Harry Potter Party Treats: Honeydukes Express

We just had our New Beginnings program and did a Harry Potter theme (more on that here). After the program we had refreshments off the Honeydukes Cart (the treats cart on the train that takes the students to Hogwarts).  Just thought I'd show you what we did for treats!

We looked up some of the treats on the cart and came up with our own versions of them. Sandy made all the awesome signs for us, and then we all just went through our cupboards and found dishes to use for the treats.

Magic Wands:

Pretzel sticks dipped in melted chocolate and rolled in sprinkles. These were SO yummy. I loved the salty against the sweet along with the crunchiness.  

Chocolate Frogs:

Here's a size reference for you. 

I ordered a frog mold from Amazon to make these. I figure with a little boy in our lives now, a frog mold will be fun (chocolates, jello, ice, etc.), so I just got it for me to have at home (and it really was a decent price). I got the 2lb bag of melting chocolates made for those chocolate fountains and that made 32 frogs. These disappeared fast! 

 Anti-Dementor Chocolates:

Hehe...I just made a connection...a dementor's "kiss" sucks out a person's soul...a chocolate kiss protects it apparently. Bahahaha, love it.  

Jelly Slugs:

Levitating Lemon Drops:

Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans:

Jelly Belly sells actual every flavor beans, but at $2.25 for a small box, we couldn't afford enough for everyone. So we just got the regular assortment of Jelly Bellies. 

Fizzing Whizbees (aka caramels): 

 The recipe for these can be found here. 

Butterbeer:

I didn't get an actual picture of the butter beer. But it pretty much looks like cream soda with whipped cream on top...because that's just about what it is. We used this recipe for our butterbeer. We thought the flavor of the extracts was way too strong, most of the adults didn't like it. But the kids thought it was alright. If we were to make it again I'd just use butterscotch flavoring and not add as much as the recipe calls for. 

Easy Caramels

Ingredients:

• 1 cup butter or margarine
•  2 1/4 cup brown sugar
• Dash salt
• 1 cup light corn syrup
• 1 15oz can Eagle Brand sweetened condensed milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

You will also need a candy thermometer. I also used both parchment and waxed paper in making these.

Directions:

1. Melt butter in heavy saucepan. 
2. Add sugar and salt. Stir thoroughly. 
3. Stir in corn syrup and mix well. 
4. Gradually add sweetened condense milk, stirring constantly. 
5. Cook and stir over medium heat to 244 degrees-firm ball stage (**Read next note!!**)
1. This may need to be adjusted to your specific area. Look up your altitude, find the boiling point (http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/boiling-points-water-altitude-d_1344.html). In Silver City, the altitude is 5895 so the boiling point is 201. 
2. Subtract your boiling point from 212 (in Silver City: 212-201=11). 
3. Subtract the number you just calculated (i.e. 11) from 244 (the original temperature for the firm ball stage). Silver City: 244-11=233. This is your new firm ball stage temperature for your area. Cook the caramel mixture to THIS temperature if you are not at sea level. 
6. Remove from heat; stir in vanilla. 
7. Pour into buttered 9x13 pan. 
1. You can also spray the pan with Pam, place parchment paper inside the pan, then butter the parchment paper. This makes clean up super super easy!!
8. Cool and cut into squares. It may take 8 hours to cool completely. 
9. Caramel squares may be wrapped in wax paper to keep from sticking to each other at this stage.