Monday, June 18, 2012

Tangled Birthday Party: Food

Normally, party fare is pretty simple for us.  Pizza, fruit, cheese and crackers, veggies, etc.  For whatever reason (ahem), we went a little crazy this time.  This is where the internet was both a blessing and a curse.  It seems that every Tangled party must feature Jello boats, which originated (as far as I can tell) from Paging Supermom!  And rightly so, as they're super cute!  Here are ours.


Those little sails were a pain to make, but again, my Silhouette came in super handy.  The kids really loved the Jello boats, though a word of warning:  Jello liquifies in the heat.  Keep them cool!

Another cool idea I found (on Pinterest this time) were Rice Krispie treat paintbrushes.  The idea is, again, pretty simple:  cut Rice Krispie treats into squares.  Stick a popsicle stick into them.  Dip in different colored candy melts.  Ta-da!  And if you're especially lazy (like me), you'll get the pre-packaged Rice Krispie treats so you don't have to make them yourself.  Again, they were a huge hit!


Of course we needed a cute display, too.  Originally I was intending to use this tower for the cupcakes, but 1) I made way too many cupcakes, and 2) the candy melts melted (duh) and I didn't want to clean it up in the middle of the party.  The tower is made of three Wilton cake plates, two Pringles cans covered in decorative paper, a wooden birdhouse I painted to look like Rapunzel's tower, a bunch of silk flowers that you can't really see in the picture (they're around the base of each level), and prodigious amounts of hot glue.  Oh, and the obligatory braid.

For non-Rapunzel themed food, we served cold cheese tortellini pasta (again, really simple - cheese tortellini, cheese cubes, cherry tomatoes, green onions, and a bottle of Newman's Italian dressing) and cold sesame ginger pasta salad (going with the 'simple' theme - chicken marinated in sesame ginger dressing, bowtie pasta, shredded carrots, green onions, cilantro, and another bottle of sesame ginger dress).



We also served a delicious parmesan artichoke spread that my husband discovered - pretty much equal parts mayo, canned artichokes, and parmesan cheese, blended in a food processor and then baked until hot and melty.  We served sliced French and Italian bread to go with it.  There was also the customary fruit salad and cheese and crackers, which also had Kingdom Flag toothpicks similar to the Jello Boat sails - unfortunately, I don't think anyone got a picture of those.  Most dishes were served in frying pans, of course.


For dessert, we had cupcakes for the kids and a cake for the adults.  I thought the cupcakes turned out really well, but I was less than thrilled with the cake.  Part of the problem was that I forgot to 'steam' the cake to make the fondant all shiny - it still had powered sugar all over it.  However, discussing my mistake with friends did provide me with a few alternate methods of steaming.. previously, I would turn the shower on super hot, open the curtain a crack, and hold the cake as close to the steam as I dared, rotating it as necessary, and hoping and praying it didn't dissolve or I didn't drop it.  But like I said, the cupcakes turned out much better.  Here's one sitting on top of the fondant sun that topped the cake.


These were a real pain at first.  I used the tiniest tip to do the green icing, but it kept clogging.  After I while, I realized I had used a different kind of salt than usual and decided that was what was jamming the hole.  So I dumped the entire double batch of frosting down the sink and made more - and then it went much more smoothly.  I thought that ice cream cone cupcakes would be kind of gross, but I actually thought they were pretty tasty.

**A lot of the items I've mentioned can be purchased through my Etsy store.  If there's anything you'd like but don't see, convo me!**

No comments:

Post a Comment