BBQ Pork Sliders & Basketball Themed Cupcakes

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Several months ago, my brother in law asked my husband and I if we wanted to participate in a fantasy basketball league with him, my father in law, and another one of my brother in laws. I have absolutely no knowledge when it comes to basketball, so of course I said yes! HA! We were supposed to get ready to pick our teams for our brackets, and the very night that I was supposed to be online ready to pick my team, I was in a car accident and totaled my car. This resulted in my team being picked by the computer automatically, and, as it turns out, it was for the best. I was in first place for a few weeks, and ended up in third place overall!! Not bad for not having a clue about anything that was going on.

Now that we have done the fantasy basketball, I am looking forward to watching basketball games throughout March and using our real brackets. If you know me, any excuse I can get to throw a party is a good one! I love preparing good food, and little touches that make it more than just a family gathering. I decided to go with delicious BBQ pork sliders, coleslaw, and chips for dinner, and s’mores cupcakes with chocolate dipped OREO basketball toppers for dessert.

The pork sliders are super simple to make, and so delicious! They are made in the crockpot with Coca-Cola Zero™ which adds a great flavor and keeps the meat nice and tender. I like using Coke Zero because you get the results of Coca-Cola without the calories. The full recipe is at the end of this post, and it is one that you need to pin for later and put on your menu. It really is THAT good! Along with the pork, you’ll need to pick up some dinner rolls and coleslaw. I grabbed rolls in both white and wheat to give healthier options, but you can just pick up one or the other.

For dessert, I decided on a basketball themed treat. The obvious answer was America’s favorite cookie that just happens to be basketball shaped, OREO! I melted white chocolate and added some orange food coloring to it. Then I used Golden OREOs and dipped them into the orange chocolate. The best way to cover them completely is to use a fork, place the OREO into the chocolate and cover the OREO in chocolate. Then you’ll pull it out on the fork and tap the bottom of the fork on the side of the container that has the chocolate in it so that the chocolate levels out on the top and the excess chocolate falls off.

You’ll want to let the chocolate set up, and the fastest way to make it happen is to pop the OREOs into the fridge. Once they have set, you’ll need black edible gel that you can find in the baking section. You can use it to draw the lines to make it look even more like a basketball. I made some chocolate s’mores cupcakes that have a graham cracker crust and a marshmallow filling, then I used a creamy chocolate frosting for the top and finished it off with chocolate sprinkles and a basketball OREO. I picked up everything I needed for our get together at Albertsons.

The last little touch I wanted to talk about was the cute banner and backdrop for the table. I used a chalkboard and created a chalk basketball play board of sorts. Then I took some orange scrapbook paper, twine, and thickers and decided on the word “HUSTLE” for my backdrop.

Overall, everything turned out delicious and the theme was not too over the top and the perfect touch.

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