game night

Juli and Zach pondering their answers to one particularly loaded question

On Friday, I hosted a Valentine's-themed Game Night.  And by Valentine's-themed, I mean that most of the food and decorations were pink and red. I made large and small red velvet cupcakes, strawberry cake pops covered in white and milk chocolate, chocolate lollipops, and chocolate-covered strawberries.

the sweet to salty, junk to healthy food ratio seemed appropriate for the valentine's themed-party.  you can see the celery sticks poking out in the background. strawberries (chocolate covered or not) count as fruits.

 I also found some strawberry Fitz's drinks, blood orange sparkling juice and raspberry lemonade to continue my pink and red theme.   

Sarah guessing everyone's answers to the question, "If you owned a funeral home, what would the slogan be?"

About 10 people showed and we mingled, ate and played a long game of Loaded Questions.  This is a great game for a large party, and even though not everyone knew each other, you wouldn't have guessed it by the third question. 

Looking perplexed that her guess for Stuart did not pan out


A night full of food, fun and friends for sure.  My favorite kind of night.  I'm already thinking about when to host another one, and what the theme should be.

Some Stuart and Diane love before the game commenced

What games are your favorite to play with a large group?  What kinds of themes have you come up with for parties or game nights that have been a particular hit?







lip-smacking good: cake pop edition

my 2nd attempt at cake pops. strawberry cake with strawberry icing, dipped in white chocolate.

Ok, so this feels like cheating a little bit, since there isn't much of a recipe to follow, but these were delicious and so fun to make.  No question, I am a cake-pop convert.  There are cake pop recipes all over the Internet, so I won't post one here, but I will say that the sure-fire way to get the cake balls to stay on the lollipop sticks is to dip them in melted chocolate first.  Then, push the melted part of the stick 3/4 of the way into the cake ball.  Some of the melted chocolate will ooze out of the cake ball and form a circle around the base of the cake ball.  This is fine, and helps anchor the cake ball on the stick.  It also helps to refrigerate the balls for a little while before dipping them into the melted chocolate.  Either way though, the cake pops should stay on the stick when submerged in the chocolate.  And a little chocolate goes a long way.  Also, if you decide you want to embellish your cake pop with sprinkles and such, make sure to do this right after dipping, as the sprinkles will not stick to hardened chocolate.

Good luck on your cake pop adventures.  Have you ever made them?  Any advice you have that I neglected to mention?

superbowl party snacks

my rice krispie helmet cake

In preparation for tomorrow's Super Bowl, I have been busy in the kitchen.  This is what has come out:

football cake pops

chocolate football lollipops

devil's food cake balls with white chocolate swirls

more devil's food cake balls

Making more tomorrow, mostly in the way of appetizers.  Go Giants!