This is actually two different parties, but I never wrote a post about this last year. I have been neglecting my posts! So here are a bunch of ideas for parties. I really enjoyed making the shops.
Party Food
Honeydukes Cake. The Chocolate frogs are from Haigh’s Chocolate shop in Sydney. I love the packaging for the chocolate frogs at Universal, but the chocolate in those and the Jelly Belly ones are not great. The chocolate from Haigh’s is amazing and I love that they have chocolate frogs year round!Niffler cookies. Somehow I can never get chocolate coins when I want to make the niffler cookies, but the golden eggs have worked as well. They just need something shiny!Party foodChristmas sweater cookies. I actually made these at Christmas, but they would work for a party anytime. These cookie cutters are meant to be for St. Patrick’s day, but they work very well for wizard parties. Butterbeer!
I have seen all kinds of recipes for this, but most involve cream soda and butterscotch sauce. I like to add ice cream to make it a float or a milkshake. Most people add whip cream on top. If I do that I like to whip heavy cream with some almond extract and sugar. As a side note: in Australia what Americans would call just chocolate milk is what they call a chocolate shake. What Americans call a chocolate shake is what Australians call a thick shake. Word to the wise if you are from one place and ordering in the other!Butterbeer thick shake with chocolate frogs. The general consensus on the internet seems to be that butterbeer is cream soda with caramel sauce. I like to add ice cream as a float or blended.
Honeydukes
This was a really fun shop to make. The little mice are like the sugar mice people make in the UK. I made these out of Sculpy clay though.
Pumpkin Juice Recipe
1 cup canned pumpkin and 1/4 cup of water (If you are in Australia canned pumpkin is almost impossible to find, but you can get it at USA foods if it is in stock)
3 cups Apple juice
1/2 cup Apricot nectar (This is the tricky ingredient for The States. It is in the regular grocery store in Australia, I’m not sure where to get it but you could try to substitute peach juice)
1/2 Tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp ginger
1 tsp cinnamon
Dash of cloves and nutmeg
Bring all ingredients to a boil, then simmer for 20-30 minutes
Serve warm or cold
Detail of the golden snitches (these were never in Honeydukes, but they should be!) I think Fizzing Wizbees make more sense to be the little colored wafers. If you’d like to have your candy on a trolly like they do on the train, IKEA has these carts that are the perfect color.
Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes
I really liked making this shop. I would have liked to make more things, but there is only so much time!
Wonder Witch products. You are able to buy pigmy puffs at Universal, althoug I think the ones from the Nobel Collection are cuter. I made these from fable fur yarn from Knitpicks.com. I just crocheted it into balls and they look like big pom poms. I got the little jars that have glitter in them from Daiso. More Wonder Witch Products. I modeled these after prop pictures from the movies. The little screw top jars have lotion in them. The pink liquid is just liquid soap.Darkness powder. This box is based off a display at the Universal Studios Wheasley shop. They don’t actually sell darkness powder there, but I made a necklace version from druzy quartz pendants.Weather in a bottle. This isn’t something they sell at Universal either, but I think they should! Snow storm in a bottle with nail decorating flakes and fiber fill.Rainbow in a bottle-fiber fill and I put Elmer’s glue on different colors of string and wrapped it on the outside of a plastic container. When it was dry I pulled the string off and cut it to size.
Crafts for the kids
Clay mandrakes made from Sculpy clay.You can put them into little pots after they are baked.Fabric bag decorating, which also doubles as a party bag/shopping bag.
