The {Grad} Party Planning Committee on Sweets

For Alyssa's grad party, since we outsourced the location to a nearby country club, we had to use the country’s club in house caterer for the food selection.

However, Heather, the coordinator I worked with said that we could bring in our own cupcakes or cake. From that, I extrapolated that we could also bring in anything with a high sugar content... like cookies and candy. I didn't think that Heather would mind but I didn't ask either. What's that adage? It's better to ask forgiveness than permission?

As it turned out, no one at the country club batted an eyelash at the expansion of sugar treats beyond cupcakes/cake. Omar, the man who appeared to be in charge of everything at the country club on Saturday saw the dessert display, nodded his head, and remarked that everything looked really good. What was I worried about?

Since Alyssa will be attending Ohio State whose nickname is the Buckeyes, I knew that I wanted to incorporate buckeyes into the dessert plan. Real buckeyes are the nuts of a buckeye tree. The name, according to online resources I consulted, is thought to be derived from its resemblance to the eye of a deer. Hence "Buck-eye." Buckeyes resemble chestnuts but if you roast buckeyes on an open fire, don't eat them! They are poisonous.

If you consume anything called a "buckeye" hope (for more than one reason) that you are consuming buckeye candy. Buckeye candy consists of a peanut butter/ powdered sugar mixture shaped into balls and then dipped in chocolate. They resemble the buckeye nut. As you might imagine from consuming Reese Cups, the ingredient combination is a good one, and buckeye candy is a popular one in Ohio and the Midwest. 

Buckeye candies can be purchased commercially. However, many a candy making home baker sells buckeye candy and I found one such baker to make buckeyes for Alyssa's party. Abby's boyfriend's sister makes buckeyes and I bought some from her. She lives near Sam’s Club so we met there the Friday before Alyssa's party. 

It worked out well because I needed to go to Sam's Club to pick up cupcakes for Alyssa's party. Alyssa specifically asked for cupcakes from Sam's... She is generally not a fan at all of the cake/ frosting combination. She went to a friend's grad party a couple of weeks ago and I was shocked to see her eating a cupcake. Then I was more shocked when she said she really liked the cupcake and asked her friend where they bought the cupcakes. Her friend told her they were from Sam's Club and Alyssa asked if we could get her cupcakes from Sam's. Yep!

I had originally planned on making cupcakes for her party myself. But, they do make a pretty big mess in the kitchen (or at least when I make them, the powdered sugar always makes a huge mess!) and it ended up being ideal to avoid doing them at home. I did make two kinds of cookies for Alyssa's party. One was a sort of kind of peanut butter cookie the recipe for which I sort of kind of made up myself. They turned out nothing short of amazing (in my opinion and I also received {genuine sounding} compliments on them). I also made double chocolate chip cookies which I did not think turned out too great. The flavor was fine, but they were super flat, and I was a bit disappointed in them. Into and onto both cookies that I made, I added red and white M&M's.

I purchased the last sweet item that we had for the party and those were carrot cake sandwich cookies that I purchased at Wal-Mart. I tried these on a whim about five years ago and was shocked at how good they were! Everyone who has tried them likes them. They are soft and the "cream cheese" icing (in quotation makes because they require no refrigeration which makes me question the actual cream and/or cheesiness of the frosting) tastes so good with the cookies.  

For presentation, I decided to pay homage to Alyssa's love of sweets. Liking sweets is not a unique characteristic of an individual but Alyssa's enjoyment of sweet extends beyond just liking the taste of sugary foods. She was my helper in the kitchen for many a baked cake and tons of cooking baking throughout the years. She and Abby had a lot of fun with Abby’s Easy Bake oven, making sweet treats for their "sweeties" (what they called Barbie dolls) and then for their American Girl dolls. When Alyssa was well past the American Girl doll baking stage, she still enjoyed hanging out in the kitchen with me to help when I was making something sweet. During the pandemic, she and I chowed down on candy while binge watching Dance Moms (we both still remember a particular candy that we ate a ton of!). So many sweet memories with my sweet girl!

Combine that sweet love with Alyssa going to a school whose nickname is Buckeye which is a type of candy and an idea was born. I found a sheet of stickers that OSU sent Alyssa. I decided to use the stickers as decor for the sweets table. (Alyssa did not want the stickers so I felt free to use them...)

I attached a #Buckeyebound sticker to a paper onto which I had printed words pertaining to a sweet girl going to OSU. Then I cut out the rest of the stickers and attached them to little frames with a clip for a picture. For the clipped pictures, I used photos of Alyssa holding onto and/or smiling with sweet treats. I made a small sign detailing what the baked items were for anyone with any allergies or sensitivities.   

Abby drew the sweet treats on the sign.

Here was the sweets table at her grad party.

I placed both kinds of cookies on clear, plastic platters that I bought for Jacob’s grad party and saved.

I placed the Buckeyes and carrot cake cookies on a red plastic platter that I have had for several years. 

I placed the cookies on my tried and true cupcake stand. I use this stand often for get togethers that entail sweet treats. I have been known to place cookies and brownies on the placeholders for cupcakes. I am unpredictable like that!!  You never know what is going to appear on my cupcake holder... In this case, since I had many cupcakes, I used each holder for cupcakes. I also had more of each kind of cookie than I had on display if these started to run low. 

Alyssa liked all of the treats and how they were displayed which means my goal was accomplished :).