BLACK TIE BANQUET

My girls and I started talking about how much fun it would be to have a banquet that was really formal. One where ladies could wear that dress again that they bought for their son or daughter's wedding. One where the men could wear a tux w/ tails just for fun. Where the men bought their wives flowers to be sweet. We've had "formal" banquets before, but not to the extent where people actually wore FORMAL attire. That's what we envisioned for this one, and we weren't disappointed. It was SO much fun. And our people just couldn't stop talking about it.

The favor was a chocolate strawberry tuxedo - made to go with our black tie theme. Don't be afraid to try these, they are so easy to do.

The menu for the night:

Roast Beef w/ mushroom gravy
Chicken Cordon Bleu (I cheated on this one & bought the premade ones)
Garlic mashed potatoes
Rice Pilaf
Vegetable medley
Hot rolls
Tossed salad

Mini chocolate bundt cake w/ sugared fruit
Mini carrot bundt cake w/ cream cheese icing & flower petals

Chocolate fountain w/ assorted fruits. This was the first time we attempted a chocolate fountain. Since then we get asked constantly if we are going to have it at this or that dinner! LOL

Here are some pictures of the evening:





These are the Strawberry tuxedos that we made. I bought my strawberries at Sam's club. They usually have pretty ripe berries even in the Winter. And they were huge!

First you give them a dip in melted white chocolate. I just used white chocolate chips and added a Tlbsp of oil to it and warmed it in the microwave. You have to let those sit for a while to dry, before you give them the 2nd dip in chocolate. Here they are getting the 2nd dip. We used a shishkabob stick to hold the strawberry while we dipped it. First, you dip the back in....



Then you roll it carefully from side to side.


Here they are waiting to get their buttons and bow ties on. My daughter Sarah did all that.



And the finished product.



This is the chocolate fountain we bought for the event. OOPS you can see where we already sampled it and hadn't wiped it off yet! Sorry!



These are the fruit bouquets that my daughters and daughter-in-law made for the evening. It was their idea and I was thrilled to let them run with it. Somehow I got stuck helping with them though! LOL No, I LOVE doing things like this. There are chocolate covered banana halves, chocolate covered apple slices, orange sections, strawberries, grapes, melon sections and pineapple flowers. This was a first attempt, so forgive the less than professional look, but it's not bad for a first attempt, I don't think. We learned a lot of things to DO and a lot of things NOT to do next time. Like shorter sticks next time, so the fruit will not be so top heavy. And more filler for the basket to cover the empty space (we actually just ran out of time, so we couldn't fuss with them as much as we would have liked to).



These are cream puff trees. I had them on the table by the punch bowls. I saw something like this on the cruise my Honey and I took for our anniversary a couple of years ago. I bought metal flower buckets and turned them upside down and then just stuck the cream puffs to them w/ a caramel that I made. I won't use that again. It got hard too fast as I was using it. Next time I'll use something a little easier, like peanut butter or even honey might work. Just something to make them stick. Somebody was messing with them though and dipped the top one in chocolate and then put it back. I'm thinking that was my Honey! LOL I suppose you could also use styrofoam cones wrapped in foil. You would just need to secure it to your base somehow.



This is one of the mini bundt cakes. It's the chocolate one w/ sugared fruit. You make the sugared fruit by dipping them in an egg white wash and then rolling them in sugar. You lay them on cookie racks to dry. My precious daughter-in-law made all the cakes for the event. Bless her heart!



I wanted to explain the decorations a bit. I used white tablecloths as the base. Then I bought black tablecloths and cut them in 4 lengthwise. This is not hard to do, because they come folded lengthwise, so the crease is usually pretty accurate, which helps with the cutting of it. We used the black part as a runner. I bought small white pillar candles and tied a black ribbon around them. I used white plates and black dinner napkins, then we placed the strawberry tuxedo in a mini cupcake liner and we layered that all on the plate. Under the napkin, was the menu for the evening. I wrote that up using a really pretty font. The plasticware is the silver colored kind that you can pick up at GFS. I also got the clear plastic disposable goblets there.

We invited the people in all at once and encouraged them to mingle at the chocolate fountain with the fruit that was on their table. It was a nice way to get things started.


It turned out so much nicer than I expected. I was thrilled. It set something in motion though, because now the "formal" banquet is a regular thing. I don't mind, I love it and already have an idea for next year. I'll keep that a secret for now though!

Here's a pic of my Honey and I at the banquet and one of our precious family, minus little Katie bug (she hadn't been born yet).