Memories and Parties: Cream Cheese Mints and Sweetheart Punch

I got married before the trend of destination weddings.  This was back when having people celebrate the union was more important than expecting parents to spend a lot of money on venues (near home or out-of-town) and big meals to feed every guest.  Not to mention expecting the guests to buy both wedding gifts and pay for travel/lodging – thus limiting who can afford to attend.  (Rant over now…)

Cutting the Wedding Cake

My wedding was held in the hometown church where my husband and I met.  My reception was held in my parents’ home.  I bought my own dress and borrowed my aunt’s veil and my cousin’s wedding garter plus I wore a necklace mom had given me years before (something borrowed, new, old, and blue).  My future spouse rented his tux.  Mom and I went to florist and bakery.  However, as a couple we paid for all the flowers at the ceremony.  My parents purchased the cake from a local bakery and prepared most of the other items for the reception, including coffee and the punch listed below.  For the punch, we purchased triple ingredients to make three ice rings the day before so we could keep filling the punch bowl as necessary.  I remember my mom was later arriving to pre-wedding stuff at church than she wanted because she had to wait for cake delivery.  The cake was not exactly what we ordered because baker had a family emergency the day before and so threw together something that afternoon.  Oh well…  sad but no reason to go ”Bridezilla.”

I had these delicious mints at my bridal shower and loved them.  My wedding colors were pale blue fabrics with pink roses and white daisies as the flowers.  So the friend at my church who made the mints volunteered to make two batches of the recipe below in green leaves and pink roses for my wedding reception.  The mints were in white trays on each side of the table holding the wedding cake and we also had the traditional pastel Jordan Almonds in crystal bowls.

Cream Cheese Mint Candies Recipe

Depending on mold size makes less than 3 dozen candies
Ingredients:

1 (8 Oz) cream cheese

½ teaspoon mint flavoring

6 ¾ cup confectioners’ powdered sugar

Food coloring to get desired color

Directions:

Mix ingredients thoroughly and from into shapes using candy molds.

NOTE:  Method for  Cream Cheese Mints that makes 30 by rolling balls instead of using molds.   You can roll the mints in granulated sugar (recipe says powdered) if you want them to have a glittery look.

Sweetheart Punch with Strawberry Ring

Serves 20-25 people

Ring Ingredients:

2 (6-ounce) cans frozen orange juice concentrate, thawed

2 (6-ounce) cans frozen pink lemonade concentrate, thawed

3 cups water

3 cups sugar

1 (16 oz) package frozen sliced strawberries

Ring Directions:

1. Bring water and sugar to a boil in a heavy saucepan, boiling until sugar is dissolved for about 5 minutes to make syrup. Let cool.

2. Mix the syrup with the orange juices and lemonades.

4. Place the strawberries into a ring mold. Pour in juice mixture to fill the mold above fruit. Freeze to make ice ring. If any juice mixture left, refrigerate it to add to punch with soda.

Punch Add-Ins:

1 (2-liter) bottle lemon-lime soda

1 (48-ounce) can pineapple juice

Punch Directions:

1. Refrigerate the pineapple juice in advance.

2. When ready to serve, pour half the cold pineapple juice and half of the soda into a punch bowl. Float the ice ring in the punch. When liquid portion gets low, add in remaining juice and soda.