This last weekend we had a fun filled Mardi Gras theme party for friends of ours that are moving to New Orleans. Of course we were having cupcakes, but it was also exciting to plan our food menu as we prepared New Orleans inspired food like Jambalaya, Cajun shrimp, Po’ boy sandwiches, and corn bread. Purple, yellow, and green were colors of inspiration that were easy to find when buying decorations for the party. Most of my decorations came from Oriental Trading and Mardi Gras Outlet, including the masks and Hurricane cups. We didn’t drink real Hurricanes, just made sparkling punch for everyone and served in a large punch bowl.
After some Mardi Gras research I wanted to produce a cupcake version of a King Cake. This colorful and tasty bread caught my eye for several reasons, but the cinnamon stood out as something that would be fun for a cupcake recipe. When I think cinnamon and yeast, I think cinnamon buns. I wanted to make this quick and easy since I was already making a lot of food and make it appealing to the kids at our party. I decided to use Pillsbury cinnamon rolls. It was easy as I just put them in the cupcake liners, baked and then frosted them. (Sorry to lose the tradition but I didn’t have any plastic babies on hand so I did leave it out.) I did make my own cream cheese frosting, added purple, yellow and green food coloring and topped it off with matching colored sugar.
In searching for a fun and decorative cupcake stand for the Lemon Bar cupcakes, I decided to modify a Wilton Halloween stand. I removed the haunted house topper from the Halloween stand and what was left was a black cupcake stand. I now had room for the Mardi Gras mask on the cupcake stand. Some streamers were added and my Mardi Gras cupcake stand was complete.
Not that we needed any more sugar for our party, but I also made marshmallow pops. I used green and purple melted candies to decorate the tips of the marshmallows. Sprinkles were added and it only took about 15 minutes to complete. I found a fun way to stand up and cool the marshmallow pops by using the slots in a baby bottle washer.
One of my favorite ideas for this Mardi Gras party was the crawdad sign holders. These crawdads came with our Oriental Trading party supplies and the claws worked perfectly to hold the little signs.
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The marshmallow pops look great…I’m off to check out the lemon cupcakes…yum!
~Kim
.-= Kim @ Forever Wherever´s last blog .. =-.