Creating the Perfect Celebration!

My oldest daughter just graduated from high school and it was one of my proudest moments.  Since she is my first, I went all out on the celebration.  By the time my third child graduates, I will probably just throw a cupcake at her and have a get together at Chuck E Cheese's.  But the first, well, I went overboard.  I will share with you how I created what ultimately was the perfect celebration.

I made the decision early on that I was going to make all the food.  So I immediately started channeling my inner Martha Stewart.  By the time I was finished, my inner Martha Stewart mojo was depleted.

First, I made a cheese ball.  My youngest daughter thought the cheeseball was so good that she ate cheeseball for breakfast, lunch and dinner for a day and a half after the party because she said it was "so good".  Here is the recipe I used:

 Celebration Cheeseball

2 boxes cream cheese

1/2 onion, finely chopped

1 jar Old English Cheddar

1TBSP Lemon juice

1TBSP mayonaise

1TBSP Parmesan cheese

Pecans or Walnuts

Let cream cheese and cheddar warm to room temperature.  Mix all ingredients except pecans with a mixer.  Refrigerate mixture until it will hold shape, about 2 hours or more if you have time.  Form into a ball in your hands then roll in crushed pecans or walnuts.  Serve with crackers.

Next on the list of party foods is fruit dip.  I served the fruit dip with strawberries, blueberries, fresh pineapple, and apples.

Fabulous Fruit Dip

1 tub of Cool Whip(small)

1 block of cream cheese

1 can sweetened condensed milk

Beat room temperature cream cheese and sweetened condensed milk until smooth.  Fold in Cool Whip.  Refrigerate until ready to use.  May be a tiny bit lumpy but that is ok.  

Now we move on to mini cupcakes.  I got some mini cupcake papers at Walmart with a grey toile design.  I made a bunch of them.  Better to have too many than not enough.  

I made the cupcake part according to package directions on Duncan Hines Premium Cake Mix French Vanilla flavor.

After the cupcakes cooled I made the frosting and decided that just making a little flower on top of each one looked more dainty that making a big iced top(as much as I love frosting, I was going for looks rather than what I wanted on this occasion)

Buttercream Frosting

1 stick salted butter

1/2 cup shortening

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 lb powdered sugar

2 TBSP milk

Beat all ingredients together until fluffy.  Double the recipe for a two layer cake.

I added a small amount of Wilton paste coloring to make the frosting a light lavender.  Then I tinted a small amount of frosting yellow for the center.  I used a cake decorating tip to make the flower.  Then just a writing  tip to make the yellow center.

Next, I had to prepare my punch.  Everyone loved the punch.  I froze some in a jello mold to make a floating punch ring for the punch bowl.

To get the punch ring out of the jello mold just run some warm water over the back and it will slide right out.  

Celebration Punch

1 gallon of Hawaiian Punch, Fruit Juicy Red

46 oz. Pineapple Juice

2 liter Canada Dry Ginger Ale

Chill, mix and serve.

I also had planned to have cookie press cookies.  I love power tools, but apparently not in the kitchen. 

 I threw the cookie press out the window and abandoned the idea of cookie press cookies for the party.  My mom rode in on her white horse and saved the day as she volunteered to make chocolate chip cookies for the party since she clearly recognized I was out of Martha Stewart mojo and out of time.  I also served Deli Roll Ups from Sam's Club.

And last but not least, I made some homemade butter mints.  Omgoodness, they were to die for.  I got the recipe from one of my favorite blogs, Skip to My Lou.  Here is the web address for her blog and the recipe for the Cream Cheese mints I made.

http://www.skiptomylou.org/2010/08/24/how-to-make-cream-cheese-mints/

Our party food was a huge success.  If anyone didn't like the food they sure didn't say so as well they shouldn't have ;)  Tomorrow I will share how I decorated for this party.  Thanks so much for reading my blog!  Please share the website with your friends and be sure to subscribe to this on the right.  Have a wonderful evening!!

Jennifer