Karen "Willy" Okonkwo's 25th Birthday Party

 As you all saw last year with my Kare Bear's 24th Birthday Slumber Party, I am obsessed with celebrating my birthday. This year was no different so I decided to go with a fun Willy Wonka theme for my 25th birthday celebration. It is so important to map out your birthday, making sure to ignite all five senses during your party so it is the best experience for your guests. Instead of calling it a Willy Wonka party, I did a spin off of the name and called my 25th Birthday 'Karen "Willy" Okonkwo's 25th Birthday Party'. Much like in the movie, all invitees had to "find" a golden ticket to be officially invited to my birthday. I used a popular Australian graphic designer called Crackers Art to create chocolate candy bar invitations that I turned into candy bar wrappers and golden tickets. They turned out amazing! To make the RSVP process more interactive, I asked each guest on the golden ticket to RSVP by uploading a picture of their golden ticket to whatever social media outlet they use and to tag me in it with the caption " I found the golden ticket!" This made the invitations that much more exclusive!

I decided to host my party in beautiful Miami! To make sure I captured every moment of it, I left a welcome letter for all of my guests when they checked into the hotel we were staying at that asked them to hash-tag any photos taken during the trip with #karens25thbday. I highly recommend making a hash-tag for any event that you are hosting because it is so much fun to look back at all the pictures that all of your guests snapped!

First up on the itinerary was the most fitting event of all: visiting the Chocolate Factory! No Chocolate Factory Tour can be complete without Willy Wonka gear so before the trip I ordered a Willy Wonka costume. On top of the costume, I just had to order candy and have a mini candy buffet so I ordered candy from my favorite candy store: Oh! Nuts. To make the entire experience complete, I had a custom cake made by Divine Delicacies Custom Cakes in Miami. This company can make ANY cake possible and they have catered to every celebrity you can think of from Drake to Pitbull to the Miami Heat stars. I gave them the graphic design of the "Okonkwo Bars" I sent out to my guests and they replicated that image into a delicious vanilla rum cake topped with butter cream frosting and fondant {yum}! Schakolad Chocolate Factory in Miami Beach, FL hosted my Chocolate Factory Tour and it was a blast! All of us received a tour of the Chocolate Factory learning the ins and outs of chocolate. Best of all, we got to make 3 different types of chocolate treats and take it home!

All in all, my 25th Willy Wonka themed birthday party in Miami, FL was so much fun and I can't wait to show you all what I come up with for next year's birthday theme. If you have any questions on how I created any part of this party, please feel free to contact me at partywithak@gmail.com!

The Perfect Holiday Treat!

What do you get when you mixed Rolos, pretzels, and glazed pecans? Rolo pretzel delights! These delicious bite-sized treats are as easy as 1, 2, 3. I stumbled across this mini treat and I just had to see if it was that quick and simple to bake. Below are the steps I took to make these sweet treats, perfect for your next holiday party!

Ingredients

1 bag of pretzels
1 bag of Rolos
1 bag of glazed pecans

 Materials

Aluminum foil or parchment paper




Step 1: Preheat oven to Bake, 350 degrees. 

Step 2: Place the pretzels on a pan covered with aluminum foil. Top each pretzel with one Rolo and when complete, place the pan in the oven for 3-5 minutes or until chocolate has completely melted.



Step 3: After you take the pretzel out of the oven, quickly top it with a glazed pecan or whatever topping you would like.

Bon appétit!

Favorite Superbowl Snack: Puppy Chow

The Superbowl usually brings out the animal in everyone, so why not snack on something fitting for the occasion: Puppy Chow!

Ingredients

1/2 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup butter or margarine
1 cup chocolate chips
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
9 cups original/plain ChexMix square cereal
2 cups powdered sugar

How to Make

Step 1 Measure the nine (9) cups of original/plain Chex Mix square cereal into a large bowl.

Step 2 Melt the chocolate chips, peanut butter and butter or margarine in either a small saucepan on the stove over medium-low heat OR in the microwave for 30 seconds at a time stirring frequently to avoid burning. Remove the saucepan from the heat as soon as the chocolate chips are melted (remove the bowl from the microwave as soon as the chocolate chips are melted). Stir in the vanilla extract.

   

 Step 3 Pour the melted chocolate mixture over the cereal in the large bowl. Make sure the cereal is thoroughly coated with the chocolate mixture.

Step 4 Obtain a 2-gallon resealable ziplock bag and pour the powdered sugar into it. Spoon in the coated cereal into the ziplock bag, seal the top and shake it to thoroughly coat the cereal mixture in powdered sugar.

 

YOU'RE DONE!!

For better taste, store the puppy chow in the refrigerator in a ziplock bag or an airtight container.

*All images were taken from: Savory Sweet Life

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2

Melt the chocolate chips, peanut butter and butter or margarine in a small saucepan on the stove over medium-low heat. Stir the mixture with a wooden spoon constantly to avoid burning. Remove the saucepan from the heat as soon as the chocolate chips are melted. Stir in the vanilla extract.

3

Pour the melted chocolate mixture over the cereal in the large bowl. Stir gently with a wooden spoon to coat.

4

Pour the powdered sugar into a large 2-gallon resealable food storage bag. Spoon in the coated cereal into the storage bag, seal the top and shake to thoroughly coat the cereal mixture in powdered sugar.

5

Spread the coated cereal on a large cookie sheet and allow to cool thoroughly. Or, place the cookie sheet in the freezer for 30 minutes for a cooler, crunchier variation. Store the people puppy chow in the refrigerator in an airtight container.

Read more: How to Make Puppy Chow for People | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/how_2187125_puppy-chow-people.html#ixzz1lTvhs0Bh

Recipe of the Day: Nutter Butter Bars

Nutter Butter Bars

*Makes one 9×13 pan*  
For the Crust:
One package of Nutter Butter cookies
6 Tbsp melted butter

• Step:1 Preheat oven to 325.  
• Step:2 Crush cookies in food processor until you have fine crumbs. 
• Step:3 Combine cookie crumbs with melted butter. 
• Step:4 Press into the bottom of a greased 9×13 pan. Bake for 6 minutes.   

Peanut butter filling:
1 cup peanut butter
2 cups powdered sugar
½ cup softened butter
1 tsp vanilla

• Step:1 Combine all ingredients using a hand mixer. Beat together until smooth. 
• Step:2 Layer mixture on top of cooled crust.  

Chocolate topping:

• Step:1 In your microwave melt 1 ½ cups chocolate chips and if you want even extra peanut butter flavor add a heaping spoonful of peanut butter! Melt for 30 seconds, stir and continue in 30 second intervals until smooth. 
• Step:2 Pour melted mixture on top of your peanut butter layer. Let completed bars sit for at least an hour to harden up. 

Feel free to add a few mini Nutter Butters for garnish on top.

Serve to all your peanut butter and chocolate loving friends! 
Recipe taken from Keep It Sweet blog

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Cake of the Day!

To celebrate the end of Lent and my chocolate dry spell I bring to you the best Cake of the Day. ENJOY!!

What was I thinking giving up chocolate?!

Chocolate, chocolate, and MORE CHOCOLATE!

This tray of chocolate treats looks too good to be true! For all you chocolate lovers, I am sure your taste buds are dying for a chance to taste this amazing display of activating taste from Paula's Edibles. I love the way that with but a little tray, each option of chocolatey treats from Paula's Edibles is fully visible and provides options from milk chocolate, to dark chocolate, to white chocolate. This tray of chocolatey treats from Paula's Edibles would fit in perfect at any occasion and successfully activate your guest's taste buds.


Regretting giving up chocolate for Lent ;-)

Easter Party

To finish off this week's lesson on taste, I want to introduce you to a party that features EVERYTHING we have talked about thus far to activate taste: good food/drinks fitting to your theme, spelling it out for your guests (ie: labels on your food), and dressing up your food. Below, you will find a party from Wants and Wishes. I thought, how fitting to feature an Easter party since Easter is around the corner. This Easter party is one for the books! Let's walk through how Wants and Wishes successfully activates taste for this party.

Right off the bat, Wants and Wishes picked a high and low focal point like I discussed in my blog, How to Say Thank You to a Group with $30. Wants and Wishes did this with the center piece being a creative carrot bowl as the low focal point, and the 'Happy Easter' banner as the high focal point.

Focusing on the food and drinks, where do we begin?! When we think of Easter, we think of chocolate, jelly beans, Easter eggs, and pastel colors like lavender and mellow yellow to name a few. Wants and Wishes activates taste by playing with that theme.

By labeling some of the treats this too was tastefully enticing!

Above all else, Wants and Wishes did an excellent job at dressing up food & drinks!

Wants and Wishes did such a great job of showcasing how to activate taste and if you would like to find out where to get some of the personalized labels and decorations Wants and Wishes used for their party go to Wants and Wishes blog. I hope this week you feel a little bit more comfortable in just one of the ways you can plan a successful event for your guests by activating taste! Our next lesson coming up is how to activate sight!

STAY TUNED!

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