Cinco De Mayo Dinner Party

Mexican food, margaritas and the company of good friends are just some of the reasons why Cinco De Mayo is the perfect entertaining opportunity. Yesterday, I created a Cinco De Mayo dinner party, which entailed a taco bar and fun desserts.  Cinco De Mayo represents the beginning of summer and I wanted my menu and décor  to set the stage for the fabulous parties I will be putting together this upcoming summer.

Inspiration: When I was researching Cinco De Mayo décor online I came across pictures of red and green peppers being used as candles and thought they would work perfectly for a Cinco De Mayo party. I like to use food as decorative elements on my table because it’s inexpensive and makes a bold visual statement. I also wanted to incorporate red and green into my décor, as a way of representing the Mexican flag.

Décor: For my Cinco de Mayo table setting I wanted to utilize the wood table because it added a rustic element to the décor. I also liked how the bold colors I used, such as: red, yellow, green and orange popped against the wood.  I found the orange daises at Trader Joes and liked how they added some height to the table and they worked very nicely with the red runner. All of the other decorative items on the table went with my red, green and yellow color scheme. 

Menu:

I decided to keep the menu simple and to serve tacos, rice with saffron seasoning, black beans, tortilla chips and various types of salsa. Tacos are great to serve when you are entertaining because they are very  versatile, which makes it very easy to please all of your guests. 

Tacos: http://cinco-de-mayo.holidayscentral.com/food-and-recipes/how-to-throw-cinco-de-mayo-taco-party#.T6c9WO1BY8F

*I decided to serve chicken, carne asada and shrimp tacos, but the options for taco fillings are limitless. You can also choose to serve ground beef/turkey or have a vegetable filling for vegetarian guests. 

Margarita Cupcakes: Margaritas are an essential part of Cinco De Mayo, which makes these delicious cupcakes the ultimate Cinco De Mayo sweet treat. 

Cupcake Recipe: http://neycookbook.wordpress.com/2011/05/23/margarita-cupcakes/

Lime Buttercream Icing Recipe:

http://www.recipegirl.com/2007/05/01/margarita-cupcakes/

Corona Pops (not pictured on the table): http://www.bakersroyale.com/fast-and-easy/corona-beer-popsicles-cinco-de-mayo/

Photo Courtesy of: www.bakersroyale.com

Salsa: Corn & chile salsa, mango & lime salsa and traditional salsa. 

Margarita: 
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/margaritas/