Gluten-Free Girl: Harry Potter Birthday Party

Okay, not really. Because let’s face it, HP is wicked with a wand! But I did just throw a Harry Potter themed birthday party for my eight-year old.

We went all out to make the house as magical as possible. From turning our front door into Platform 9 3/4 to sorting the children into the four Hogwarts houses, right down to food from the books. The entire family got into decorating the house. My father-in-law took charge of ensuring the entryway didn’t blow apart in the gusty Virginia winds that day! 🙂

The Captain, aka the birthday boy, wanted Hedwig at his party. Since buying an actual owl was out of the question, we started looking up imitation ones online. We found pictures of owl balloons and decided to try making them ourselves. Okay…they’re not very realistic, but I tried. Hey, he loved them!

It took some creativity but we made treats inspired by the HP series and some straight out of the books. There were  Mr. Olivander’s Licorice Wands, Cockroach Clusters, Bertie Bott’s Every Flavour Beans, Acid Pops, and Chocolate Frogs. Sadly, I couldn’t do everything gluten-free. Well, I probably could have given enough time to special order food, but I didn’t have the time. Still, most of the treats below were made gluten-free!

And the treats were very easy to make! I’ve included recipes for Acid Pops and Mr. Olivander’s Licorice Wands in today’s blog.

Mr. Olivander’s Licorice Wands* (Not gluten-free)

Ingredients

One large bag of Twizzlers (I used chocolate flavored)

One bag of white chocolate dipping chips

One container of sprinkles

Wax or parchment paper

Melt the white chocolate. (Some microwaves have a melt button. If so, check it out, there’s usually a setting for chocolate on it.) Once chocolate is melted, stir until the lumps are gone. Dip Twizzlers, one stick at a time, about an inch deep into the melted chocolate. Scrape off excess chocolate. Roll the dipped end into a bowl of sprinkles until well coated. Allow to cool on parchment paper.

This is a great recipe to do with children. It’s easy and not extremely messy. 🙂

 

Acid Pops (Proud to be Gluten-Free)

Ingredients

Bag of lollipops (to really add kick, make them sour pops)

Bag of Wonka Fun Dip

Honey

Sprinkles

Melt honey in a microwave safe bowl. Not much is needed and the hotter the temperature of the honey, the thinner it will be. Thinner is better. 🙂 Unwrap lollipops and roll them one at a time in the honey. Allow the excess to drain off, then roll in Wonka Dip, sprinkles then Wonka Dip again. Allow to cool on parchment paper.

This is another fun recipe to do with children; however, it’s bit higher on the messy scale, so be prepared for clean up when little hands are involved.

Since my son had a sleepover planned for his actual birthday, I held back on one Harry Potter surprise. Homemade wands! I found this DIY for making realistic wands. And it was a huge success! Plus, I’m glad I worked on it with four boys as opposed to the thirteen at the party!

This was an involved party with lots of pre-planning but boy, was it fun! Already, my older son–who turns ten in July–is thinking of ways to make his party just as exciting. 😀 I’m just glad I have six months to recover!

Your turn! What’s the most you’ve done for a birthday party?