The Very Hungry Caterpillar was one of my absolute favorite books as a small child, and remains so even as an adult. I mean, it has everything – days of the week, counting, a cautionary tale against overeating, and a beautiful transformation of the main character, based on the science of metamorphosis! Add in Eric Carle’s vibrant and endearing illustrations, and you have a truly enduring classic. Pretty much since I started having kids, I have wanted to do a very-hungry-caterpillar-themed birthday party.

Initially, I thought it would be too difficult to work in all the different foods from the book. But eventually (and this was nowhere near any of my kids’ birthdays when the thought struck me. These are just the things I ponder…) I realized that: a) I didn’t have to include every single one of the foods in the book to make it a caterpillar party, and b) the foods essentially amount to sandwiches and fruit salad.

The perfect opportunity arose as our youngest approached his first birthday (again, let’s be real. I think I settled on this theme when he was about seven months old…). He is truly a hungry little caterpillar. As a newborn, he nursed all. the. time. Once we started him on solid foods, he was uninterested in baby purees, but basically went straight to table food and never looked back. He often out-eats his older brothers (and they are no lightweights). Also, he loves fruit, so that fit well with the book.

The Theme

These are the elements I included to make it a true, very hungry caterpillar themed birthday party:

1. A caterpillar-shaped cake.
2. A simple menu that included most (but not all) of the foods from the book.
3. Two copies of the book sitting out, alongside a sign encouraging guests to see which foods from the book they were on the menu.
4. Yogurt-covered raisins labeled “caterpillar eggs”.
5. Table decorations that attempted to mimic artwork from the book.
6. Red and green “caterpillar” balloons on the high chair.
7. A month-by-month photo banner in the shape of a caterpillar.
8. A “make-your-own-caterpillar” activity for the many toddler guests at the party.
9. Red, green, and other colored tissue paper poms hung around for decoration.
10. And, of course, a “caterpillar” outfit for my baby boy: a red shirt and green pants.

Whew. It didn’t seem like that much until I wrote it all out.

Now, let’s munch our way through more of the details!

Scavenger hunt: each * item below represents a food the caterpillar eats in the book!

The Cake

I got the idea for the cake from this blog, via Pinterest. As she describes in her post, I made a chocolate bundt cake*, then cut it in thirds, and rearranged the pieces into the shape of a caterpillar. I shaved some off in various places to smooth out the shape.

I also made cupcakes with the rest of the chocolate batter, and then some vanilla cupcakes* as well.

Both cake recipes were from the Dough-Eyed blog. This blog is a new find for me, and I’m stoked about it! She specializes in high-elevation baking, and everything turned out great!

Next I made a ginormous batch of vanilla buttercream (recipe from Sally’s Baking Addiction – I tripled her recipe).

Then I portioned out and colored the frosting. I piped it onto the cake in two layers. (I do not have the patience for crumb layers on normal cakes, let alone a bundt cake. Piping was definitely the way to go.) I smoothed out the piping on the face, but loved the effect of the texture on the body, so left it as is. I also piped the layers for the eyes.

In the blog where I found the cake idea, she used various candies for the other features of the caterpillar. But I wanted to simplify it, so I melted chocolate and piped it out of a ziploc bag. This was a bit tricky because the chocolate is so runny, and I almost ruined the caterpillar at this point, but everything turned out ok! Chocolate frosting probably would have been the better route.

I made my son his very own “smash cupcake”, with his name and a tiny caterpillar on it!

I also served the cake with ice cream and ice cream cones*.

The Menu

I found that a great way to simplify the menu and still feature most of the foods from the book was to think of it as sandwiches and fruit salad! I also added little smokies* in barbecue sauce, lollipops*, and yogurt-covered raisins as “caterpillar eggs”.

The build-your-own-sandwich bar included:

• Homemade brioche buns (I use this recipe all the time! Just a heads up, she says it makes 8 rolls, but I make 12-16 out of it, otherwise they are giant!)
• Mini croissants
• Salami*
• Turkey
• Swiss cheese*
• Colby jack cheese
• Pickles*
• Garlic aioli
• Honey mustard
• Lettuce*
• Tomato
• Onion

The fruit salad consisted of:

• Apples*
• Pears*
• Plums*
• Strawberries*
• Mandarin oranges*
• Watermelon*

I saved the juice from the oranges, mixed it with some honey and fresh lime juice, and poured back over the top of the fruit.

Finally, I set out some zucchini bread because my plant was an overachiever this year and I was looking to use it up anyway I could.

All in all, I think I hit all of the foods the caterpillar ate except the cherry pie. I hadn’t been planning on getting plums, but ended up finding a good deal on them at the store. (You know I love a good deal.)

The Decorations

Let me start this section off by saying that Eric Carle is quite a masterful artist. His work is not easily reproduced.

When you flip open The Very Hungry Caterpillar, the inside cover artwork includes a series of colorful, roughly-shaped circles. “How hard could that be?” I asked myself. Armed with my children’s paintbrushes and paint, I set out to make a table runner on butcher paper. You can see the result in the photos. The overall effect was fine, but it did not quite have the finesse of Mr. Carle’s work.

Also, I decided to make a sun out of poster board, to mimic the one in the book. Again, I think I got the point across, but mine was not nearly as warm and friendly looking as the one shining down on the caterpillar in the book.

Food Labels

While planning the party, I had intended to make cutesy food labels with artwork from the book. But then I realized it would be much easier to simply have a couple copies of the book on display, and make a sign to direct people to them. I placed these along the table for guests to look at as they ate.

High Chair

Based on something I saw on Pinterest, I decided to put balloons around the high chair to look like a caterpillar. I made antennae, eyes, and a nose out of construction paper. In the back of my mind, I knew I should have made a structure to attach the balloons to, and then attach that to the high chair. But I bypassed that and taped them straight to the chair. I took this picture immediately after taping them on, which is a good thing, because by morning they had all fallen off. I was able to reattach them, although they looked a little bedraggled at that point. So, the idea is cute but I have no wisdom to impart as to how to attach the balloons!

Month-by-Month Pictures

My mother-in-law gets the credit for this one. I asked her to make a display for Henry’s month pictures, with a picture on each segment of the caterpillar. She knocked it out of the park!

Kids’ Activity

We had seven toddlers (ages 1-4) coming to the party. I wanted an activity that would keep their attention for at least a little while, and would not be too difficult for them.

Several years ago, I saw a sensory activity which used contact paper, putting the sticky side out so kids could stick foam shapes, paper cutouts, etc. to it.

I took this idea and turned it into a “Make Your Own Caterpillar” activity station. Using a whole roll of contact paper from the dollar store, we (ahem, my wonderful husband who graciously helps me pull off these parties), taped it to the wall, sticky side out. I had a bunch of paper circles, some leftover poster board pieces, and small fuzzy poms in a box for the kids. Unfortunately the poms did not stick to the contact paper. But other than that, it was a great activity that all the kids were able to do, and they had a blast!

Check out my other kids’ activites here and here!

I had a lot of fun putting together our very hungry caterpillar themed birthday party, and my son seemed to love it too – especially eating his cupcake!