Seven Deadly Sins Birthday Party

For my husband's 37th birthday, we decided on a seven deadly sins theme, which was a really fun theme to play with.

I chose three different looks with different fonts for the decorations. For the first look, I printed the words 'Seven Deadly Sins' on black translucent paper, cut it out and pasted it on white cardboard with double-sided tape. Then for each sin, I printed on a separate translucent colour and pasted it onto white cardboard. The colours for the sins were orange (gluttony), red (wrath), light blue (sloth), green (envy), pink (lust), yellow (greed) and purple (pride). These items were individually stuck on the walls inside the house, with the heading 'Seven Deadly Sins' on one wall, and each of the sins on another.

The second pair of decorations were printed on white translucent paper, and pasted on the sins' specific colour cardboard, with 'Seven Deadly Sins' pasted on black cardboard. The sins were connected with a string. For the last set of decorations, each sin was printed on the relevant colour cardboard with 'Seven Deadly Sins' printed on silver. All were then combined on one piece of string and hung as one big feature. This was easy to make and was well within budget.

Naturally, a seven-course meal (plus one) seemed appropriate for an evening full of the Seven Deadly Sins. To prepare the guests for what was in store, I printed a menu with all the courses. This was printed on white translucent paper and pasted on a maroon cardboard, and displayed on a cookbook stand on the table, wrapped in a green overlay. The table was not decorated much as each course would be a decoration by itself. With each course there were two printed descriptions to make the theme a bit more fun and informative. The first was to explain the current course, each printed on coloured translucent paper associated with the corresponding sin, and pasted on white cardboard. Secondly, each sin was printed on white paper, and burned on the sides, then pasted on the sin's colour. On these prints, a description of each sin was given as well as the virtue of how to cure this deadly sin. Both these items were attached with string so as the courses went along, I just flipped to the correct course and sin.

We also invented a game throughout the evening, where we hid a bottle of wine in the house. Inside the house (on a wall and a door) were two clues to give hints of where this item could be. On the table the third clue was printed at the bottom of one of the table items (the one with the course description on top of a cardboard wine bottle - this was a fourth, unofficial, clue). The couple who figured the clues out first and found the wine bottle, got to take the wine home.

Finally, and most important, the menu! The first item on the menu, the welcome drinks, referred to the 'Original Sin'. This was the additional item on the menu, not part of the Seven Deadly Sins, and combined with the colour silver for the table placements. For this welcome drink, I served apple vodka shots. Apple felt appropriate for the original sin, but it's open to interpretation, of course. Shots as a welcome drink really gets the party started. The table was prepared with this course as the guests arrived.

After the welcome drinks, I decided on 'Aperitif', which is a beverage before a meal, and combined with the sin greed. I combined greed with gold, hence the colour yellow. The table placing of the course, with a description thereof, was yellow. The other table placing consisted of the sin's description as well as the virtue of greed, indicating what can cure this sin. To represent greed, I served dry sparkling wine. The glasses were also dipped in edible gold glitter for effect, and as the sparkling wine was poured in, it turned yellow or 'gold'. There were also chocolate coins covered in gold paper scattered on the table. The guests could enjoy something sweet with this beverage, and the stain of gold glitter on everyone's lips added to the portrayal of the sin of greed.

The next course was the starter, also known as amuse-bouche ('mouth pleaser'), combined with the sin of pride. Pride is deemed as faultless and is assigned the colour purple. For this dish, I made roasted cauliflower bites, which are easy to make, and very yummy. You wouldn't even think that it's vegetables you're eating! The cauliflower was roasted, then shredded in a food processor and mixed with some cream cheese and Parmesan cheese. I placed them in small silicon moulds and chilled it in the freezer for a few hours. I then roasted the cauliflower bites one last time in the oven, then placing a small piece of Parmesan on top of each with chopped chives. Once cooled down, I added onion marmalade on top of a charcoal garlic cracker, then placed the cauliflower cheese bites on top. The perfect-looking hors d'oeuvres served on a white plate - the perfect contrast to represent pride.

After the amuse-bouche course, the first course before the main meal was served, which was combined with wrath. I chose red to represent wrath, with its description and the virtue of patience to cure the deadly sin. Wrath, of course, could be easily associated with spicy food. Not everyone likes food that is too spicy, so I served a sour cream and chives dip with delicious Jalapeño poppers - which is always a party hit.

Just before the main meal was served, I served the second course, which usually introduces the main meal. I combined this with sloth, which is also associated with light blue. For this meal, I made nacho cups filled with tomato and spicy jalapeño salsa, cream cheese and guacamole, topped with a few cheesy nacho chips. Since this course represented sloth, I made extra cheesy nacho chips and served on the side with extra salsa, cream cheese and guacamole. After this course, everyone was quite 'slothy' and moved slowly due to full tummies. In hindsight - perhaps not the best sin to represent before the main meal!

For the main meal, or entrée, I thought it appropriate to combine this meal with gluttony, which represents overeating and 'pigginess'. Gluttony is also associated with orange, so I used orange for the food and sin description cards. Perfectly suited to the sin, pitas were filled with pork ribs, coleslaw and various sauces. The pork ribs were the perfect choice to represent gluttony since it was so difficult to stop eating those juicy ribs!

Since this was a seven- (or eight-) course meal, what is more fitting than a palate cleanser after the main meal to prepare your mouth for dessert? For this course I used envy, which is associated with green. In the 'Seven Deadly Sins' world, an envy dish is associated with food one cannot have, or wish one could have, but I decided to rather go with 'green' food. I hollowed out limes, filled with passion fruit sorbet, with a mint leaf on top. The palate cleansers were served on a green serving tray - which I thought was quite appropriate for the envy course. To hollow out limes without breaking the skin is quite hard work, so I will think twice before doing this again.

Of course the perfect sin to pair with dessert - lust! Dark blue and lust go hand in hand, but I rather used pink as the colour of this course. What better represents lust than chocolate, strawberries, cream and more chocolate? I baked mini dark chocolate cupcakes, topped with caramel and some chocolate popping candy sprinkles. Guests were surprised by the sensation of the popping candy! Strawberries dipped in white and milk chocolate were also served with cream. A perfect dessert-ending for a perfectly themed evening. One tip on dipping strawberries - do not put in the freezer once dipped in chocolate as the strawberries will freeze completely and will be uneatable until defrosted and soggy, so rather put in the fridge, just for the chocolate to set.

The invitation