Toffee is one of the best candies… it’s buttery and rich and fabulous. This was my first try at making toffee and it turned out so awesome, I wanted to share! I adapted Ghirardelli’s English Toffee Recipe for this. This is my fave goodie on our Christmas treat plates this year.

Almond English Toffee
adapted from Ghirardelli

1 cup semi-sweet or dark chocolate chips
1 cup sliced almonds
1 cup salted butter (real butter only)
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons water
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350F. Spread the sliced almonds on a baking sheet in a single layer. Place in the oven and bake for about 6-8 minutes, stirring around the almonds about halfway through bake time.

With heavy-duty aluminum foil, form a 10-inch square shell with 1-inch high sides. Place the foil shell on a baking sheet. Take about 1/3 cup of the toasted almond slices and spread them on the foil.

In a heavy saucepan, cook the butter, sugar, water, and salt over medium heat until the temperature reaches 305F (hard-crack stage), stirring occasionally. Watch it very carefully! At 305F the mixture will be dark golden brown. Immediately remove the pan from the heat and stir in the vanilla extract. Pour the mixture into the foil shell and spread, if needed. Cool at room temperature for 45 minutes, or until hard.

Place the chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl and microwave at 30 second intervals, stirring well after each heating and being careful to not overheat. It’s best to stop when there are still some bits left unmelted in the bowl and stir until smooth. Spread the melted chocolate over the cooled toffee. Sprinkle with the remaining almonds, pressing lightly to set the almonds into the chocolate (I also sprinkled a bit of sea salt over top). Let set at room temperature 1 hour, or until the chocolate is set. Break toffee into pieces. Store in an airtight container.

A little over a year ago, I asked my daughter what theme she wanted for her 4th birthday party. She told me she wanted a mermaid party so I got to brainstorming. I thought about her boy cousins and friends and knew they wouldn’t want to come to a mermaid party, so I thought, what if I added pirates, too?! A couple Pinterest searches later and I come to find out that my idea wasn’t so original… but I thought it was a fun theme that would make the party appealing to her girl and boy friends.

I didn’t end up being able to throw her that party last year, so I decided to go ahead with that theme for her 5th birthday party. I had already drawn up some mermaids and stuff for it from the first try and came up with some super cute invites:

I then went on a little shopping spree at Shop Sweet Lulu… they have some FANTASTIC party supplies – the pretty kind… not the cheesy, cheapy kind. I picked up some black striped straws, some cute plastic milk bottles, black & white striped favor bags and some doilies for the treat bags (that I forgot to photograph), and black & white striped baking cups for cupcakes (LOVED these).

I ordered some starfish and a few sea shells from Quality Shells for embellishing my table and such since I don’t have anything like that available for purchase where I live. They have great prices and my order was perfect!

I got a lot of stuff at the dollar store for my party. I made pretty, tall cups filled with sand and shells with some candlesticks and vases/hurricanes from The Dollar Tree by simply gluing them together. I also really love their nickel plated plates and platters so I picked up some of those, too! My cake stand is one of those nickel plated plates glued to a dollar candlestick. I love inexpensive projects that look totally pricey! I ended up covering that 97 cent foam skull (from Walmart’s Halloween supplies) with black glitter.

I made up my own banner in Photoshop, along with some labels for the table, and sent them off for printing at Persnickety Prints on their 12×18 card stock.

Here’s how my table turned out! I really, really love how it all came together. I served chicken salad and turkey & bacon croissant sandwiches, Baked Ruffles (which were “Sea Biscuits”), baby carrots, cheese balls (“Cannon Balls”… got the idea here), and fruit salad to help cure all those pirates plagued by scurvy. I knew I wanted a sea blue colored drink for the party, but I really don’t care for punch. Every punch I’ve had has just been too sweet for me. When I passed the Simply Lemonade in the grocery store, I knew that since it was already yellow, that I could just add a little blue food coloring to get the perfect color. I ended up only needing ONE drop of blue food coloring per bottle of Simply Lemonade and it was a great match to my decor! The kids really loved the lemonade and were calling it “sea water.”

I noticed that many of the party tables I’d pinned on Pinterest had varying levels to them. I took two of my boxes filled with canned food storage, set them end to end, and then covered the top and sides with white wrapping paper to make a stand for the cupcakes and cake. Not only did it make for a prettier table, but it kept the dessert out of little hands’ reach until it was time to have it.

I made a pretty brooch, embellished with one of the sea stars, and a pearl necklace for my daughter to wear.

She really loved her birthday party! This was the first time we ever threw her a party, and I think it was a success (14 kids ended up coming, so we had 16 kids running around… it was fun and crazy)! Happy birthday my sweet, beautiful girl!