Kate and I both attended Brigham Young University and the boys of our Alma mater beat Gonzaga last week, securing a spot in the Sweet 16. They take on the University of Florida this week- and guess where? The Big Easy. So of course we have to throw out a little Cougar-love on OBB! And if you’re not a BYU fan, no worries- I thought this was the perfect opportunity to show some things that can be customized for any school colors (High School Graduations are coming up!) and sports teams because it’s something we get asked about a lot.
But for us, it’s all about the Blue today. See that kid over there? (Oh my gosh, I just referred to a college student as a “kid”, I’m officially old.) That’s the Jimmer. I don’t know how anyone in the US right now doesn’t know who Jimmer Fredette is, but apparently they exist. A phenomenon known as “Jimmer Mania” is sweeping the country. Even President Obama loves the Jimmer! He’s the MWC’s all-time leading scorer, MWC player of the year, and in my husband’s humble opinion, the 2011 NCAA Basketball player of the year. All of that is just fancy talk for A-maz-ing. Grown men squeal like girls when they watch him play, and girls actually watch him play. But what I think is almost cooler than all of that is the fact that his name has become a part of the daily vocabulary of millions of Americans. As they just said on ESPN the other day, “Jimmer is a noun, a verb, and an adverb.” Want proof? His name has its own glossary. I’m pretty sure that’s a good sign that you’ve made something of yourself. Seriously. That’s so Jimmer.
Since we’re celebrating the Sweet 16, I thought a collection of sugary delights was in order. Have pizza for dinner and save room for the treats! (Okay, and hello- blue and white? Not too many options when it comes to savory foods. If your team is red or green you’re set. Us, not so much.)
You know how much we love our Sugar Cookies with Glace Icing. You can make just about anything your cookie-loving heart desires. But we also know that sugar cookies can be time-consuming and annoying sometimes too. So I will tell you a little secret.
Sometimes I cheat.
Not on important things like driver’s tests and board games, but on cookies? Yes. Sometimes. For a quickie thing like this I’ll just buy plain, un-frosted sugar cookies from the bakery at the grocery store. These cute basketball cookies took me 20 minutes start to finish. No joke people! And by finished, I mean dishes in the dishwasher and everything. Boo ya.
You could easily use your team colors and put player’s numbers on them too. There was a full-on battle at our house regarding who got to eat the Jimmer cookie. The kid who screamed the loudest won. Pretty sure it shouldn’t work like that, but at our house, sometimes it does.
Colorburst Cupcakes– also a great one to customize with team colors. You could get fancy and use our Striped Icing Tutorial , or just place 2 colors of frosting in your piping bag like I did here.
You’ll have to forgive the Carolina Blue (even though it IS my favorite color!) There’s only so much you can do with navy – shades of blue are okay in my book!
And if the rainbow version of these cupcakes seems labor intensive to you, a two-color scheme is easy breezy! You don’t even have to layer- I just spooned blobs of batter in the cups, alternating as they filled up.
For whatever reason, Dipped Pretzel Rods are always one of the first things to go when I do spreads like this. Kids especially love them, and they’re SO easy to make, and to customize. I used almond bark and blue candy melts, plus blue and white sprinkles to decorate these bad boys. Quick and easy.
Plus you can run around with them pretending they’re magic wands and cast imaginary spells on people. Not that I’ve ever done that, but it’s sounding really fun.
And hey- if you’re dippin’ anyway, toss some marshmallows in there too! You can never have enough dipped finger foods rolled in sprinkles. Seriously. The world needs more of that. Just like it needs more Jimmer.
Marshmallow Pops make me smile. They’re happy. They look cute all wrapped up if you want to give them out as favors too.
Here’s another trick- whenever I’m serving things on sticks, I like to use candies to hold them up in the container. I find that regular glass drinking cups are a great size for the pops, and colored jelly beans or M&M’s make the perfect base. Then people can eat those too! (If you don’t have anything fun and colorful for your cups, dry rice works great)
My last sweet is Fruity Candy Popcorn. One of my faves. There’s just one problem- the only flavor of Jello that doesn’t work (at least of all the ones I’ve tried) is blue. It actually looks okay when you first mix it up, but if you bake it, it’s turns green! Plus they usually only sell blue jello in the summer around the 4th of July. So to get around that, I cheated again. Man, I’m such a cheater. I made my favorite Caramel Corn recipe, but I used white sugar instead of brown. Then right before pouring the hot caramel on the popcorn, I added some blue food coloring. Worked great- just don’t bake it! The white will turn brown and the blue will turn green and suddenly you will be supporting the wrong team.
My other favorite table filler is M&M’s. You can usually find custom colors at good party supply stores, but if not (and you have a school with normal colors) you can always buy a few bags of regular M&M’s and pick out the colors you need!
And really, if you have some great food, you don’t need a ton of decorations. At the same time, a few things will really perk up the look of the food! So you definitely want a bit of both. My quickest and cheapest additions for parties are plain ol’ curling ribbon (makes anything look festive!) and computer print-outs.
I just printed those Y’s on regular paper, cut them out and scattered them. I’ve done hearts, flowers, stars, etc for other types of table spreads. Super easy and looks great!
So there you have it. Super easy, not too time consuming, and awesomely fun. Bust out your school spirit (whatever school it may be) and show some pride! It’s what The Jimmer would do.
Now I especially expect to hear from all my Cougar fans out there! Show some spirit by clicking the links below to share this post on Facebook and Twitter, or give it a stumble. And of course we’d love to hear a holla’ in a comment!
If you don’t bleed blue- give your own team a shout-out. Let’s see who’s got the loudest fans!
GO COUGS!
Wow! Everything looks yummy! I made some Jimmer cakes of my own on Saturday. They’re blue velvet cupcakes. You can take a peek on my blog. http://theoldsfamily.blogspot.com/2011/03/blue-velvet-cupcakes-for-jimmer.html
Go Cougars!
How I wish I had read this earlier! How much of this can I prepare before our Jimmer party tonight?
JIMMER!!!! WE bleed blue through and through!!! Go Cougs!
You two are soooooo awesome! Love, love, love your recipes! And, yes, this is my favorite post ever. I got Jimmered at the beginning of the year and everyone thinks I’m now obsessed. They’re right! Jimmer’s an incredible young man. And I’m so happy for the whole team. They’re all winners! I’ve had Cougar blue blood since I was baptized back in 1981. I worked full time in the HBLL for four years; we have had two daughters and a son attend BYU — and three more planning to. Tonight’s gonna be a good night! Tonight’s gonna be a good, good night!
P.S. My ten-year-old daughter had to do a research paper. Her subject? JIMMER!!!!!
Oh, I wish I had seen this post yesterday! Darn! Not sure how much I can get done before the game tonight, but since I’ve been on a cupcake-baking kick lately (inspired by DC Cupcakes, my new favorite show), I am definitely going to make some with that awesome icing! I only have one problem….I went to both UF and BYU! Guess I’ll be doing some orange and blue along with the blue and white! 🙂
We have BYU themed parties all the time… no need to wait for the Sweet 16…. we make BYU Creamery mint brownies but put food coloring in to make mint part blue also use white frosting to put “Y” on top of brownies. Blue Hawaiian punch to drink…..
Go BYU!!! Love the spread. What fun ideas. We’re sporting our BYU clothes today, too!
Rah, rah, rah, rah, rah, GOOOOOO Cougars!
Okay seriously your candy table is SO CUTE! I love my Cougar basketball, and am so stoked for the game tomorrow!!! I am totally making basketball sugar cookies! Love it!
I also have always liked this site but love it even more after reading this post. I am a mega byu sports fan and hope we win our game tomorrow. Earlier today my 4 year old girl was walking around the house singing “teach me how to Jimmer.” Great party ideas. Go cougs!
I love our best bites, but now I really LOVE our best bites. Thanks for this post – great to see you highlighting the Jimmer Fever with your own ideas. Love it. Go Cougs!
Sara, I know navy is hard but it can be done. Remember my jersey cookies that I posted on Facebook? For stuff that can be colored I’ve actually found that the powdered food colors work better even in the chocolate to get some of the darker colors without an odd taste, I mixed blue and a little black. It took a lot of blue to the black and I didn’t think it was quite the right color but when they dried it was perfect. You can also find navy blue candy melts, I know they can be bought at Hobby Center in Nampa, they aren’t Wilton, but another brand, possibly CK Products but I don’t remember and don’t have any right now. I usually just play until I get the right color and think of all the different ways to make that color.
We BLEED BLUE at our house too, but unfortunately we live in the middle of Ute country, where everyone bleeds red, all the time!! DOn’t worry, we’ll “rise and shout that the cougars are out”!
Love the ideas for treats and parties!! Thanks ladies!!
You ladies come up with such great and yummy ideas that I just can’t wait to try out! I just have one quick question. Right now, it’s just me and the bf so when I try out all of these recipes, we wind up with so many goodies that it’s definitely not good for our figures! I’m always nervous to breakdown recipes but what do you suggest? Thanks! 🙂
I know the sugar cookies can be frozen. I would either cut just a basic shape like the circles that can be adapted to almost any theme. Or cut just enough for this event, and then think of what’s coming next, maybe some Easter shapes. The icing seems to last pretty well, but I don’t know what the best way to store that is. Cupcakes can always be frozen after baked too. Just experiment, some things work better than others to reduce, obviously it’s hard to half an egg, spices can always be adjusted, just play around and you’ll find what works.
Rise and Shout…..that is one awesome Cougar spread!!! I will definitely be using every one of these cute ideas! Thanks, girlies!
Diane (a proud BYU alumnus)
Awesome post. Jimmerlicious!
What a fun idea! Go Cougars!!!!
I go to BYU and love your blog. When I opened it up and saw this post I was so excited, I have Jimmer-fever! Ra ra ra ra ra gooooooooo Cougars!
Jimmer all the way! Go cougs!
Yeah BYU!!!
Go Cougars. I’ll be honest, I don’t understand what the big deal with this Jimmer guy is, but then again when you live in northern NV and have really, really horrible cable service you are unable to watch any BYU games on TV and miss out on a lot. At least this march madness stuff is on CBS and can gert back into my BYU sports.
So fun!! I am having a baby boy in about 4 weeks we have thought about calling him Jimmer…Just Kidding..kind of! 🙂
Now I love you gals even more!! Go Cougs, Go Jimmer, Go BEST BITES!!!
Let’s just say BYU basketball is a heck of a lot more fun to watch when we actually win in the tourney – especially when the broadcasters say we won’t. Looks like they got Jimmered too! Go Cougs!
No joke, you gals ROCK MY WORLD!!! I’ve never really been into cooking, but since finding your website recently and buying your cookbook- wowzers! I’ve turned into one cooking fool! I have gained so much confidence in cooking since EVERY SINGLE RECIPE I make of yours is A-mazing! Seriously, thank you so much for doing what you do! Just ordered 4 more cookbooks for mother’s day and birthdays coming up!
Black and Red will be my colors of choice tomorrow. Gotta love a Cinderella story from my hometown – San Diego State Aztecs!!! The only team we can’t beat is that darn Jimmer and his friends from BYU! ;P Sweet 16 games are going to be awesome. GO AZTECS!!!!
We’re rooting for SDSU too! Lets have a rematch…in the NCAA Championship!!!!
Go COUGS!!! Washington State University Cougars that is! ;0) We’re not in the Big Dance though, but am enjoying hosting the NIT here in our little town. Such fun ideas that can be used for so many different parties!
Hooray OBB! Way to Jimmer it up, love the cute & festive treats!
I hate to say it, but Go Gators. I grew up a UTE fan and now have a son at University of Florida.
Thanks for posting! We have jimmer mania at our house too! If we would have hosted for last weekends game then this would have been perfect. Hopefully we’ll beat FL tomorrow so I can host on Saturday!