Football Super-Party for 12
Gather your friends, grab the remote and get ready to watch the big game!
Football games on TV make a great excuse to party! Nosh on nibble foods as you watch the game, and have a blast playing our tabletop football game. Then serve up a delicious pizza dinner ending with carrot cake that's been made to look like your favorite player! Make everything self-serve, and you'll have plenty of time to root for your favorite team.
Make It SpecialParty Guests Call Their Own Eating Plays
- Set out the food so the guests can help themselves whenever they're ready. Set the appetizers out on a table or counter along with paper plates and napkins. (Team colors provide the festive spirit!)
- Put beverages in a cooler with ice. For a cooler that matches the party theme, purchase a football-shaped toy chest (available at large toy stores and some department stores) or decorate the top of your cooler with construction paper to look like a football field!
- Later, possibly as halftime begins, set out the main meal and dessert.
Pass a Football-Shaped Cheese Ball
- Well, not literally, unless a food fight is part of the party activities! But you can mold the Parmesan Cheese Ball into a football shape rather than a round ball, and garnish it with thin strips of bell pepper to look like laces. Place the cheese ball on a tray, and surround the cheese ball with shredded lettuce to look like a playing field. Then just add your favorite assorted crackers.
Get a Kick Out of Tabletop Football
It's a test of hand and finger dexterity during commercials or slow moments of the game!
1. Form goalposts about 4 inches high using pipe cleaners (fuzz-covered wire available at discount and craft stores). Attach small pieces of pipe cleaner to the bottom of each post to hold it up. Make a triangular football, using a strip of brown paper, 11x2 inches. Fold one of the corners of a short end over so the short end is lined up with the long side. (It forms the beginning of the triangle.) Continue to fold the triangle over and over, lining it up with the long sides, until there's only a little piece left. Tuck the piece into the triangle and glue it in place.
2. To play, set up the goalposts on a table. Have two partygoers take turns trying to flick the football over the goal from just in front of the opponent's goal. To flick the football, hold it on the table with the long side of the triangle up (the football rests on one point and you hold the point on the other end with your index finger). Flick the football at the bottom point, using your thumb and finger on the other hand. Keep score, and award a prize to the person who makes the most goals during the event.
Gobble Up a Player (or at Least the Jersey)
1. To make your "Favorite Player" Carrot-Walnut Cake, bake the cake as directed. Cool the cake on a rectangular wire rack 10 minutes. Cover 1 rack with a towel; place rack, towel side down, on top of cake; turn over as a unit. Remove pan. Place a rack on bottom of cake; turn over both racks so the cake is right side up. Cool completely. Cut cake as shown in diagram.
2. To frost the cake with ease, freeze the cut cake pieces for about an hour. Arrange cake pieces on tray to form jersey as shown. Tint the frosting with food color to look like the color of the jersey of the team you want to win. Frost the cake, then complete the jersey with trim (in the appropriate color), number and name of your favorite player, using Betty Crocker® decorating icing in a tube.
3. For a real conversation piece, copy and enlarge a picture of a favorite player's face, using a copy machine, and glue it onto cardboard. Cut the cardboard around the face. Glue two wooden chopsticks or skewers to the back, leaving half of each stick exposed. Poke the sticks into the center of the cake at the neck to really look like the player!
Preparation Guide
Up to 2 Days Before
- Make Parmesan Cheese Ball and refrigerate.
- Make Creamy Pesto Dip and refrigerate.
- Make Chex® Caramel Corn.
- Make Easy Pizza-Crust Breadsticks; cool and freeze in freezer bag.
The Day Before
- Make "Favorite Player" Carrot-Walnut Cake.
The Morning Of
- Cut up vegetables for Creamy Pesto Dip; cover and refrigerate.
- Cook and drain sausage and cut up vegetables for Chicago-Style Deep-Dish Pizza; cover and refrigerate separately. Make pizza crust dough; cover and refrigerate.
- Wash romaine for Quick Caesar Salad for a Crowd; cover and refrigerate.
About 30 Minutes Before Serving Appetizers
- Take Parmesan Cheese Ball out of refrigerator; arrange crackers around it.
- Fill cooler with beverages and ice.
About 30 Minutes Before Serving Main Course
- Make Chicago-Style Deep-Dish Pizza.
About 10 Minutes Before Serving Main Course
- Wrap frozen breadsticks in aluminum foil; reheat in oven.
- Make Quick Caesar Salad for a Crowd.
Just Before Serving Dessert
- Cut cake into serving pieces.