Beyond the occasional overnight guest or two, my boyfriend and I haven’t had a real get-together chez nous since the fall, and lacking any real reason to have a party, the invitation for our Rose et Chocolat party asked our friends to join us for celebrating winter, possibly impending snow, and the pink-and-chocolate fanaticism that surrounds February.
The idea was born from a party I threw last year in D.C. during an insufferable snowstorm (55+ inches!) that featured drinks made with homemade raspberry vodka, Martha Stewart cupcakes (pat on back!), and other yummy treats, and I decided to continue the tradition in our new French home. This year’s menu included:
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Chocolate Stout Cupcakes (they were such a treat when I made them for our beer-fan friends and so thematically-appropriate – who cares if we have them twice in one month?)
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Decadent Chocolate Truffles (because they seemed easy and tasty – and why not give homemade candy a go?)
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A Crepe Cake (I’ll be posting the recipe for this monsterpiece later this week!)
- Kir royales (easy peazy: crème de cassis + champagne)
Guests were told to bring just themselves or to contribute anything pink or chocolate-y, and we ended up with beaucoup de bottles of rosé, elaborate cakes from fancy Lyon patisseries, and an abundance of fruity mousses.
The cupcakes were of course a hit, because let’s face it – how ingenious is it to pack Guinness into a cupcake? Pretty solidly ingenious. The BF was left with the responsibility to recreate the magic and, guided by the cupcake version of Smitten Kitchen’s recipe, he did quite a phenomenal job:
The truffles, though, were my biggest point of pride. I displayed them in little paper cups on two plates and, until the BF pointed out to our guests that I had made them myself, everyone assumed that they were store-bought. I knew they tasted good (“poison tests” at every step in the process guaranteed that), but the fact that the chocolate was sufficiently tempered to look store-bought was the best compliment.
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