Harry Potter Favorite Finds - Accessories, Housewears, Clothing, etc.
Pumpkin Pasty Flavored Pancakes + French Toast
These pumpkin flavored pancakes + french toast have slowly become my absolute favorite, especially as I keep craving Fall season more and more. Be sure to save the pins below so you can come back to this yummy breakfast the next time you’re craving pumpkin in the morning!
Pumpkin Pasty Pancakes
Pancake Mix
Pumpkin Puree
Pumpkin Pie Spice
Cinnamon
Sugar
One - Using the pancake mix of your choice, scoop about scoop about 2 cups worth into a bowl and add water or milk as noted on their packaging instructions
Two - Add 1 cup of Pumpkin Puree, 1/4 cup sugar, 1/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon and mix! (note: add more sugar and spices to taste!)
Three- Go about making pancakes as usual to desired color + enjoy!
Tip: Enjoy with cinnamon sugar butter for an extra yummy bite that really brings out the spices!
Pumpkin Pasty French Toast
Ingredients
Brioche or thick-cut bread of choice
1/3 cup Pumpkin Puree
1 tsp Pumpkin Pie Spice
2 tsp Cinnamon
2 tsp Nutmeg (Fresh Ground Recommended)
Egg Yolks (3-4 depending on milk)
1 1/2 cups Milk (Heavy preferred but regular works fine!)
1 - 2 TSP Vanilla Extract (aka to taste)
3 - 4 TBS Brown Sugar
One - Separate yolk from egg whites + mix all ingredients in shallow pie dish for easy french toasting.
Two - Warm skillet or pan and coat each side of toast in egg mixture - about 20 - 30 seconds each side.
Three - Cook it on skillet/pan/griddle until desired texture + enjoy!
Tip: Enjoy with cinnamon sugar butter for an extra yummy bite that really brings out the spices!
The Best At-Home Harry Potter Inspired Recipes
This is my absolute favorite go-to for a home cooked meal feel. Literally, this tastes like Mrs. Weasley put all her cooking brilliance and love in, just for you! I make this whenever I’m craving or whenever we need to clear out the fridge as tons of the ingredients are bits and pieces you may have left over throughout! If you’re not keen on veggies but know you need to get them, this is an excellent meal for you!
Bangers & Mash
While there isn’t a recipe for this one since it’s literally any sausage/brat of choice and mashed potatoes of choice, it is still worthy of being included as one of Cody’s favorites! Super easy to throw together and if you’re already making Shepards Pie, you can use the mashed potatoes on both dishes!
Ok, these are my actual favorite. They taste like fall in a bite and given that they’re the perfect mix of savory and sweet without loads of sugar, they can function as a dessert, breakfast bite or something in between (aka the perfect pastry). I crave these especially when I’m missing fall and they’re super fun to make and take only a little prep time. While you don’t have to cut them into pumpkins, I do just because I think it’s precious (and I love pumpkins), it can be fun! If you don’t have a pumpkin cookie cutter, circles to be folded in half (like empanadas) works brilliantly as well!
Inspired Baked Goods
While we got all of our special baked goods from Sweet Dee’s - a wonderful local bakery - you are probably going to want to be creating your own special goods at home! I’ve added in some of my favorite pins from across the internet of wonderful guides to create your own versions of these many magical inspired treats!
Pumpkin Pasty Pancakes
Ok so I might have taken my love for Pumpkin Pasty to the next level with these pancakes BUT it was so worth it. These are delicious in every way and must be tried if you’re a pumpkin lover! TIP: use cinnamon sugar butter on these - it’s literally that much better.
A Traditional(ish) English Breakfast
We put together this spread with elements of a traditional English Breakfast (something I am very on board with now by the way). We included: fried eggs, toast, bacon (and fakon aka veggie bacon), sausage, and baked beans. We also included pumpkin pasties and pancakes for our sweet tooth but everything was absolutely delicious - including our butterbeer iced coffee (iced coffee + creamer to taste plus butterbeer syrup)
Harry Potter Inspired Candy & Bar Trolley
Whether it’s from being safe at home for a bit too long, our plans to visit the Wizarding World being canceled or some new & budding projects calling for some Harry Potter fun, we wanted to celebrate Harry’s birthday this year with a bang! The best way to start? Making our own version of the Hogwarts Express Trolley! Fit with all the candy you could think of - Wizard inspired takes on Muggle candy - and plenty of Muggle booze (giggle water?) I’d say we did a pretty good job! Overall, creating this Trolley cart was super fun and really doable predominantly with things you already have! Below I’m sharing some behind the scenes of setting it up, tips on sourcing materials for it (and direct links to purchase some of the same items we did online) and of course links to our HP inspired cocktails!
The Cart + Containers
For the cart we actually just repurposed our current bar cart! While we grabbed ours at a local vintage market, you can purchase a cart basically anywhere and at a ton of different price points! I’ve included a few below that I think are a great mix of price and style (and would look good all the time) candy trolley or otherwise!
As for the candy containers, we only had to purchase a few larger candy dishes to pull this off! If I could do it again, I would purchase glass apothecary jars (as linked below) because you really can use them for so many things and they’re absolutely beautiful! As for the jars we repurposed, some were old candles others were old jam jars. We’re really big on saving + repurposing anything we can these days and it certainly paid off on this project!
The Candy + Booze
Now of course - the important part(s)! As for the candy we mostly got Muggle candy as Wizards candy wasn’t really available at most of our local stores (and buying from the park was super expensive). Thankfully we were able to find candies we love - lemon drops (Dubledore’s favorite), Red Hots, Green Rock Candy (Acid Pops), Butterscotch Candies, Bertie Bot’s Every Flavor Beans, Gummi Worms, Licorice (Wands) and a mix of Whoppers + Bridge Mix (Dragons Eggs) to complete our cart! All of these and more are available online and can be customized to whatever you wish! Getting creative here is the fun part!
As for the booze, we actually on displayed those which we used in the HP Inspired Cocktails (we have loads more - we love trying out cocktails from around the world + different time periods) You can find the HP Inspired Cocktails here - including Butterbeer, Amortentia (Love Potion), Chocolate Frog and Pumpkin Pasty.
The Baked Goods
Lastly we of course have to mention the plethora of baked goods we added on! All from our local bakery - Sweet Dee’s - as part of their yearly celebration of the Boy Who Lived! We purchased a mixed box and couldn’t be happier. Don’t live in Arizona? No worries! Many if not all of these are easily made at home with your own magic! I’ve linked pins below to amazing recipes that will surely bring you those delicious & festive tastes and treats at home!
Happee Birthdae Harry: a Saturday Celebrating with Sweet Dee’s Bakeshop
Two things I love more than just about anything are sweet treats and Harry Potter. Luckily, this past Saturday Arizona’s own Sweet Dee’s Bakeshop combined the two in one of their famous, over-the top, squeal-worthy theme days. While their darling bakery is, in its own right, gorgeous with yummy treats and wonderful service, Saturday was extra magical.
With Harry Potters upcoming Birthday on the 31st, there was plenty to celebrate Saturday, even if it was very early. Set to to open at 8am Cody and I woke up around 6:30 and arrived by 7:15 because we’d been eyeing their teased menu on Instagram all week. While we did have to wait in line for a while there was water and coffee provided with pop-ins of info from the incredibly kind employees. Come a little after 8am with doors open, walking into the preciously decorated shop was worth the wait.
Beyond the gorgeous Honeydukes-esque candies and treats lining their shelves, floating candles and wizarding music playing, their sweet treats behind the counter were gorgeous. Peering them all down was easily the equivalent to what getting your Hogwarts letter must feel like.
I wish we could have bought every item available, because oh my word they were what dreams are made of and equally delicious. We decided on the treats shown below: sorting hat macaroon, cauldron cake, Hogwarts letter cookie, happee birthdae cake, Ravenclaw pumpkin pasty, and a Harry Potter donut alongside our Butterbeer and Polyjuice potion..
After making our picks, we headed home to sample our treats with our favorite Potter films.
I can can honestly say there was not a single treat I didn’t like. Each was so special and delicious and it was clear a great deal of love and attention to detail was put in each item. I did particularly enjoy the cauldron cakes as they were of a peanut butter flavored (our favorite) but the cookies and macaroons were also wonderful.
The drinks were an extra special touch - funny enough Cody and I ended up liking the others drink better and halfway through switched. The Butterbeer was similar to a delicious butterscotch frappe- something Starbucks really ought to consider bringing out this fall if you ask me. the Polyjuice potion was like a pop rocks infused cherry 7up which was both so fun and refreshing on such a hot day.
Today, I think I’m still on a sugar high BUT am so excited for the other theme days Sweet Dee’s has coming up including their Halloween days, The Nightmare Before Christmas Day and a Wes Anderson Day. The treats and staff knocked it out of the water and now more than even Cody and I are so inspired to make some magical treats of our own in the meantime. Though these Harry Potter treats were a one day event I highly recommend checking them out if you find yourself in Scottsdale and be sure to attend next year! If you’re anything like me, I’m already counting down to their Halloween days and I hope to see you there.