Easy Basketball Party Cupcake Toppers (Plus, My Easy Party Ideas!)

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #EasyBracketParty #CollectiveBias

There a couple of big basketball games happening this time of year.  And if you’re in the big game spirit you may be hosting a party like I did this past week in celebration of the big games.  I’m not going to lie, I’m not a huge basketball fan, but I like the excitement of this time of year with all the best teams in the nation competing.  And well, it’s fun to host a party to celebrate it.  I like a good excuse for having family over.

I headed to Giant Eagle to grab some snacks for the event.  (You can find some party inspiration here.) I wanted to keep things simple but also have a fun centerpiece with the dessert.  I love doing the dessert as the creative part of a spread because I can make it ahead of time and not have to fuss with it in the kitchen while family is over.  I found everything I needed to feed a crowd all in one place.  I love when that happens.

To make the basketball hoop cupcake toppers you’ll need to take Ritz crackers and sandwich them with a heavy spoonful of peanut butter.  I put the candy stick in before I put the top of the Ritz cracker on top to make sure it was in there securely.

Take your Reese’s minis and slice the side off so that it’s flat.  You can use a grater as well but the knife was easier.  It takes a gentle touch and to be honest I broke a few at first.  So, I just ate them.  After that I may have broken a few on purpose. 🙂

Dip the Ritz peanut butter sandwiches in melting chocolate.  (You can find my detailed instructions on how to melt chocolate in the microwave here.)  Immediately, place the Reese’s mini into the melted chocolate and let them harden on wax paper.  I did not hold them by the stick when I dipped them in chocolate.  I used a fork to support the Ritz crackers.

While those were hardening, I took OREO cookies and sandwiched them together.  You’ll need two halves with the icing and then place the candy stick inside.Dip the OREOs on sticks into orange melting chocolate.  The last step was to take icing and make the details.  For the basketball hoops I used red food coloring to color vanilla icing and penned the box above the Reese’s minis.  I used chocolate icing to make the basketballs on the OREOs.

The cupcakes were the base of the basketball hoops. I used a normal yellow cake mix and when the cupcakes were cool I topped them with orange icing. (I used food coloring.) I made the stripes using chocolate icing.  I think they turned out cute!

Here’s how they turned out.  The longer sticks ended up making them too top heavy, so if I do this again, I’ll buy the shorter sticks.  As it was, I just cut them down to work.  It’s like the basketball went through the hoop!

Here’s the cute OREOs in a mason jar for display.

In addition to the sweets, I made my favorite pizza dip and had Wheat Thins to eat them with.

We also had hot dogs, oranges and Cokes for beverages.  I told you I was keeping it super easy!

Here’s the entire spread!  See, how simple this is.  Seriously, I whipped it together in a short amount of time and I think it all looks really cute.  Maybe cute isn’t what some people think when they think of Basketball, but I had fun making the celebration that way.  🙂

What’s your favorite way to celebrate the basketball tournament?  What would you grab at Giant Eagle for your party?