A milk and cookies party has to be all about the food! I tried to create a soda shop look from many years ago and keep things homemade and simple.
For the milk, I purchased replica vintage milk bottles from Crate and Barrel. They were placed in this white metal 6 pack carrier from Target's summer line. We had organic whole milk, fat free milk and 2% milk. To make it fun, we had 4 different types of straws and chocolate, caramel, or strawberry syrup to flavor up the milk.
We also had lemonade and bottled water. I covered the bottled water labels with matching #2 labels. They are super easy- just measure the height and length around your bottle's label and design something for it you like. I printed 5 per sheet on a color copier and taped them onto the bottles.
Let's talk cookies.... I had about 400 of them for this party! We had about 50 people. Since they were the main food, they were set up like a buffet and we had to go boxes, I did not want to run out. We only ran out of 1 cookie... you'll see why! In total, we had 12 different types of cookies. I made 10 of them and had my friend (a tasty baker on the side) make 2 of the cookies I didn't think I could do well.
Kelly made the cute blue sprinkled #2 cookies. I am certain my 2 year old ate her fair share of these. Great for the kids.
Kelly also made red velvet whoopie pies. These were decadent!
To pull off 10 different types of cookies in 2 days, I made a mix of my favorites, premade doughs and new recipes from the internet. Nothing was complex. I just looked around and starting bookmarking recipes I liked a few months out. When it came time to narrow it down, I focused on the variety I wanted- nuts vs. no nuts, chocolate, colorful, etc.
Here is the mix:
Fudge Crinkles- super easy, tasty, simple!
The contrast of powdered sugar on the dark chocolate is pretty. I would not make these ahead of time- the powder sugar gets sticky at day 2.
Homemade Oreos- these were the best and we ran out quickly. The recipe made 2 dozen, so I think lots of people missed out. I'll make these again!
Lemon Sugar Snaps- I looked high and low for a lemon cookie and these did not disappoint. I have eaten my fair share of leftovers of these. Note, I couldn't find lemon cake mix with pudding and the non-pudding version worked just fine.
Caramel Chocolate Cookies- these are pretty and appear much more complex than they are. Hiding a Rolo inside a chocolate cookie is genius!
For the classic chocolate chip cookie, I made the mini cookies from Nestle Tollhouse dough. I thought I couldn't go without the staple cookie, but wanted them small since people would be trying other things.
same thing here... standard peanut butter mix from the grocery store. These are the one cookie I'd like to go back and bake. They were a little crispy.
Grasshoppers- a new family favorite! I wanted to have Thin Mints at the party, but the Girl Scouts aren't selling cookies just yet. These will work whenever Thin Mints aren't within reach.
Ranger Cookies- a good number of people didn't know what a Ranger cookie was. They are one of my favorites because they are filled with so much stuff- nuts, cornflakes, coconut, raisins, and oats. They also make about 5 dozen because of all the stuff inside!
Our local grocery store has an organic cookie dough line and they make Cranberry Walnut cookie dough. Abby loves dried cranberries so I added these in for her. Then I remember she has a nut allergy! We enjoyed them for her!
Finally, I made the Oatmeal Raisin cookies from the Quaker Oats container. You can't go wrong, that recipe must be 100 years old.
Since it was early January and many people resolved to eat better in the new year, we also had a large veggie tray with dip and a meat, cheese, cracker tray. Both were wiped out so I think they were a good balance to the sweet cookies.
I baked for this party with love, but I am also in no mood to bake for quite a while. I had powdered sugar everywhere for 2 days!
