{ Game Of Thrones Party }

The time has finally arrived! Game of Thrones is here!!!

We, sadly, cannot watch it yet. We 'cut the cord' with our cable company last year. We will be buying the season on Amazon once it's complete and we can't wait!

This party was for Bean's 20th Birthday back in April. I saved it to post during the GoT season though. This would make a great finale party! For the most part, this is very simple too, so you can focus on the goings ons of Westeros instead.

Here's the low down:

Decor:

A lot of the decorations Bean already had. He's a huge history buff, so they worked along with the theme very well.

Dragon Eggs:

I made the dragon eggs from these Easter decorations I found on sale.

A bit of paint in the egg colors and...

These are a sequin and net covered styrofoam, so if you find this type, paint slowly and lightly. It'll take a few coats. If you paint too fast, the styrofoam will start to dissolve and your eggs will wither!

Around Easter you can find large eggs of many types. Even if your party isn't for months, buy them ahead so you'll have them!

The *Mini* Iron Throne:

Since I had purchased a huge amount of cocktail swords for the cheeses, I decided to make an Iron Throne decoration. I used items on hand to make it. The base is soap boxes, then a bit of cardboard for the arms. Cover in cocktail swords (many whole, some broken) and spray paint. It's not perfect, but it's recognizable and fun. I kept it & my Funko Tyrion now sits upon it.

Wine Bottle Candle Holders:

I used wine bottles a friend gave me and dripped wax all down the fronts. Then I just broke the candles until the fit the opening and lit.

The crown in the top wine bottle photo is a Christmas ornament. The one above is a simple toy crown from the Dollar Tree that I painted in an aged gold.

Other decorations:

The Armillary Sphere I usually have on my Potter selves. The votives here came from the Dollar Tree as did the silver platters you will see in this photo (and others).

Bean got this cool sword display a few years back on vacation- in Gatlinburg, oddly. You'll notice the three dragons here. I also used fruit and nuts as double duty- for decorations and for food.

I made some bottled Imp's Delight. It's bottles of Perrier.

Food:

For the food, I mostly stayed with what I thought would be eaten in Westeros. Ham, breads, fruits, nuts, crackers, cheeses. I did add some other heres and theres though, of course.

Cheese tray, with nuts, cheeses, and bread

Wild Boar, of course

Wild Boar

Honeycakes were large biscuits served with honey

A Bowl of Brown. If it really tasted this good, the poor people of Westeros would not be so skinny.
It was made from a packet of chocolate pudding, a tub of Cool Whip, and crushed Oreos.

The 'birthday cake' of the night was Sansa's Lemon Cakes

Lanister Gold Spread can be found here. 1, 2, 3 Cheese ball.

Onion Knight dip was just that- Onion Dip (and veggies)

No alcohol here, just grape juice

Again, no alcohol, so it's apple juice and 7-Up.

You could, of course, use alcohol for an adult party. Tyrion would approve.

Take Homes:

Before the party, I had everyone declare a house. From that I made sigil wine glasses using my Silhouette cutter & etching cream.

These were the glasses everyone used for the night as well as their take home gift. I also used glass plates for the evening instead of paper to add to the element.

The cool stein seen here was a Christmas gift to Bean from Bakingdom and her hubs. They picked it up in Germany when they were stationed in Europe.

So, that's it!  Hope you enjoyed this trip to King's Landing.

If you have any questions, just leave me a comment.

Party breakdown:
Party for 8

Decorations:

Glasses: $8 (plus etching)
Silver Trays: $4
Dragon Eggs: $4 (plus paint)
Sword cocktail sticks (for 250) $6
Votive Cups: $3
Candles (votive and taper): $4
Tiara: $1 (plus paint)


Food:

Apples: $4
Cupcakes, including wrappers: $6
Cheeses: $6
Breads: $4
Ham: $6 (Easter sale)
Biscuits: $2
Honey: already on hand
Nuts: already on hand
Apple Juice: $3
7Up 2 Liter: $1 (sale)
Grape Juice: $4
Veggies: $4
Dip: $2 (store brand)
Crackers: $4 (store brands)
Bowl of Brown: $6
Perrier: $2

Total $84

{ Settlers of Catan Party }

In 6th grade, Bean's teacher had "Gamer Lunches" as rewards for good behavior, good grades, etc. If you were invited to Gamer Lunch, you got to have lunch with her and play games instead of eating in the cafeteria with everyone else. These were tabletop games, not video games. His favorite game he played there was Settlers of Catan. He talked about that game for years. Finally, 5 years later, Christmas 2014 I purchased it for him. Hey, it is an expensive board game! Now he has all the major expansions and player extensions. His friends will come over and they will gather around the table and play Catan for hours.

This year for his 19th birthday party, he decided to go with the Catan theme.While I've only played it a couple times, I know several things about it. He helped fill in some of the gaps and we ended up with an awesome party.

I will give you a cost breakdown for the party at the end of the post.

Here's what I did.

I set the tablescape up with these decorations. Sandcastle molds painted in a gray primer, black iron candleholders with candles, decorative rocks, and LED lanterns.


For the food:

Wood- Pretzel rods

Gold- Rolos

Sheep- White Cheddar popcorn

Rocks- Meatballs

Brick- Fun size candy bars

Wheat- Sliced french bread

Sea- Blue Hawaiian Punch, 7-Up, vanilla ice cream

And Settlers of Pizza.

This is made with a 3" hexagon cookie cutter.

The Catan toppings are:

Wheat- cheddar and mozzarella cheeses
Forest- Green peppers
Sheep- Green peppers and onion
Rock- Italian sausage
Brick- pepperoni

I made etched steins for everyone to take home. They pulled resource cards to see which stein they got. If they pulled wheat, they got one with the wheat design.

I made these with my Silhouette cutter, etching cream, and clipart from free clipart sites.

Finally, the cake. Now, I'm no professional cake decorator, but he liked it!

And of course, this party wouldn't be complete without the playing of The Settlers of Catan.


Party Cost Breakdown- Party of 8:

All of the decorations and the steins came from the Dollar Tree, whoop whoop! Thank you $1 store!

Decorations:
Rocks (2 packs)
Candleholders (2)
Candles (2)
Sandcastle molds (3)
Plastic Table cloths (2)
LED lanterns (2)
Total: $13

Steins (8), take home gifts:
Total: $8

Food:
Meatballs -3.99 (on sale, normally $7.99)
Spaghetti sauce for meatballs- $1.79
French Bread- .99
Popcorn- $1
Rolos- $3.50
Funsize Candy Bars- $1.50 x 3= $4.50
Hawaiian Punch- $1.99
7-Up- $1 (store brand)
Pizza Crust (2- I also made a plain pizza)- $.59 x2= $1.18
Green Pepper & Onion- $1.00
Pepperoni- $3
Sausage- $2
Cheeses- $4
Pizza Sauce- 1.29
Cake- $10
Total: $39.23

Items on hand- spray paint, etching cream, Silhouette cutter, cardstock for food name tags, printer

Total party cost: $62.23

Heyyyyyyy... not bad for an epic night in Catan, eh?

Happy Birthday to my Bean Boy once again!



See all my party plans here.

{ Profiteroles with Butterbeer Sauce }

Do you know what yesterday was? Well, it was Ron Weasley's 36th Birthday! In honor of him, I decided to whip up a treat. What could be more fitting of Ron than for me to post it a day late?

Ron is one of my favorite characters. I mean, I have a LOT of favorites, but Ron ranks right up there in the top, top. He's probably my 2nd favorite right after Luna. The thing I love about Ron is how fabulously flawed he is. Jo can really write her some fantastic true to life people. Ron is a good friend, but he's also very jealous, he's a slacker, but he can do amazing things when he puts his mind to it, Ron needs attention, Ron pouts, Ron is caring, Ron is a good son, Ron can be a brat. I love him.

Rupert Grint is perfection as Ron.

My favorite movie is quite controversial: Half Blood Prince. HBP is famously panned as being the least accurate movie. I can't help that I love it. It has great humor, it's a lot of fun but with very serious moments, and I enjoy it tremendously. My favorite scene in all the Potter movies is this one- starring, you guessed it- Ron.

He eats a box full of candy with a very strong love potion in them. I love the way Rupert Grint plays this scene. I've seen it 100 times, but I still laugh every time.

In HBP Hermione, Harry, Neville, and Ginny are all invited to go to the Slug Club dinner party with Professor Slughorn. Ron is not invited. Not only is Ron not invited, Slughorn can never even get his name right. At the party, Slughorn serves a lovely dessert: Profiteroles.

Since my buddy Ron didn't get to have any- and let's be honest, he'd of loved to, I made him some for his birthday. Mine have a Butterbeer sauce. I win, Slughorn. I win.

Profiterole is just a fancy name for your basic cream puff. They are made from a Pâte à Choux pastry. I know that sound intimidating, but Pâte à Choux is easy. SO easy. Fancy names are scary, but this stuff is easy peasy.

You can fill your profiteroles with a variety of things like your basic whipped cream, a pastry cream, custard, ice cream etc. You can even fill them with jam. For these, I filled them with vanilla pudding. Yes, from a box mix.  You can make your own if you'd like though!

The Butterbeer sauce is also very easy to make. You basically just cook and stir. Anyone can do that, right?

When you are finished you will have a most impressive looking dessert that really wasn't hard at all! Your friends and family don't need to know that (cue the 80's Rice Krispy Treat commercial).

Happy Birthday, Ron! Have a profiterole tower or two!

Tina

See all my Harry Potter posts here, including crafts, recipes, travel tips for the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, and two massive parties.

Profiteroles with Butterbeer Sauce

by Tina @ Sugar Bean Bakers

1 recipe Pâte à Choux- prepared and baked as instructed here

2 boxes Instant Vanilla Pudding prepared as stated on boxes, cooled and thickened

1 recipe Butterbeer Sauce (below)

After your cream puff pastry has fully cooled, use a spare icing tip (or a knife) and carefully poke a hole in the bottom of each puff.

Using a pastry bag fitting with an injector tip and filled with your pudding, inject each puff with pudding until full.

Drizzle with slightly warm Butterbeer Sauce and serve. Great with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.

Fill only puffs you intend to eat at that time. Save the rest of the shells in an airtight container. They will keep for a few days. You can re-crisp these if they become soft by baking for about 5 minutes on 350 F. 

Butterbeer Sauce

by Tina @ Sugar Bean Bakers

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter

1 cup packed brown sugar

1/4 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 tablespoons light corn syrup

In a small sauce pan, melt butter over medium heat. Add in milk, brown sugar and corn syrup. Cook until thickened, but do not allow to boil. Remove from heat, add vanilla. Allow to cool until warm. Serve warm. Store in refrigerator for  up to one week.