Harry Potter Feast

Having gotten back from New York just

a little while ago for the debut of 

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child,

I thought now would be the perfect time to go 

back in time - with my personal and unconfiscated

time turner, of course, to show you our 

Harry Potter party we did for our Young Single Adults.

The Family Home Evening Committee (those young

adults that plan Monday night activities) asked

me to play Professor McGonagall and do the

sorting hat to separate the kids into their houses.

Little did they know that crazy old me would take

this to a whole new level.  I found some green fabric

that I had bought for curtains and fashioned a

Minerva-style robe using my Harry Potter robe

as a pattern, but extending the sleeves and adding

a silver broach.  I used a black velvet witch hat

I already had and added a feather.  Underneath

I wore a black turtle neck with some jewelry I

thought Minerva would approve of.

Those who follow me on Instagram would have

seen the collection of around 65 wands that I

created using plain chopsticks and bakeable clay,

which were then painted.  I had asked my niece Shaunna

to come over and help me with these, but I got started

without her and had so much fun, I was finished

before she got there.

The church cultural hall was set up with four

rows of tables using plastic tablecloths

for the four houses, with their house flags

hanging over the tables.  I found the house

flags online.  We also strung tons of electric

candles from wires going across the room,

and electric candles were placed in candelabras

on each table.  This view is from the head

table which was set in gold and black.

The tablecloths, plates and napkins for each

of the houses were purchased at Dollar Tree.

To create the head table, this particular cultural hall or

gym had risers, so we placed those up front and 

collected wooden tables from the Relief Society

and Primary rooms for the professors to sit at.

We borrowed the podium from the Primary

room, and I had taken a picture of the podium

prop when we went to the Harry Potter Studio

tour while in London, so I had that blown up

and cut out the owl and taped it on the podium.

Behind the podium hung the Hogwarts banner,

also found online, and in front of the podium we

had a large collection of packages and letters

ready to be delivered by owls.

My husband is always so fun and supportive,

and we had dressed up a few weeks ago and

gone into the Relief Society and Elder's Quorum

classes on Sunday to invite everyone and get

them excited.

My niece Shaunna created tickets for the

Hogwart's Express for everyone.

When they entered the church they were greeted by 

 left to right, Hagrid, Trelawny, Ollivander,

Dumbledore (hubby), McGonagall (me), Rita Skeeter, and

Snape. 

There first stop was here at Ollivanders where inside

this small writing desk were all of the wands.  Of

course, you don't pick the wand, the wand picks you,

so they were asked to give two numbers, the first was

to be between one and five and the second was to

be between one and twelve.  The first number

determined which drawer was opened and the 

second number determined which of the 

twelve wands they were to receive.

Next they came over to me to have the sorting

hat placed on their head.

I had purchased mine from the Wizarding World

of Harry Potter.  They were told that if they came

in costume for their house, they wouldn't be sorted,

but otherwise I sorted them and tried to listen

to their wishes (and to make the groups fairly even.)

Then they were escorted into the Great Hall by

one of the professors or Rita Skeeter.

But first they had to stop at Platform 9 3/4

to have their photos taken.

My great assistant and party planner, my niece Shaunna,

provided a lot of the props.  She made the broom herself

and purchased the brick background at Home Depot.

Then she printed a sign for the platform.  She works

for my husband as his graphics designer, so she always

gets to help out on our big parties.

We had a dessert table filled with goodies I had

made, with the centerpiece being

The Monster Book of Monsters Cake.

Chocolate Fudge with Pop Rocks on top.

(Don't put the Pop Rocks on too soon, they

start popping right away from the moisture 

of the fudge and can become wet and sticky.)

I ordered a chocolate mold to make these.

These were Lindt Truffles sprayed with gold Wilton Color Mist

and wings that I printed off and cut out glued on with a

dab of frosting.

I purchased mostly regular Jelly Bellies, but threw in

a few Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, and

I made a few molded chocolate rats - Scabbers,

you know!

The Cauldron Cakes were domed cupcakes made

from a silicon shaped mold, then cooled and

dipped in melted chocolate and decorated.

Handles of chocolate were attached at the end.

I had a lot of fun making the Monster Book of Monsters Cake

by stacking two 9x13 chocolate cakes, frosting three sides with 

white frosting and then creating grooves and brushing

a little brown food coloring on for the pages.

Cover the back in chocolate frosting, and create

the page marker tongue and gums and teeth

with fondant.  Attach those, then pipe on some

chocolate tendrils.

The book is finished by using a grass tip and covering 

top of the book with "fur".  Mound up a little

frosting and add gumball eyeballs that have 

food coloring "paint" for the slits in the eyes.

Cover the back, sides and between the eyes

with fur. 

Pages from the Daily Prophet were scattered

on the house tables.

Once everyone was all seated the Professors

came from the kitchen carrying the platters

and bowls of food and made a processional

down through the rows of tables.

We followed the menu similar to The Three Broomsticks

feast at Wizarding World of Harry Potter and served

chicken and ribs, roasted vegetables and salads.

And of course we served my version of Butterbeer.

We played the game Who Said it, Dumbledore or Uchtdorf?

( one of our First Presidency in the LDS Church)

and finished with the dessert table.  We had about 70

attend, and there were no treats left on our trolley!

We even had our Stake President (a local ecclesiastical leader)

and his daughter come.  

It was truly a FEAST AT HOGWARTS!

The houses were then used for competitions for

Family Home Evening throughout the month.

How did I like Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

you might ask?  I had read the book/script, but had

kind of forgotten it.  We had the original London

cast, so that was really exciting.  The special effects

were just magical, and you definitely wondered how

they could enter The Ministry of Magic through

a telephone book, or how they could be sucked into

a bookcase.  I don't know that it had to be put into

two plays as that seemed to make some of it drag,

but it was exciting to go at 2:00 and then come back

again at 7:30.  The theater has been transformed and

the carpet and wallpaper were specially made for

Harry Potter.  A grand foyer has beautiful patronum

 on the walls.  They were fun to take pictures in front of.

One last thing - for both parts of the play they handed

out cute little buttons saying, "Keep The Secret".  We

all wondered what that was for because the script was

published in a book and we couldn't necessarily figure

out all of the special effects, but it was kind of fun to

get the pins as little mementos.

Big disappointments - Hermione Granger was nothing

like the Hermione we have come to know and love.

She would have been better playing Umbridge.

She was stern and mean and one dimensional.  Even

Malfoy comes across as nicer than Hermione!!! What??

As we sat at intermission we heard the same discussion

all around us.  So we were unhappy with the way

the character was played or the way the actress

was directed - not sure which.

We also couldn't believe that with all of the attention

to detail there was absolutely not a drop of Butterbeer

or Chocolate Frogs or any other Harry Potter foods

that are sold at The Wizarding World of Harry Potter.

They have a really cool little store but instead of

Harry Potter related foods they had sandwiches 

and candy - nothing themed, with all the high

quality theming going on all over the theater.

We think they really missed it on those two points.

Other than that, we all loved it and that was the

reason we had come to New York, but we snuck

in Frozen - which was absolutely delightful, and

Hamilton, which is great, but not three times greater

than any other Broadway play, despite the fact that

you will pay three times the price - that is if you

don't pay more! (Although I do have friends with

season tickets in SLC who payed a normal price -

the rest of us are just at the mercy of those who

want to and can make a killing on reselling their

tickets.)  But in the end I figured I wanted to see

Hamilton - so I payed the price - choke, choke!!

I hope you had a fun peek into our Wizarding

World of Harry Potter and how we feasted

both in New York and for a party.

I am taking this party to

Tablescapes Thursday

Share Your Cup Thursday

Dishing It and Digging It