Harry Potter Murder Mystery Party: The Food

A good party is all about the food (and company, of course!).  Fortunately, when hosting a Harry Potter party there is SO MUCH fun, creative and delicious, on theme, appetizers and desserts to choose from. If we lived in the States I would have loved to be even more creative! I would have loved to make pumpkin pasties, chocolate shaped frogs and all the fun potion-cocktails. For being in China, I think things came out pretty great though! The best desserts were the butter beer, butter beer cupcakes and cockroach clusters, which were all made by my beautiful & talented friend, Kate. Thank you Kate!

This butter beer was fantastic. It was so warm and rich. We topped it with whipped cream, cinnamon and the leftover carmel from the butter beer cupcakes. The beer mugs were a great party favor (make sure people remember to take them home--we now have 14 beer mugs in our cupboard) that I bought at the store for $1.50. These would be great for any party, honestly. Check the dollar store before your next party. 

I tied red ribbon around the mugs and attached Harry Potter labels for decoration! 

Butter Beer Lables found here from Colleen at Just Sweet and Simple blog. 

Butter Beer Recipe here
We did number 5.

These babies were SUPER sweet but still delicious. I would suggest serving the butter beer before dinner and the cupcakes after! After everyone had their huge mug of rich butter beer, these cupcakes were just too much. On their own, they would be great!

Butter Beer Cupcakes recipe found here at Easybaked.net

Cupcake toppers found here from Colleen at Just Sweet and Simple blog. 

These cockroach clusters were awesome! They reminded me of pralines but chocolate! Delish.

Cockroach clusters recipe here
We didn't use the peanut butter chips and instead used all chocolate. 

All food lables found here--From Colleen at Just Sweet and Simple Blog

I ordered the black candelabras online for $3. They were perfect to set the scene. If you're in China, try taobao next time you have a party! They have everything! If you're in the States, get creative, check the dollar store, check local thrift stores and ebay for cheap party supplies!

I think these gummies were actually the octopus shaped gummies, but hey, with 8 legs, they worked as spiders. 

I used an old strawberry container for the wretched worms holder. I was going for the worms in a cage look.

We bought these clear suckers with fruit inside and drew a black dot on the front of the package to make them look like Goblin eyes. You can get creative and think outside the box when planning for theme parties.

These snitch truffles were super easy to make! All you need is Ferrero Rochers, white paper cut into wings and tape. Easy peasy. I would have loved to make a huge tray of them but Ferrero Rochers are expensive here, as they are in most countries I assume.

I used pink marshmallows for the Cauldron creams and placed them in a black tea pot.

I used dried dates, since they looked like black rocks, as the Rock Cakes and random cookies as the moon stone cookies. If you're in the States, with access to all of the ingredients, there are tons of recipes for Harry Potter party good online. For Moon Stone Cookies recipe go here. 

While guests arrived and were talking we had tons of appetizers, desserts and finger foods for them to snack on. After everyone arrived and had their fill of the starters we moved into the dining room for a course meal. We started with salad as the first course, opened the wine for the second and moved on to Spaghetti for the third. Then, we moved back into the living room for dessert and butter beer.  

I really want to thank Colleen from the Just Sweet and Simple blog. She has posted EVERYTHING you could possibly need for a Harry Potter Party or Harry Potter Murder Mystery party, including food labels, the murder mystery script, DIY's and every printable imaginable. This party would not have been possible without her blog! Check it out! She's a pro at throwing parties and her website is full of tips, tricks and DIY's.