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Party Food

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Baked Eggnog Custard Holiday Recipe // A Well Crafted Party

There is nothing quite like a great holiday dessert.

This dessert recipe is perfect for a holiday dinner for two— or you can make a larger batch and serve it at a holiday bash! I love how the baked custard creaminess of this dish makes me want to sit in front of a fire and cuddle up close to someone special. The eggnog, cinnamon, and molasses cookie crumble makes it taste like the holidays. I created this eggnog custard from a seriously delicious eggnog I found at Whole Foods Market called Traderspoint Creamery Grassfed Eggnog.

Eggnog custards are by no means an original idea. A simple google search will yield several delicious recipes. My recipe breaks down the process down to the simplest, easiest recipe that still yielded a delicious result. I upped the difficultly and the taste just a little with the custard toppings. But, if you are looking for a quick, easy dessert to wow your loved ones then this eggnog custard is a great base!

Ingredients for the baked eggnog custard

 

Baked Eggnog Custard with Cinnamon Whipped Cream and a Ginger Molasses Cookie Crumble

Serves 2 — Approximately 1 hour (though, most of that is oven and cooling time)

Ingredients:

  • 1 egg
  • 1 cup Traderspoint Creamery Grassfed Nog
  • Dash of Salt
  • 3 tablespoons granulated sugar (1 for the custard and 2 for the whipped cream)
  • 2 4oz ceramic oven-safe dishes
  • 1 ginger mollasses cookie crumbled
  • 1 cup heavy cream
  • 1/2 tablespoon ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract
  • One baking dish with at least 1 inch sides

eggnog custard

Directions:

  1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit
  2. In a bowl, whisk together the egg, 1 tablespoon of sugar, a dash of salt, and eggnog. Pour the mixture in to the two ceramic dishes.
  3. Put the two ceramic dishes in the deep baking dish. Fill the baking dish with water so that the water comes up halfway along the sides of the ceramic dishes.
  4. Bake the dishes for approximately 40 minutes. The tops of the custards will puff and brown.
  5. While baking the dishes, make your cinnamon whipped cream. Using a handheld or table top mixer, whip the heavy cream until it begins to have stiff peaks. Add in the remaining sugar (2 tablespoons), cinnamon, and vanilla, and mix. Be careful to not over beat your whipped cream or it will begin to clump.
  6. After the custards are out of the oven, let cool, top with whipped cream and the cookie crumble.

Only top the custards with toppings right before serving. Serve at room temperature for a thinner custard. Or, chill in fridge for a few hours for a thicker custard. Both are delicious!

Check out these other great eggnog custard recipes that I’ve tried and liked:

  • Baked Eggnog Custards by The Kitchn — larger yield than my recipe and has alcohol in it! YUM.
  • Real Simple’s Eggnog Custard doesn’t have eggnog in it, but the flavor is amazing and rich.

 

This year’s birthday party was scheduled between in the mid-afternoon, after lunch time and before dinner. I wanted to keep the food simple and didn’t want to worry about a lot of food getting wasted. Toddlers are notoriously picky eaters!

My menu for this event was pretty simple: fruit, veggies, cake, and ice cream. True to form, I still wanted to match the party food up to the theme a little. That is the beauty of having a town-themed party though… you can build your town around your menu and activities!

I found cute little french fry containers at Target and instantly new we had to have a Fast Food restaurant with a healthy twist. So, the fast food restaurant served veggie sticks as french fries. We then built a bakery to house the cupcakes and an ice cream truck to serve the ice cream. We built a cafe for the beverages and served water or juice in disposable coffee cups. My son was thrilled to be walking around with a coffee cup like his daddy.

Veggie Stick French Fries

 

Town Themed Party Cafe

Juice Served in Coffee Cups for Kid's Beverage Option

Town Themed Birthday Party Ice Cream Truck

More Town Themed Party Food Ideas:

  • Sandwiches— Set up a deli for the kiddos to play in or to house deli sandwiches.
  • Meals— Create a replica of your favorite restaurant and serve little meals on table cloth covered cardboard box tables.
  • Cake Pops— These can go in a bakery setting, or you can get really creative and decorate the cake pops to match your town’s businesses. You could make little cakepops that look like basketballs, footballs, or baseballs and put them in the town’s athletic store.
  • Candy— Create a candy shop for your little’s to shop at!
  • Fruit— A cute little fruit stand or market would be a great place for the kids to shop for their snacks.
  • Lemonade— Let the kiddos play in and serve lemonade from a lemonade stand.

The list goes on and on!

What would you serve at a town themed party?

Photos taken by family photographer Macey Snelson of Moments by Macey (formerly Motormouth Studios).

Picnic Week on A Well Crafted Party

 

In honor of this weekend’s Portland Bloggers’ Family Picnic I decided to make it Picnic Week here on the blog. Use the ideas gathered here to create a fun Summer time picnic at home or, if you are in Portland, bring your newly found ideas to the meet-up! I’ve already shared my favorite picnic supplies and a quick pasta salad recipe, there is so much more coming though! So, pop back in throughout the week for more picnic goodness.


My Favorite Picnic Posts

photos via: BashPlease.Com featured on Design Sponge / How to Wear DIY from Adventures in Dressmaking / Butcher Paper Picnic Basics from Oh Happy Day! /Ombre Picnic Blanket from Design Love Fest / Italian Pressed Sandwiches from A Well Crafted Party / Sweet Potato Chips from A Beautiful Mess

My Favorite Picnic Posts Round-Up

I’m not the first, nor will I be the last, to post lots of pretty pictures and great ideas about picnics. Below is a list of some of my favorite picnic themed posts found across the internets. Can’t get enough picnic goodness? Then follow along with my Picnic Pinterest Board for more inspiration as I come across it.

Pretty Picnics to Inspire

  • I love the look of this “Magical Dinner Party in the Woods” that Lauren from The Little Things We Do posted last year. 
  • Oh, Hello Friend’s Picnic Themed Wedding still makes me swoon. I love everything about it and think I’ll hit up a few thrift stores for supplies before Sunday’s picnic!
  • This gorgeous outdoor movie night featured on Design Sponge is made even more beautiful with a lovely picnic spread.
  • This “simple” evening from the Fresh Exchange is just magical.
  • This family picnic set up from a REAL family picnic is making me think I should have planned decorations for this weekend’s event a little more carefully!

DIY Picnic Projects

  • These great butcher paper picnic baskets from Oh Happy Day! look super easy to make and downright adorable. 
  • These simple “pockets of fun” are a perfect way to wrangle and hand out picnic utensils, straws, and salt & pepper!
  • Almost Make Perfect shared a quick geometic print DIY picnic blanket that I love.
  • In the same fashion as the above picnic blanket, but totally different style, Design Love Fest created a tutorial for an awesome ombre picnic blanket.
  • Another picnic blanket that I’m loving is this DIY “girly” portable picnic blanket. It rolls up and can be worn over your shoulder!

What to Wear to a Picnic

  • My friend Suzannah has written a few posts with ideas of what to wear to a picnic. I love her styling of this DIY gingham dress. She also recently wrote a whole post with a TON of ideas of DIY picnic wearables
  • You want to be comfortable, yet cute, at a Summer picnic where cameras are coming out… this simple bright yellow dress combo is perfect for a picnic.
  • Hats are a fabulous for protecting skin and giving a sweet, relaxed vibe to a well-chosen outfit. Love this look from The Sweetest Occasion.
  • While I think dresses at picnics are adorable… sometimes, they just aren’t very practical! I love this cute shorts and tank outfit.
  • What will I be wearing to this weekend’s picnic? I’ll probably do similar to last year’s picnic and wear a maxi dress.

Picnic Food

  • I love the look of these pressed sandwiches for a picnic meal. I loved it so much that I made some of my own for my son’s first birthday. They turned out great and I will be making them again!
  • This list of 50, yes, FIFTY, picnic food ideas spans from nibbles to desserts!
  • The pressed sandwiches would go nicely with some Homemade Sweet Potato Fries.
  • Some people won’t even call it a picnic if there isn’t fried chicken involved. These potato chip fried chicken tenders would be perfect.
  • This great post titled “The Perfect Picnic” pretty much sums it all up with great recipes and beautiful styling.

Whoa! That was a lot of picnic fun… Now I’ve gotta go get to work on prepping items for the Portland Bloggers’ picnic. I have no idea WHAT I am bringing after checking out all the fun inspiration on this list one more time.

Tell me about YOUR favorite picnic experience!