In honor of winter and in lieu of Valentine’s (or Galentine’s) Day, we just hosted a chocolate themed party.
It seems fitting to celebrate the decadence of chocolate during the sweater weather months both because there are layers to hide said indulgence and because hot chocolate is the quintessential winter beverage.
For this winter party, I planned a chocolate assault! There was a hot chocolate bar, of course, along with a table of favorite chocolate desserts and a grazing board of chocolate dipped things AND dip-able things with a vat of homemade hot fudge sauce.
Decor motifs, colors, and flowers all referenced Valentine’s Day pinks and hearts and winter snowflake themes. I also ordered pretty pink scalloped napkins, because I a.) needed napkins for this, and b,) can’t resist anything scalloped!
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The Hot Chocolate Bar
Our hot chocolate bar featured our favorite homemade hot chocolate recipe that we refined a couple of years ago.
We served it in teacups from our collection and offered peppermint sticks and Bailey’s and Vandermint options to add.
Alongside those, we offered whipped cream - I conceded to cans because they are way easier for self serve than a pastry bag of homemade, BUT I covered the cans with sleeves of cardstock I printed with a heart design so they would blend in a bit better.
I also made homemade mini marshmallows which I tinted pink and cut with a small heart shaped cookie cutter. And I made chocolate stirring spoons for a bit of extra decadence…because, can you ever have too much chocolate?
The Chocolate Grazing Board
I set this up on the coffee table with some cocktail napkins and a stack of small plates so guests could wander with their selection if they wanted.
A round wooden tray with sides held the dipping items along with a glass pedestal dish of fudge sauce. And a triple relish dish with scalloped (surprise, surprise) edges held an assortment of chocolate coated treats. Smaller fruit was threaded onto wooden skewers for easier dipping.
Included in the chocolate grazing board were
Things with chocolate:
Trader Joe’s chocolate covered almonds with sea salt and turbinado sugar
Chocolate covered berry and banana candies
Toffee Christmas Cracker Candy (recipe here)
Trader Joe’s filled baton wafer cookies and dipped cookie sticks
Trader Joe’s frosted pretzel thins
Things to dip in chocolate (or not!)
Trader Joe’s mini stroopwafels
Pretzel sticks
Dried apricots
Raspberries
Strawberries
Sweet cherries
Home made fudge sauce (recipe from Smitten Kitchen)
The Chocolate Dessert Table
Our dessert table included a mix of some of our favorite standards from dessert parties and some new additions.
And, for presentation purposes and ease of serving, we offered some things in individual portions alongside some whole cakes and tarts.
As with all our buffets, we included custom labels to identify the offerings, including if they were gluten free.
Here is the lineup from the dessert table:
Black Forest Trifle
This twist on a traditional black forest cake makes a pretty presentation in a glass trifle bowl. Layers of our favorite chocolate cake (brushed with a little cherry liqueur), chocolate pastry cream (recipe from Serious Eats), whipped cream, and sweet cherries (canned) make up this tasty offering.
Chocolate Crinkle Cookies
These delicious little cakey, rich cookies end up looking snow crusted as the dough is rolled in both granulated and powdered sugar before baking. The recipe is an ooooold one from Cooks Illustrated.
Chocolate Sea Salt Caramel Brownies
Hands down the BEST brownies you will ever eat, we made these gluten free by substituting King Arthur Measure for Measure GF flour for the all purpose flour in the recipe. These are a fan favorite and appear often on our dessert tables.
Chocolate Cheesecake
This is a delightful creamy chocolate option for cheesecake lovers.
The recipe was originally procured from a restaurant my family and I frequented growing up. We loved this on the dessert menu and persuaded the chef to share the recipe. What we got was cryptic at best and really amounted to just a list of ingredients that included 10 lbs of cream cheese (?!) and the baking instructions.
We invented our own crust and cut the recipe down, which still makes the equivalent of two big cheesecakes!
For this party I had intended to make mini cheesecakes, and while I cut down the baking time because they were minis, I didn’t cut it down enough and ended up with 36 crumbly hockey pucks instead of desserts.
Fortunately there was still enough batter for a 9” cheesecake, so I salvaged the remainder. Decorated with whipped cream and chocolate curls, it was a hit.
We’ll revisit the mini option another day! And I’ll share the recipe in another post.
Chocolate Coconut Almond Tart
This tart, with it’s marbled top, is always a pretty addition to the dessert table. It tastes like almond joy bars for grownups, so it is delicious, but very sweet. A little goes a long way!
Flourless Chocolate Cake with Raspberry Coulis
This is a simple and decadent cake. Easy and relatively quick to make, it is topped with chocolate ganache. It is the perfect indulgence for serious chocoholics and, bonus, is another gluten free offering! The recipe is from King Arthur Flour (linked here)
The raspberry sauce is a divine addition, and of course a little whipped cream never hurts! Raspberry coulis is basically raspberry sauce with the seeds strained out. I used the recipe from Sally’s Baking Addiction (linked here), but I used the 1/3 cup sugar and added a splash of raspberry balsamic vinegar in addition to the lemon juice.
For this unassuming looking cake we decorated the top simply with fresh raspberries and mint leaves.
Chocolate Mousse
Another easy (and no bake!) recipe that was originally written as a mousse cake with a chocolate cookie crust. I just used the mousse filling and served it in mini glasses and demitasse cups. It takes a bunch of different bowls to make, but other than making a mess of the kitchen, it is pretty foolproof. I have used it as the filling for purchased chocolate shells before which is another serving option. It also freezes well.
Chocolate Cupcakes with Swiss Mocha Buttercream
This is just our absolute favorite celebration cake (recipe here) made in a cupcake version. I used these cute chocolate colored parchment baking cups and added some winter themed picks to the top for decoration.
Party Logistics
While making so many different recipes for a party seems daunting, it really just takes some smart planning (and a love of baking) for it to be relatively stress free.
I make anything that can be frozen ahead of time at my leisure - this means the cookies, brownies, trifle cake layers, cheesecake, and cupcakes were all done in advance.
The cocoa mix was made way ahead - we keep this on hand all winter anyway!
Early the week of the party the mini marshmallows, chocolate spoons, and coconut almond candy tart were done.
A day or two before the party, the ganache, buttercream, fudge sauce, mousse, and pastry cream were made and the trifle was assembled.
Last minute shopping (for fruit and chocolate board ingredients), table setting, and flower arranging is all done the day before the party.
A tiny bit of whipped cream stabilizer keeps the whipped cream from breaking down so the desserts could all be topped and set out early on the day of the party. The only last hour prep was heating the milk and hot chocolate mix and putting out the ice water and Prosecco!
ChocolateFest was a really fun night despite the beginnings of yet another winter storm, and guest ate happily with abandon and took home leftovers. Everybody, it seems, loves chocolate!
I always have boxes, wax paper sheets, and plastic containers on hand so guests can take home whatever they like. I believe in lavish abundance whenever I entertain, so there is ALWAYS way more than we need and I don’t want it all left in MY house! I get most of it out the door, and guests get treats to nibble on in the coming days - win-win!
I’m thinking we probably need a bimonthly party…hmmm, what should we plan next? Maybe a spring tea party?
