Okay so my niece’s birthday was coming up and she’s obsessed with cats, right? Total cat lady in training. Her mom asked if I could handle some party snacks. Figured, why not make everything cat themed? Seemed fun and honestly, not too hard once I got started. Here’s exactly what I did.
The Shopping Run First
Grabbed my keys and hit the grocery store. Needed simple stuff: white bread, cheese slices (orange cheddar, yellow American), ham, cream cheese, black food coloring gel (super important!), little pretzel sticks, strawberries, sugar cookies (the soft kind from the bakery section), chocolate chips, pink sprinkles, and some candy eyeballs. Yeah, candy eyeballs. Found most things easily, but almost grabbed blue food coloring by mistake – black is key for the details, trust me.
Whipping Up Kitty Sandwiches
Laid everything out on my counter. For the cat faces:
- Sliced circles out of bread using a small cup.
- Smeared plain cream cheese on one bread circle.
- Cut little triangles out of cheese slices for ears.
- Put a round piece of ham for the face base on top of the cream cheese.
- Stuck the cheese ears pointing up from the top edge of the ham.
- Mixed a tiny blob of black food coloring gel with a bigger blob of cream cheese to make gray – used a toothpick to draw the eyes, nose, and whiskers.
For the cat paws, that was simpler:
- Just spread plain cream cheese on a full slice of bread.
- Cut the bread slice into four rectangles.
- Placed three little pretzel stick “claws” near the top edge of each rectangle.
Honestly, drawing the faces took a bit of patience. First few looked kinda cross-eyed! But once I got the hang of dabbing tiny dots for eyes and a triangle nose with the toothpick, they started looking cute. Kept the bowl of gray cream cheese covered so it didn’t dry out.
Creating Strawberry Kittens
These were probably the biggest hit and the easiest! Washed the strawberries and patted them dry. Dipped the pointy end (the top) into white chocolate chips I’d melted carefully in the microwave (30 second bursts, stirring!). Immediately stuck two candy eyeballs onto the chocolate while it was wet. Used the black gel icing straight from the tube to put a tiny dot between the eyes for a nose. Done! Looked like little sleeping kitties. Simple.
Cookie Cat Pops & Decorating Woes
Okay, this part got messy. I took the store-bought soft sugar cookies and just plopped them onto lollipop sticks I had leftover from another project. Melted more chocolate, this time milk chocolate. Dunked the tops of the cookies into the melted chocolate. Then came the fun/messy bit: Using a small spoon, I tried drizzling white chocolate over the top to make whiskers. Ended up looking more like squiggles on half of them! While the chocolate was still wet, I quickly added two candy eyes and pink sprinkle noses. Some looked great, others… well, they had character. Lesson learned: Drizzling neatly is harder than it looks on those cooking shows.
Putting It All Together
Cleared off my biggest platter. Arranged the little cat face sandwiches carefully. Placed the paw sandwiches around them. Poked the cookie pops upright into a base I made from scrunched-up foil covered with tissue paper (looked like snow, worked fine!). Scattered the strawberry kittens around the tray. Final touch? Sprinkled a few pink sprinkles around randomly just to add color.
The Verdict? Party time! My niece shrieked when she saw the tray – mission accomplished! The adults chuckled over the slightly wonky cat faces. Kids went straight for the strawberry kittens and cookie pops. The sandwhiches? Surprisingly popular too, especially the paws with the pretzel claws. Big relief they weren’t just decorative. Was it perfect? Nope. Was it simple, fun, and a big hit with the target audience? Absolutely. Seeing her little face light up made the slightly messy chocolate drizzle totally worth it. Think I’ll be making those strawberry kittens again just for fun!