Sunday, May 31, 2009

Confirmation Party Foods

People often wonder what to serve at celebrations following the reception of sacraments. "Are there foods that are traditional for the various sacraments?" and "What kinds of foods might be symbolic for the sacrament?" are questions I have heard. Last spring we highlighted First Communion Celebrations in Catholic Cuisine's first From Thy Bounty Fair, but there have been only a few post related to foods which would be fitting for a Confirmation celebration.

Our family recently celebrated a confirmation and I wanted to share some of the ideas we had for the party that followed. Since we are still in the Confirmation season, hopefully some of these ideas will be helpful to you or spark other ideas. And of course any ideas that would work well for a Confirmation party could also be incorporated into a Pentecost celebration as well.

Our party included some typical buffet-fare (deli sandwiches, potato salad, and chips) which we accented with several special Confirmation themed foods we though would be symbolic of the day. Our buffet included:

  • "Fruits of the Spirit" Salad (Though we used only 7 fruits - more like the gifts - rather than the 12 fruits. And no dressing was used, just the fruits.)

  • Seven-layer bean dip (7 again to represent the 7 gifts of the Holy Spirit)

  • "Tongues of Fire" Salad (A green tossed salad with strips of red, yellow and orange bell pepper on top)
A fun and sweet treat for after the meal was Dove chocolate - calling to mind the dove imagery of the Holy Spirit.

And the main centerpiece of the celebration was the cake which we decorated with the dove and tongues of fire representing the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
We first traced and cut out a paper dove the size and shape we wanted for the cake top. We placed that on the frosted cake (chocolate was used so that the white dove would stand out) and traced around the outline with a toothpick.
When the pattern was lifted we had an outline of a dove to fill in with the white frosting. We used a star tip to fill in the body and one of the tips with the elongated hole (either the leaf or rose tip) to form the feathers. We pulled a toothpick through the frosting to give the feathers a more "feathery" appearance. The tongues of fire, the beak and the rays from the doves head were piped on with yellow-orange tinted frosting.

If you have ideas for foods to celebrate a Confirmation, please share then with us. If you have a link to a blog post that would be great. Either leave your link or idea in the comments section or send it to me at mary.cathcuisine at gmail dot com. I'd love to do a follow-up post, a mini From Thy Bounty Fair, if there is enough response.
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11 comments:

  1. +JMJ+

    After my Confirmation, we just went out to a restaurant. =P I like your ideas much better, Mary!

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  2. That is one of the most beautiful cakes I've ever seen! I love all of our ideas, thanks for sharing.

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  3. These ideas are incredible! I must file them away for when my children receive their Confirmation. Do you have similar ideas for Baptism parties? Our son is being Baptized in two weeks, and I'd love to have some more creative/symbolic options.

    ~Bethany

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  4. We have that same "You are special today" plate! Our Confirmation was very late at night and included three beloved cousins. I think we just went home and collapsed in bed when it was all over. We did have a party later for all of the newly confirmed (5 in total) and my youngest daughter who had made her First Holy Communion. It was just a big extended family party though, not really themed. I love the Dove chocolate idea!

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  5. Thanks all - glad you enjoyed the ideas.

    Oh, yes, Baptism... We've had that request before and it hasn't been covered. Give us a few days and I'll see what we can come up with for a post.

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  6. Mary, this is a beautiful cake!
    Found a post with the preparation for the Confirmation pary:
    ehow.com divineoffice.org

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  7. Thanks for these ideas!

    I am in charge of VBS this year at my church, and we are "doing our own thing"--a Catholic VBS about the Liturgical Year. The last day of VBS will be about Pentecost...& I think your cake (or the Pentecost cake from last year) will be one of the things I make for the kids.

    thanks again

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  8. just wanted to say thank you for all the ideas! I am making the fruit salad, bean dip, and doves for my daughter's confirmation tomorrow, as well as the tongues of fire cheese crackers and cupcakes from Pentacost. :)Oh, and the rose fruit punch...except it will be martyr punch,,,,for St. Maria Goretti.

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  9. Thanks,love your ideas, especially the cake. very creative.

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