All the food at "A Night at Le Cirque des
Rêves" was black (read: chocolate), white, and/or red. We had strawberries, chocolate and strawberry Twizzlers, chips and salsa, and more! I also tried out a few Pinterest-inspired treat ideas (specifically chocolate mice, cupcakes with toppers, molded sugar cubes, and some popcorn and animal crackers movie snacks) for the party, which I'll detail below.
Party Treat #1: Chocolate Mice
As
he continues to walk around the circus, Bailey’s path leads back to the
courtyard. He stops briefly to watch the sparkling bonfire and then at a
vendor to purchase a bag of chocolates to make up for his mostly
uneaten dinner. The chocolates are shaped like mice, with almond ears
and licorice tails. He eats two immediately and puts the rest of the bag
in the pocket of his coat, hoping they will not melt.
Some of the best food items mentioned in
The Night Circus are the chocolate mice, and there are all sorts of recipes for making your own. The one I used results in more of a cookie, and it's originally a Christmas recipe, but judge for yourselves how awesome the finished results are!
Here's the recipe:
- 2/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips (I thought about subbing in milk chocolate, but chickened out, not wanting the project to become a Pinterest fail - next time I'll definitely pull a switcheroo, since I prefer milk chocolate to semisweet)
- 2 cups chocolate wafer crumbs, divided (I originally wanted chocolate Nilla wafers, but I couldn't find them anywhere, so instead I used Oreo cookies, scraped free of icing)
- 1/3 cup sour cream
- 1/4 cup sliced almonds
- 18 pieces black shoestring licorice (2 inches each) (I actually found this at Target in the cake-decorating section, but Walmart has it, too - it was pricier than I wanted, but I'm glad I caved - the little tails MADE the mice, seriously)
- 36 red nonpareils (I opted to leave these out)
Step One: In a microwave, melt chocolate chips; stir until
smooth. Stir in 1 cup crumbs and sour cream. Cover and refrigerate for 1
hour or until easy to handle.
Step Two: For each mouse, roll about 1 tablespoon
chocolate mixture into a ball, tapering one end to resemble a mouse.
Roll in remaining chocolate crumbs to coat. Position almond slices for ears and licorice pieces for tails.
Yield: 1-1/2 dozen.
The process was as easy as it seems, and the mice were a hit. Because I wasn't sure if 18 mice would be enough, I increased the recipe to yield more (I think I halved it and added that to the total, yielding 27-28, if that makes sense). Anyway, I didn't have a single chocolate mouse leftover. Yup, they were all gobbled up!
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| Ready to decorate! |
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| All the scraped-out Oreo icing! |
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| Awwwwww. |
I nestled the little chocolate mice in extra baking cups I had after making cupcakes - that way I could avoid another large serving platter and they were mess-free to serve.
Party Treat #2: Cupcakes with Silhouette Toppers
After I pinned this idea of silhouette cupcake toppers on my then-private
planning board, my mom informed me that her
Cricut machine did indeed have an elephant pattern! I decided to use black cardstock, which turned out nicely. And I discovered black-and-white striped baking cups in a Michaels deals section for only $1.50! After buying some red crystal sprinkles, I was ready to whip up some themed cupcakes! Since my party was at my brother's house (which is located on the other side of D.C., a 40-minute drive away), I elected to ice the cupcakes there. It made my drive over a little less stressful, and I was able to enlist my friend Kathryn's help!
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| Ready to travel! |
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| I made a full two-dozen cupcakes |
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| Rushing to finish! |
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| The chocolate mice and cupcakes on display! |
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| Detail shot of yummy finished cupcake! |
Party Treat #3: Molded Sugar Cubes
Another idea I saw that I wanted to try out was molded sugar - the recipe seemed simple enough: take sugar, add water until the mixture is the consistency of wet sand, then press into mold. While the original inspiration (at left) had skull-shaped cubes, I didn't think they were quite on theme for "A Night at Le Cirque des
Rêves." However, during one of my thrift store visits, I found the PERFECT ice tray to use -
this star cubes tray from IKEA! It had a deeper setting than the skull tray, so my resulting sugar cubes were somewhat larger.
While the process was simple enough, I still learned a few tips and tricks to this project, which I'd like to share:
Tip #1: When using irregular molds for your sugar cubes (i.e. a star shape with multiple narrow, sharp angles), it's best to create a custom presser to pack the sugar in (see pics below). Your finger is just not the tool needed here.
Tip #2: Speaking of fingers, sugar particles are a lot like sand, meaning they are scratchy. I was surprised to find little cuts and roughed up cuticles on my fingers in the days following the party, and I've concluded that it had to have been the sugar (I mixed the water and sugar together by hand, scrunching the mixture the way one does wet sand). Strange side effect, but one to be wary of nevertheless!
Tip #3: Leftover sugar cubes can be used in your morning coffee! Since the cubes turned out to be a bit on the larger side, a few party-goers abstained - and I had made plenty to go around!
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| My little custom presser made from cardboard and duct tape! |
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| A perfect-enough fit! |
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| Filled tray, with some leftover water/sugar mixture in the bowl. |
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| Finished products! I loved how sharply defined they were - I let them dry and harden overnight before packing them up. |
Party Treats #4 and #5: Animal Cracker Snack Bags and Popcorn Cups
As part of the fun, I Netflixed
The Greatest Show on Earth, a circus movie from 1952 (it had Charlton Heston in it!). To be honest, we didn't really follow the storyline too well, and it was super long, so no one braved it to the end (we started it a little late in the evening). But, it had awesome scenes of real circus performers from the 50's, which we all enjoyed!
To accompany the movie, I made these:
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| Circus Animal Crackers! (I found the fabric at Hobby Lobby) |
I got the idea on
Pinterest, of course! I found the
clipart online through Google Image Search, and I printed it out onto sticker paper. I paired the stickers with black cardstock and baker's twine to create my bag toppers, and I used
pretzel bags for a unique shape. Use whatever bag you purchase as a template for the width of your toppers - and be sure to leave room for the staples (both on the topper and in regards to filling the bag with treats)!
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| Supplies at the ready! |
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| I wrapped the baker's twine around the front, then taped it down |
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| The sticker hides the tape |
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| See? |
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To give a sense of how many animal crackers I used -
these were the leftovers after making 25 snack bags |
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After filling the bag with animal crackers, I
attached the topper using a stapler, much the
same as I did with my Testudo Treats |
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| I stored them in Ziploc bags to keep them from getting stale |
I also made popcorn cups to accompany the bags - but I didn't get any pictures of those! So, I'll fill in with my inspiration pic (top left corner image):
And the images of my materials:
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| My themed popcorn of choice ;) |
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| Black Paper Cups |
I created a label for the cups using the following elements, which I printed on sticker paper. Since the elephant silhouette wasn't a GIF (meaning it had a white background around it, so I couldn't combine the elements as easily as I wanted to in Word), I simply ran the paper through the printer twice - the first time to get the background image, the second time to layer the silhouette over top!
Aaaaand that's all, folks! Thanks for making it to the end of my rather lengthy, slightly picture-heavy foodie post! :)
