Party Planning

A few weeks ago, I knew my mother-in-law's 60th birthday was coming up and I wanted to do something special for both her and my father-in-law who turned 60 about a month earlier. As I pondered it, I thought a birthday party would be nice, because Marilyn often does this for us and we have rarely, if ever returned the favor. Hence, I decided this year we would throw them a big party for a big birthday :-) I'm not really a big party organizer, but I decided to give it a shot. And as it turns out, my extended 3 AM use of Pinterest came in quite handy, since party decor and food are a common theme on that site.

As with many of my good ideas, the bulk of it came to me all at once, and got planned out in my head in about in hour. Then I wrote everything down in my favorite recording place: the lowly steno pad. So good for so many things! Luckily, I had two lovely friends to help me put all my plans into action :-)

For the non-food aspect of the party (which is how I see most things: food-related and non-food-related), we had a number of things.

• We had a great Pandora playlist going of 50s and 60s country based on the likes of Gene Autry and co (Jay's favorite style of music)
• Our 7-year-old friend Josie made a fantastic poster with a giant 60 for people to sign. 
• Some friends made a great poster with pop culture from the years Jay and Marilyn were in high school
• Notebooks with kind thoughts from both of their workplaces
• A poster of sayings from Jay's hometown, Pigeon, MI. (Examples: "You ain't wrong." "You're just a dog, you don't have a face." "It's awful flat outside.") No one else knows what they mean, but Jay thinks they're hilarious. 

For sustenance, we had the following: 

• a ham set out for people to cut slices and make sandwiches with
• cream cheese carved into the shape of a 60 and covered with jalapeno jelly, to eat with crackers (great appetizer that Marilyn loves) 
• spiced nuts
• olives
• soft pretzel bites and cheese dip, cinnamon cream cheese dip, and mustard
• cups with veggies and dill dip
• Tex-Mex popcorn and Tuscan popcorn (Jay's Sunday night meal)
• Dove chocolates (Marilyn's favorite)
• German Chocolate jumbo cupcakes (for Jay)
• Carrot cake jumbo cupcakes (for Marilyn) 

While this may not have been the most elegant combination of food, I knew it was things they would like, and they did! It was great fun. While the party wasn't a surprise, the guest list, displays, and food were a surprise, so that was fun. A good time was had by all. 

Thankfully, the cupcakes were over really well, so I will share their yumminess with you now. :-) 

As is my new obsession, they were jumbo cupcakes, just for the joy of a big cupcake! My favorites were the carrot cake ones. (I probably liked those better because I forgot to add the vanilla in the German Chocolate ones! :-)) I chose this recipe because a reviewer said they tried 5 different carrot cake recipes for a wedding and this was their favorite :-) It has pineapple in it, which keeps it nice and moist. And my decision to add caramel drizzled over the top of the cream cheese frosting was not the wrong decision :-) As usual, the recipe came from Allrecipes.com.

Carrot Cake Cupcakes
Yield: 12 jumbo cupcakes

• 3 eggs
• 3/4 cup buttermilk
• 3/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups all-purpose 
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 cups shredded carrots
• 1 cup flaked coconut
• 1 (8 ounce) can crushed pineapple with juice

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour jumbo muffin tins
2. In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Set aside.
3. In a large bowl, combine eggs, buttermilk, oil, sugar and vanilla. Mix well. Add flour mixture and mix well.
4. In a medium bowl, combine shredded carrots, coconut, and pineapple.
5. Using a large wooden spoon or a very heavy whisk, add carrot mixture to batter and fold in well.
6. Fill muffin tins about 1/2 full, dividing batter evenly between all 12 cups. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 1 hour. Check with toothpick.

Frosting: 

8 oz. cream cheese, softened

1/2 c. butter, softened

1 t. almond extract

1 t. vanilla

3 1/2 c. powdered sugar

1. Mix all ingredients together with a hand mixer. Spread or pipe onto cupcakes. 

Topping: 

3/4 c. chopped pecans

Caramel sauce, drizzled over the top. 

1. Drizzle frosted cupcakes with 1-2 t. caramel sauce. Sprinkle 1 T. chopped pecans on top.