Dinosaur Birthday Cake And Amazingly Easy Party Ideas

Make an amazingly easy dinosaur birthday cake and discover simple dinosaur party ideas to celebrate a child’s birthday in Jurassic style.

Hey there! Today we’re going to show you how to make a really easy and simple Dinosaur Birthday Cake. We’ll also share our favorite dino-mite party ideas to celebrate your child’s birthday, including a free printable party favor tag. You could also use some of these easy ideas for an “Over the Hill” party to celebrate a special milestone birthday.

It’s no secret that four year olds love dinosaurs. Especially four year old boys! I’m not sure what it is about these gigantic creatures that little kids find so fascinating. Maybe it’s because Dinosaur Train, Dino Trux and some of the other popular TV shows right now make them look so warm, friendly and helpful? For me, I think of Jurassic Park or Jurassic World when I think of dinosaurs and suddenly I’m terrified and worried I’ll have nightmares! My husband, on the other hand, loves those movies and could watch them back-to-back as one big movie marathon.

Whether your special guy is turning 4 or 44, the dinosaur party ideas I’m sharing today will be a big hit with your dino lover! Most of the dinosaur party ideas are really geared toward toddler or preschool kids. After all, these are the five things we actually did to celebrate my younger son’s 4th birthday several months ago. (If you’re new here, we usually refer to him as C2 on the blog!) However, I think some of these dinosaur party ideas would also be really, really fun for an “over the hill” party for someone celebrating a major milestone birthday like 40, 50, 60 and 70.

5 Easy Dinosaur Party Ideas

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Hosting a themed party or dinner doesn’t need to be extravagant or over the top. These five dinosaur party ideas are easy suggestions anyone can do to make a birthday special for their favorite dino lover.

1. Make a Dino-mite Dinner

The menu really sets the whole tone for any party, don’t you think? For C2’s birthday, he had two simple requests: chicken nuggets and applesauce. I found Tyson brand dinosaur shaped chicken nuggets in the freezer section of my local grocery store. My hunt for dinosaur themed applesauce was unfortunately unsuccessful. Instead I bought a large jar of applesauce. Then the boys and I decorated short 9 oz clear plastic tumbler cups with dinosaur stickers to use for serving the applesauce. You could just have a big bowl of applesauce and let your party guests serve it themselves into the cups. Or you could pre-fill the cups so it’s easy for people to grab and go as they move along the buffet line.

Next we needed a side dish to go with the dinosaur chicken nuggets and applesauce. I bought several boxes of dinosaur macaroni and cheese and used it to make a baked mac and cheese casserole. While I couldn’t find the dinosaur mac and cheese I used online, there are several options for dinosaur shaped pasta on Amazon. I didn’t use the powdered cheese that came with the mac and cheese anyway. Instead I mixed the cooked dinosaur shaped macaroni with Velveeta cheese, butter, milk and a little salt and pepper then topped the whole thing with shredded cheese and Italian breadcrumbs before baking it in the oven. It was a big hit at our dinosaur party!

If you need dinosaur menu ideas to make this more adult friendly for an over the hill party, you could:

• Make 1/4 to 1/3 pound hamburgers and call them Brontosaurus Burgers. This recipe for meatloaf burgers is our favorite.
• You could also grill T-Rex T-bone steaks. Or what about Triceratops Tri-tip?
• Serve Pterodactyl Wings (barbecue chicken wings, but call them “pterodactyl”) as an appetizer.
• Create extra large meatballs and call them Meteor Meatballs when you serve them in a crock pot. My mom has the best recipe for meatballs that you’d serve with a marinara sauce.

And don’t forget the drinks — maybe Jurassic Juice or Prehistoric Punch? This tropical tiki punch recipe would work great for a dinosaur birthday party.

2. Create an Amazingly Easy Dinosaur Birthday Cake

When we were working on our dinosaur party plans, we came across a big bucket of 40 dinosaurs at Walmart for less than $10. I often like to use plastic toys as cake toppers, like I did with this Angry Birds Birthday Cake or this Mickey Mouse Train Cake. So I knew this bucket of dinosaurs would be perfect for an amazingly easy dinosaur birthday cake. Here’s what I did:

Prepared and baked a regular boxed cake mix in a 9 x 13″ metal baking pan. Tip: To keep the top of your cake flat, wrap your cake pan with a long strip of an old terrycloth bath towel. Before you wrap the towel around your cake pan run it under cold water and wring it out with your hands. Use a safety pin to keep the towel securely in place. As you can see in the photo below from another birthday cake I’ve made, doing this helps the cake to cook more evenly. Otherwise the outer edges cook first causing the batter to rise in the center.

Once the cake cooled completely, I flipped it over on to a flat surface. I like to use a cake carrier with a lid so we can easily store the leftover cake for later.

Mix white frosting with green food coloring to create the color of a grassy field. You may want to add a few drops of yellow and maybe even one or two of blue to get the shade of green you’d like. Once I frosted the cake, I used a fork to fluff the frosting in different directions to give the appearance of grass.

Crush graham crackers into fine, fine crumbs to look like sand. I put graham cracker sand pits in a few different spots on the cake.

Next, I placed the plastic dinosaurs all over the cake. Some were stuck in the sand pits. Others were climbing up the side of the cake. The set we got from Walmart also had some large trees and boulders that helped set the scene.

You could also use regular or gel frosting to add a “Happy Birthday” message on the cake if you want. After we lit the dinosaur candles and sang the happy birthday song, it was really easy to remove the plastic dinos. We just set them aside on a plate and then washed them in warm soapy water later. Now C2 has them to play with and remember his special day.

3. Use Dinosaur Party Supplies

Every party needs plates, napkins, cups and utensils so why not make them dinosaur themed! We found ours at our favorite local dollar store. But if your dollar store doesn’t carry them, here are some cute ones I found online for you:

• Dinosaur Party Plates – These dinosaur plates from Caspari are especially adorable. They’d be perfect if your child loves the “How Do Dinosaur” books by Jane Yolen and Mark Teague.
• Dinosaur Napkins – These dinosaur napkins are the ones we found at our dollar store. If those are too “scary” for your child, Caspari has super cute napkins that match the plates I just showed you.
• Dinosaur Paper Cups – These T-Rex cups are so colorful and fun. (They even have matching Stegosaurus dessert plates!) For dinosaur cups, you could also just decorate clear plastic cups with stickers like we did earlier with the applesauce.
• And don’t forget about Dinosaur Balloons and Dinosaur Party Hats too. If you ask my boys, a birthday isn’t a birthday without balloons and hats!

4. Create Easy Dinosaur Party Favors

Gather any dinosaur themed trinkets or other goodies you can find to make dinosaur party favors. We used dinosaur fruit snacks, plastic dinosaur toys and stickers. Just put one of each item into a clear cellophane treat bag. Tie a cute little dinosaur printable tag on with curling ribbon and voila! You have an easy dinosaur party favor to give your child’s friends.

5. Set the Mood with Dinosaur Music

And last, but not least, create a playlist for your party! Music always adds a little extra special ambience to a party, don’t you agree? Here are some suggestions:

• We Are the Dinosaurs by the Laurie Berkner Band
• Walk the Dinosaur by Was (Not Was)
• The Flintstones theme song
• Jurassic Jams from Dinosaur Train
• This whole album of Dinosaur Songs by Juice Music is cute too!
• If this is a dinosaur birthday party for adults, I wonder how many would catch it if you played the Jurassic Park theme song on repeat for the first 15-20 minutes as everyone arrived? Ha ha ha!
• Just Google “itunes songs dinosaur” and you’ll be amazed at how many options come up.

Free Dinosaur Party Favor Tags

Exclusive for Kenarry subscribers, receive the FREE printable dinosaur party favor tags by signing up below. You’ll get the download link sent directly to your inbox.

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Once you have the file, print the tags for the Dinosaur Party Favors on white card stock and you’re ready to party!

So there you have five amazingly easy dinosaur party ideas to inspire your big event or birthday dinner! We’d love to hear how your party turns out. Drop us a line and let us know or tag us @kenarryideas if you post pics on Facebook or Instagram.

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What’s Next? 

While you’re here be sure to check out some of the other birthday ideas we’ve shared on Ideas for the Home by Kenarry®. One of these might be a great fit for your next party:

• John Deere Cake: An Easy Tractor Birthday Idea
• Muppet Birthday Cake: Star-Studded Showstopping Stage
• Mickey Mouse Birthday Ideas: Treasure Hunt Party
• Curious George Birthday Cake and Party Ideas

If you enjoyed this easy Dinosaur Birthday Cake and the other party ideas we shared today, please share this post with your friends or pin it for later: