My family LOVES making s’mores and creating a smores bar. For the past two summers, we have even held s’more making contests, enlisted a judging panel and given out awards and prizes in multiple categories of s’more design and execution. I enjoy hosting the parties, arranging the s’more ingredients in cute containers and of course, I have a Pinterest board completely dedicated to s’mores. So, it was no surprise that for my son’s high school graduation party, he would request the party end with s’mores.
I was a bit nervous with the idea of hosting a large party, with open flames, in typical Chicago winds, with loads of excited teens, all in my backyard. I needed to simplify the s’mores bar process! My idea was to prepack the s’more ingredients in a fun and easy way that coordinated with the party theme. As the party was an open house, I wanted to make sure that guests could take a s’more kit home, if they could not stay ‘til sundown.
Here is what I came up with for a “A Sweet Ending to a New Beginning” graduation party.
Supplies Used:
- 4” x5.5” cellophane bags purchased at Hobby Lobby
- Square marshmallows purchased at Wal-mart
- Hershey chocolate purchased in bulk at Sam’s Club
- Easy to break apart Honey Maid Graham Crackers purchased at Sam’s Club
- Printable labels I designed and printed onto sticker paper
In order to make the packet compact, these are the items packed inside. We packed all the ingredients a week before the party. We noticed that the graham crackers did get slightly moist, however, they were still fresh and made it a bit easier to work with when the toasted marshmallow and chocolate were added. Why two marshmallows? From personal experience, folks who are really eager to roast marshmallows, many times burn them. For those who do not like burned marshmallows, having a second marshmallow in the packet provided them a second attempt at creating their perfect s’more.
The s’more kit was packaged with the graham crackers first, then stack the chocolate and then place marshmallows side by side. The plastic bag was rolled down, forwards, and then the sticker was used to secure it all in place. We made 75 s’more packets. During the party, they were part of out dessert bar. The dessert bar included a candy station, dessert station and s’more station.
So how did the party turn out? Well Chicago provided us with 30 mile an hour winds, so we could not have a fire pit!! Ugh! For those guests who wanted, we gave the s’more kits to take home. Also, we were holding a second graduation party two weeks later in Michigan, so we were able to use the s’more kits successfully! Since the s’more were all packaged, it made it easy to transport them and it was quite the conversation piece.
Happy S’mores! Brigitte, of Baer Design Studio