Margaritaville Jimmy Buffet Style

Photography by Rachel Bruch, one of Architecture Inc.'s architects.  As are all the clear ones below.

 My husband's office asked if I could stick to the same theme each year for their margarita party.  So I chose Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville.  In a previous blog I showed how I made the large props.  I wanted you to see how they looked with the desserts in front of them.  I spent three days baking, and another day decorating.  I made Key Lime Sushi, S'more cheesecakes and s'more cookie bars, hamburger cupcakes, chocolate chip fudge brownie bites, and vanilla sushi cupcakes.  A friend baked the crab sugar cookies that went in the sand.  I will show those in another photo.  When I found the large blackboard on Etsy, I knew it was mine.

 This angle shows my Surf Shack off to better advantage.  And has a view of the high top table centerpieces.  I hand cut and colored each of the foods on the shack's board.  I love the foam sculptured sun on a dowel with directional beach signs.  I bought him on Etsy also.

In front of my surfer van, sat a tray full of s'more cheesecakes.  I combined 3 different Pinterest recipes for these.  I used Teddy Grahams in the recipe and for decoration.

 

If you noticed in the first photo, these hamburger cupcakes were served on a surfboard.  I got that idea on Pinterest also.  I actually baked vanilla cake mix in my mini cheesecake pans.  I filled them all the way to the top to get the mounding for the top of the bun. 

 For every three vanilla cupcakes, I baked one chocolate cupcake. 

 I cut those into three "patties."  The lettuce is just coconut with green food coloring shaken in a bag.  The ketchup and mustard are yellow and red food frosting.  Those are sesame seeds on top of each.

Here's another of my sculptures from Etsy.  I used him as a centerpiece for the bar.  The bar is two of the kitchen tables I put end to end on bed risers.

I doubled my sponge cake recipe to use my commercial sized baking pans (William Sonoma).  I rolled them along the long end, then cut them in half the long way to get two long cakes.  There is a Pinterest (of course) recipe for Key Lime Sushi.  I used their filling and re-rolled them.  They were wrapped in plastic wrap and put in the refrigerator to let the filling soak into them.  I ordered candy limes from Amazon.com.  The chopstick were for effect, but some people used them.

 

 You can't have a Margaritaville without a beach.  I explained in the previous post how I made this.  Here it is.  I wanted it outside by the band, but it rained.  It hadn't rained a single day in Virginia that month...until this party.  You can see one of my Key West house graphics on the window in the back.

 I have used my boat cooler at six parties so far (pretty good investment).  This year it was a shrimp boat.  It worked like a charm.

 You are viewing the food bar from behind.  The newbie architect actually climbed behind it to take this picture.  You can see the tiki bar with candles which I built 4 years ago.  I used the plumbing pvc bases for tabletop palm trees.  There are mailing tubes under the burlap for the trunks.  Because the bases are filled with cement, no problem with them tipping over.  I didn't bring the tiki bar's skirting around to the back because I thought no one would see it.  Ha ha.  Little did I know.

                                                     

Rachel Bruch photo

                                                I also baked vanilla and chocolate cakes in my mini muffin pans.  I frosted them with vanilla icing and white coconut. I bought these fish gummies on Amazon.com.  They came four to a stick.  

The newest architects (eight of them) had to wear matching shirts.  Here are two of them in the parrot hats I found online to use as a photo op.

Here is a photo of my husband's brother and his wife in them.  They wanted their picture taken in front of one of the Key West houses.  Chip and Lois come over every year and help me prepare food.  Lois is a Navy wife and is a whirlwind at helping with the party.

Here it is if you want to take it to Staples to enlarge it for your own party.

Oh, you wanted the pink one also?

 This one wasn't at the party.  It took me hours and hours to convert it from a pencil sketch I found online.  Then I had to simplify many of the curlicues.

                               The following are just some shots of the guests.

 

       I am always telling you to have a LIVE band, no matter how small.  Here is "Justine Trawick and the Common Good," out of Northern Virginia.  Worth EVERY PENNY.

 Most of their songs are original.  They've asked if they can come back for the Chili Contest in March.  Of course I said yes.

    We had a great time.  I hope you picked up some tips for your very own Margaritaville.
If you want the graphics for the Surf Shack or Surfer Van, just ask.