Posted March 29, 2018 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 2 Comments
Three cheers for extra Thursdays! Whenever a month has a 5th Thursday, I get to do a bonus post, which is especially exciting this month since this menu was inspired by my son’s birthday party. It was quite the bash! I made deviled eggs, fruit salad, and a giant chocolate chip cookie, and we ordered pizza for our entree. Plus, both the grandmas made delicious desserts too! My mom made cupcakes, and my mother-in-law made crown-shaped sugar cookies with gold sprinkles. Both were delicious, so for my bonus recipe, I decided to pay tribute to both.
These fun cupcakes come in two flavors: chocolate cake with vanilla frosting and vanilla cake with chocolate frosting (just like the ones my mom made). The recipes are easy, and the fun, whimsical decorations are inspired by my mother-in-laws cookies: white and gold sprinkles on some, fruit roll-up crowns on others. It’s a lot of variety without a lot of extra work, and the results were super delicious. Enjoy! ^.^
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Posted March 27, 2018 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Teas / 2 Comments
My tradition of making a tea to go with each of my menus came in handy at my son’s Where the Wild Things Are birthday party—we had a custom tea to serve with lunch! I don’t normally get to share my teas with such a large group, so I was excited to create something for a crowd.
I’m always on the lookout for chances to use Adagio’s forest berries tea, since it’s such a unique blend, and this looked like a great time to use it. With that as my base, I added blackberry and cream teas for complexity. Throw in some extra dried raspberries, strawberries, and marigold petals for color, and you’ve got yourself a fun, sweet tea blend that’s perfect for a party!
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Posted March 22, 2018 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 6 Comments
Say hello to our Where the Wild Things Are dessert: a giant chocolate chip cookie! This is the dessert I made for the Little Mister’s Wild Thing-themed birthday party. As a one-year-old, cookies are easier for him to grasp than cake, and he seems to prefer the flavor. Plus, a cookie is much faster to decorate than a whole cake, which was a big deal to me since I was already making deviled eggs and fruit salad for the party.
I used the Tollhouse giant cookie recipe in conjunction with my own buttercream recipe to make this dessert. The words are made by dipping Trader Joe’s cinnamon schoolhouse cookies in colored icing. I LOVE how it turned out, especially the Wild Thing in the middle. We ate it up, we loved it so! 😉
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Posted March 20, 2018 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Reading Kits / 2 Comments
I don’t get to make reading kits for picture books very often, so when I do, it’s a fun change of pace. It’s a chance to get creative, since I can’t use a lot of the items I typically include in kits (candles, scarves, etc.). I love imagining what a young reader would want to have in a kit, and there are tons of book-themed clothes and toys out there for kids! This Where the Wild Things Are reading kit includes plushies, costumes, blankets, and more—all themed after the long beloved children’s book. Enjoy! 🙂
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Posted March 15, 2018 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 5 Comments
At the Little Mister’s Where the Wild Things Are birthday party, fruit salad was my go-to side dish. It’s always easy to throw together for a party, and it’s a big kid-pleaser too! I assembled mine right before the party without any trouble, and it was a hit. I even had someone ask for the dressing recipe!
At the party I was sure to include the Little Mister’s favorite fruits (apples and grapes) in the salad, but for my blog version of the recipe, I decided to go with a tropical fruit salad. Tropical fruits make me think of the Land of the Wild Things, since so many of them have the whimsical look and juicy flavor of fruit you’d expect to find in an imaginary world. I chose dragon fruit, starfruit, and kiwi for my tropical flavors, then I added clementines and strawberries for some familiarity and extra color. Toss it all in my favorite lime dressing, and you’re set to go!
P.S. Don’t let those awesome, funky dragon fruit skins go to waste—use them as bowls to serve your salad!
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Posted March 8, 2018 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 3 Comments
The Little Mister LOVES pizza, so that’s what we had at his Where the Wild Things Are birthday party last month. There were almost 50 people at the party (we’re a big family), so we ordered out. But if there had been fewer people, I would have made a pizza crown or two! These are really fun for children’s parties, and they come together in a snap. I’m a fan of any party food that makes a lot of servings without a lot of trouble.
This particular recipe comes from a pizza Christmas tree I saw on Pinterest, with a few slight changes. I used pepperoni and fresh basil as fillings, but you can use whatever you want! Just make sure the pieces are small enough that when you seal the pizza ball nothing tears a hole in the dough.
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Posted March 1, 2018 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 4 Comments
Early last month, we celebrated the Little Mister’s 1st birthday at his grandparents house. It was crowded, loud, and fun–everything a children’s party should be–as family came from far and wide to celebrate with us. The party had a Where the Wild Things Are theme, which I picked out an embarrassingly long time ago (aka literally weeks after I brought the Little Mister home from the hospital).
I figure there are only so many of his birthday’s I’ll get to make all the design decisions for, so we’re doing book themed parties for as long as he’ll let me! 😉 I thought it would be fun to make a menu based on all the foods we ate at the party, so that’s kind of what we’re doing this month. However, I’d be lying if I said this was EXACTLY what we ate at the party. That would require things going according to plan…and me cooking for almost 50 people…and to that I say HA.
I wound up making regular deviled eggs for the party, but these precious little egg boats are what WOULD have happened if I hadn’t forgotten to dye the eggs before I started filling them. I was kinda bummed that my vision never made it to the real party, but I whipped up a mini batch this week so I could share them with you all here on the blog. Maybe they’ll get a chance to make a little boy smile at one of YOUR parties! 🙂
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