Celebrate Harry Potter’s birthday with an easy lunchtime party

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Pillow from Whimsic Alley. It’s my faaaaavorite.
Hello, Muggle friends! Today is Harry Potter’s birthday, and in honor of my long-time obsession my kid and I decided to throw a birthday party. Since we decided this relatively last minute, it needed to be quick and easy.

We decided our party would be best suited for lunch, because a) we like lunch a lot and b) lunch is easier than dinner. We gave our party a trial run the day before to test the recipes, and are having our cake today since it’s officially the day.

The menu

Mini Pumpkin Pie Croissants
Butterbeer
Weasley sweater inspired Gryffindor cake

The recipes

I found the pumpkin croissants right here.

Ingredients:

  • 1 tube of refrigerated crescent rolls
  • 1 cup canned pumpkin
  • 1/2 block of cream cheese
  • 1-2 tablespoons pumpkin pie spice
  • 3-4 tablespoons of sugar

How you do it:

  1. Roll each crescent roll out and cut in two, lengthwise.
  2. Beat together cream cheese and canned pumpkin
  3. Each croissant will get a large tablespoon of pumpkin pie filling (mixture from step #2)
  4. Fill ’em up. Roll ’em up.
  5. Mix 4 tablespoons of sugar and 1 tablespoon of pumpkin pie spice and roll each pumpkin pie croissant in the mixture (note: I actually just mixed 3 tablespoons of sugar, 3 tablespoons of pumpkin pie spice, and sprinkled it on top)
  6. Bake at 375º for 15-18 minutes.
  7. Enjoy!

Butterbeer

I wanted this to be blindingly easy, so I used this recipe. It’s one step! Forewarning: it IS easy, but it’s also not especially tasty. My son isn’t a fan of carbonated drinks, so we each just had a little bit.

Ingredients:

  • 8oz ginger ale or cream soda
  • 2-3 tablespoons of butterscotch syrup

How you do it:

  1. Mix in a tall glass and serve over ice

The cake

I planned to make a chocolate cake but accidentally bought yellow instead. I was ready to take it back and exchange when my son said that yellow cake would be like butterbeer cake, so we rolled with it. I colored cream cheese frosting yellow and crimson (lots of red and a little bit of green) with food coloring, decorated the cake with stripes, and put a large white G on top of it à la Molly Weasley’s infamous sweaters.

And there you have it — mischief managed! For bonus fun we listened to the John Williams station on Pandora, but that’s not mandatory.

Comments on Celebrate Harry Potter’s birthday with an easy lunchtime party

    • As a rabid fan, I have been slooooowwwwwlllllyyyyy infiltrating my son’s life with all things HP since he was born. I started reading the books out loud to him about two months ago, and we’re in book 3 now and he’s 100% in it — we just found out who Scabbers is, and dude stayed up until 10pm last night, still asking “Just…one..more..chapter” before I was like “BED TIME FOR REAL.”

      Also, the plates: ha! I love them. We got half of them from my husband’s grandmother, and a whole bunch more from different Goodwills. I also kind of side-eye people who sell these online for tons of $$$ because I’ve seen them in thrift stores across the US for $2 for a huge matching stack.

  1. A friend reminded me today is HP’s birthday…. this is also my due date and the day I really want Turtle to come on out just to bug my mom….
    How AWESOME would it be if she came today??!! I already have planned out her 11th birthday party with an actual party and a trip to Florida (if CA hasn’t gotten their butts in gear)… 11 years isn’t to early to plan right? RIGHT??!! lol

    so all you lovers of the wizarding world, send me you prayers/thoughts/potions to get this baby out in less than 13 1/2 hours!!

      • haha thanks!
        I think CA over Florida will just depend on who has the better park, my finances, and if my family wants to come too (considering they all live in Florida). also we spent our honeymoon in Florida and I made the hubs go to Harry Potter world ;P but either way it WILL happen!

    • 11 years is definitely not too early to plan that birthday-cation.

      Or if it is, then so is 12-13 years…which is how long I will end up planning our first little one’s 11th birthday 😛

      Also, if you haven’t been, WWHP is AMAZING. I cried all the tears. It’s overwhelming. Especially Ollivanders. And the castle. And, well, all of it. I want to go back once they’ve built Diagon Alley. Because duh.

      • hahaha, glad I’m not the only one!
        and I have been there for my honeymoon… I miss the butterbeer….

        also it does not look like Turtle wants to be a July baby unless I have to have an emergency c-section in the next hour and half (for 9:45pm) – 3 hours and 40 mins… this makes me a sadpanda lol

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