Another Mardi Gras Masquerade is over, this year with 27 people including 6 kids letting the good times roll! This makes 10 Mardi Gras parties over more than a decade, so I’ll be taking a break for awhile in hopes the costume enthusiasm among my friends might return. I started hosting Mardi Gras because so many people couldn’t come to Halloween and loved the chance to wear costumes, however the past few years of Mardi Gras, only the Barbieri clan has consistently come in festive attire. I love that they are still showing their creativity, but that doesn’t make for much of a contest! 
The new Dainty Doubloon cookies were a hit, only 5 left out of 5 dozen, so I’m glad everyone enjoyed them, including Emma the lavender fairy!
And the winners are…
Best Mask – Laura’s gorgeous teal peacock mask (and I didn’t even vote!)
Most Original Mask – Elisabeth’s Makeup Mask
Best Costume – Peter Pan Barbieri Clan (+ guests)
Most Original Costume – MJ’s Gold Lamé Medusa
Best Edible Mask – Sheila’s elaborate icing got the most votes
Who Got the Baby? MJ did, and from Ashlyn’s homemade King Cake this year!
All the winners received an edible prize ribbon! These were one of the surprises, and everyone did enjoy them. Now the winners don’t have to worry about goofy prizes they don’t want cluttering their houses, since after they’re done showing off their prize, they can enjoy eating it! The medal in the center was a sugar cookie with a printed frosting sheet saying which category and the year & location of the party, then I used marshmallow fondant for the ruffles and the ribbons. They dried well since they had several days safely in the pantry on parchment paper and cooling racks for air to get underneath as well, but the ribbons were still fragile enough they started 
breaking off as I arranged them on the serving plate, so the ribbons would need to be thicker next time. I have another idea to make hanging cookie medals using real ribbons, so watch for a 
non-Mardi Gras example of those coming soon.
The other surprise was that I printed a whole assortment of real feathers from game birds to ostrich plumes on rice paper to decorate the edible masks! When I was cutting them out for my own masks, I noticed even though the weather hasn’t been moist this week, the feathers would curl, so I left them as whole papers for the decorating table. I also printed various brocade patterns in Mardi Gras colors and sheet music to use as overlays on the masks. Thankfully there were enough crafty people this year to enjoy this! I think Kian used the most 
feathers on his mask! Audene & Jeff were only able to “stop by” with baby Julianna on their way home, but Audene really wanted to decorate a mask & couldn’t resist the brocades! If she had been there early enough for the voting, she might have given Sheila a 
run for her money!
My costume was a Festive Fancy Jolly Jester, an idea I have had for many years now but not sure how to execute. I used the brocade corset I made for the Mardi Gras Fairy costume in 2009, added matching bloomers, gold gloves, curly pointed slippers, teal & purple points at neck, wrists, knees & ankles, all with gold jingle bells, matching brocade stick mask with jester points, and a matching hat! I was shedding jingle bells all night, but since I made the slippers to go over my fleece clogs, they were the most comfy costume shoes I’ve ever worn.
I’m glad everyone who attended enjoyed themselves! Keep reading for more details and the full photo gallery!
I was hoping to have more time to decorate my own edible masks since that’s the most fun for me, but with making the edible prize ribbons, fighting with my edible printer, icing mask basecoats & adding pretzel stick handles, grocery shopping & decorating, I didn’t get to start decorating my own masks until Thursday night. I decorated 8 masks in 4 hours then hit the wall and had to sleep. I never did get a chance to decorate the 3 more I wanted to, 
but the 8 I did finish were enough examples for guests to see how they could use the rice paper brocades, sheet music and feathers for their own masks.
A couple years ago I had explained the actual tradition of the King Cake is that who gets the baby brings the King Cake to the next party. That year it was Robin & Charles who offered, but then they couldn’t come to last year’s party, and Angie got the baby last year but couldn’t come this year, so I had to go back a few years when Ashlyn got the baby. Since she has become quite the little baker recently I thought she might enjoy trying a new recipe, but I hadn’t heard if she was really making her own to bring, so I made my own anyway to be sure we would have one. We used Ashlyn’s cake for the party, so I have a whole King Cake left…coffeecake for breakfast for my next wave of overnight guests this coming weekend!
I didn’t drape beads or decorate the food tables until the afternoon of the party, so the boxes were stashed in the garage by the time the oven started. The chicken tenders still hadn’t thawed in the fridge enough earlier in the week, so 
they were not pre-baked this time, so after I did my makeup & got my corset on with apron, I had no sleeves, a bonus for easier cleanup when putting raw chicken on skewers. 
My other oven prep was started on time at 5:30pm, the spinach balls, scroll pastries and brie en croute all were cooked & reheated by 6:40pm, so I was able to get the rest of my costume on (except my top-heavy stuffed hat) before the party officially started. I reheated the chicken again since by the time people arrived it was definitely cold and it was still on the baking trays. The fresh fruit tray was last to get out, but was still done before 8pm, then I finally put on my hat!
Kevin was out of town this weekend instead of playing bartender for us, so it was Mix Your Own Hurricane, with a recipe card, shot glass to measure, and bottled juices, with the star ice cubes in the top hat ice bucket. I even pre-assembled fun garnishes of cherries with lime & orange slices speared with Mardi Gras toothpicks. I only found 7 hurricane glasses that needed washing after the party, so I don’t think as many people drank them when they had to make their own!
The Barbieri clan was first and were occupied putting their costumes on, except Kian was allowed to help me. He did a great job setting out crackers, cookies, pouring lemonade into the jar, then he was first to decorate his own mask and loved cutting out the feathers! Eileen’s family arrived next, while I was getting the last of the food set out, so the kids had fun decorating masks, and Eileen made a lovely mask herself! I don’t think others started arriving until well after 8pm, since we had a long stretch to take photos & wonder if others were actually coming. Eventually there was quite a crowd, including a line for one of the 4 decorating seats to open up. Even Emma was decorating a mask, or at least giving instructions to her parents.
The first to leave were Gail & John at 9:15 after only staying an hour, so I “forced” them to vote before they left. Eileen’s family had to leave early because they all needed to sleep before an early start for skiing the next day. Since most people had finished their edible masks and set them outside on the display table, I asked everyone to vote. It was about 10pm when I let Ashlyn cut her own King Cake to serve…and MJ got the baby, so she was the first to receive an edible prize ribbon! I tallied up the other votes and presented the prizes to the winners…and got some fun photos of them eating their prizes!
Most people had left by 11pm, quite a difference from the Rock Band marathon until past 5am last year. Jeff texted me about 10pm and since the party was still going with people he knows, he, Audene & baby Julianna “stopped by” on their way home. Since Julianna was behaving so well, Audene was able to have fun decorating a mask, and when we started Rock Band, Jeff wanted to stay for “just one song” but stayed for a couple hours while Julianna slept through all the noisy singing & playing! We quit Rock Band around 3am, got the various sleeping arrangements settled (additional 6 overnight guests with everyone in double-digit ages is a new record for my house!), then lights out around 4am, with the kitchen picked up & dishwasher running since I had cheated & not played Rock Band the entire time.
I’m very glad we all had a great time! Taking a break from Mardi Gras will hopefully mean I can try some other spring theme parties, like when I did the Clue party in 2008…perhaps finally the classic 60s Prisoner party I’ve been pondering for several years now? We shall see!
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