Josh's Birthday Hang Out - the food

The party! was awesome but I love love making food for parties as much as the party!

The cake:
Milk chocolate cake iced in spiked caramel frosting

milk chocolate cake with my favorite airy whipped caramel frosting.

   -I edited it a little by doubling the recipe, adding in 1 cup powdered sugar & 2 tsp spiced rum

Topped the cake with some shards of cocoa nib brittle

I made a trio of homemade hummus and they all turned out to be super tasty. Paired with some cut carrots & naan. The colors of them all and the textures were perfect! They looked so fancy! Bonus- we get to eat all the leftover hummus for lunch the rest of the week. 

Tahini Hummus:

15 oz can of chickpeas; drained, reserve 1 tbs liquid

1 clove garlic

1 tbs lemon juice

1/4 cup tahini

2 tbs olive oil

paprika

sea salt

1   in a food processor combine chickpeas, liquid, garlic, lemon juice, tahini. 

2   scrape down the sides and drizzle in olive oil, pinch of paprika, pinch of salt

3   process until smooth, serve drizzled with olive oil and salt

Agave Sriracha Humus:

2 15 oz cans of chickpeas; drained and rinsed

1/4 cup sriracha

1/4 cup olive oil

2 tbs agave or honey

2 cloves garlic

1/2 tsp salt

3 tbs cold water

1   in a food processor combine chickpeas and garlic until chunky

2   scrape down sides and add sriracha, oil, agave, and salt process

3   drizzle in olive oil and process until smooth

roasted beet hummus:

1 small beet; roasted in oven until easily pierced with fork

15 oz can of chickpeas; drained and rinsed

1/2 lemon; juiced

2 cloves garlic

1/4 cup tahini

1/4 cup olive oil

1   cut beet into large chunks. in a food processor process beet until chunky

2   add in chickpeas, lemon juice, garlic, tahini and process

3   scrape down sides, drizzle in olive oil and process until smooth

spinach spanakopita

large meat, cheese, crackers plate with olives & spicy pickled vegetable

I've been dying to make these cute little peppermints. Joshua loves loves Junior mints and these are those inside out. They make tons so a party was finally the time to make them.

chocolate peppermints:

1 lb powdered sugar

4 oz cream cheese

1/4 tsp peppermint extract

6 oz dark chocolate

1   beat the cream cheese and gradually add in the powdered sugar

2    mix in the peppermint extract

3    the mixture should be soft but not sticky, if it is too sticky add in 1/4 cup more powdered sugar until you can roll it into balls in your hand. Then place parchment paper on a baking sheet and in batches of 6-8 roll the mixture into small balls. Then using the back of a tsp, dip it in powdered sugar to avoid sticking, press the back of the tsp on top of the balls and make a indent. Repeat until the mixture is all used.

4   place in fridge for half hour. in the meantime in a double broiler melt the chocolate and place in an icing bag.

5   squeeze chocolate into the indent of each peppermint and then place back in fridge until chocolate dries. store in fridge with layers of parchment paper separating each layer of peppermints

herb & parmesan soft pretzels

and I hung our hanging fruit basket over the table to hold the mustard bowl and pretzels for fun. We don't have a very big table so this saved space and made the food table more dimensional and fun.