Had to celebrate the release of the final Harry Potter movie with a costume party before going to the midnight premier. Dressed as Mrs. Weasley, I made Pumpkin Pasties (pie dough folded with pre-cooked pumpkin pie filling, then cooked enough to set the dough) and set out Licorice Wands.
We added some green cotton candy to both chocolate cupcakes (Tasty Cakes) and small store-made brownies. With a licorice cord for a handle on the larger cauldrons, we had some fantastic Cauldron Cakes. Notice the golden snitch in the picture below? One of many decorations. We also used Harry Potter Legos and some of our movie posters to make the house look festive.
These Treacle Tarts are pie dough filled with treacle (golden syrup) mixed with fresh, unseasoned breadcrumbs. The kids didn't really like these too much, but they all wanted to try treacle, which we never really see much, here in the States.
Our magic wands are nothing but pretzel rods, but they were fun. We collected sticks outside to use for real wands, which everyone needed for the Good Vs Evil pictures we took outside before leaving for the theater.
Our Every-Flavor-Beans were really just Jelly Bellies. I know you can buy the real-deal, but I didn't want to risk having a bowl of leftover ear-wax flavored jelly beans.
Some of our clever guests brought food, too. One girl made red Quaffle Waffles and another brought Golden Snitch cookies. We ordered some very un-Potter pizza, and no one went to the premier hungry.
Before leaving for the movie, we played a Horcrux Hunt in which party guests needed to find all 7 Horcruxes. We hid plenty of rubber snakes, some diaries (actually used all 6 books from the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series!), and other symbols. The real fun was when players realized that the 7th Horcrux was really the guest dressed like Harry Potter. They had to find and capture him to win!
The best site for inspiration if you want to throw a Harry Potter party is
