this was a birthday party for a 36-year-old rather than a child - I decided to go with a burger motif but not an all-out themed party. It would also have worked better if the party had been in the summer, then we could have fired up the barbecue and made actual burgers, but I hope this might give people ideas if they are thinking of a similar theme.

I spent ages looking online for burger or fast food-themed party tableware but couldn't find anything. Just a few days before my boyfriend's birthday I happened to pop into Paperchase - one of my favourite shops - and saw they had some new designs out, one of which was a cartoon-style burger, fries and taco pattern. Perfect! It's not cheap and would add up quite quickly if you were catering for a large party but I bought a pack of paper plates, napkins and paper cups.

I also stumbled across this amazing burger-themed wrapping paper while I was searching for partyware online and had my heart set on it, but unfortunately it didn't seem to be available. What a brilliant idea though!

I was also going to get some of those Trolli build-a-burger gummy sweets to add to the arrangement on the table but I couldn't get hold of them in the end (and my boyfriend doesn't like sweets anyway).

Some of the presents I got my boyfriend also tied in to the burger theme; as I mentioned above, I'd come across a burger-making lesson I thought would be great. If he's going to eat burgers then he should know how to make them and what goes into them (that is, the homemade rather than the supermarket value range ones, and I don't want to know what goes into those). I went to the Atelier des Chefs a few years ago on a corporate event and had a great time - we learned to cook a main course, which was fish of some kind - the main thing I remember is using a giant pair of fish tweezers to remove the backbone-  and dessert (rhubarb clafoutis) and then sat down to eat it afterwards. It was really good fun and recently I happened upon their website again and realised they did burger-making classes. We haven't done it yet but I will write a blog post when we do!

Also on a burger theme, I bought him a book of burger recipes (though I think that will end up working its way into my cookery book collection) and a book that's about a man's travels across the different states of America in the search for a perfect burger (or something along those lines).

I also got him a Jamie Oliver burger making kit, which includes a mixing bowl and a burger press to make them the right shape, and a voucher for Ed's Easy Diner, one of our favourite burger restaurants. While I was in Paperchase I also picked up some cute stationery from their burger range - a notebook, phone screen cleaner and sticky notes in the shape of French fries. His birthday card also had a burger and fast food theme!

And don't worry, I also got him several other presents which weren't burger-related!