Enhancing Your Game Night

At Puzzling Pursuits, we create exciting, immersive puzzle adventures. Our games transport you into the midst of a compelling story, during a specific time period, and make you the protagonist. In an effort to create an even more immersive and exciting experience, we created Enhance Your Game Night, a curated list of recipe, costume, and music recommendations that are custom tailored to the settings and events within our games. Whether you're just interested in adding a fun drink to your solo evening, or you want to cook a full-blown meal, dress-up, and have themed music for a multi-member adventure, you can pick and choose elements to suit your interests. We sincerely hope you enjoy! 

 

Step Into The Wonderful and Wacky World of Wonderland

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, the classic tale from 1865, has enchanted children and adults alike for generations. With its talking creatures, curious riddles, and topsy-turvy logic—the reader is transported to a fantastic world of endless surprises, peculiar characters, and delightful nonsense, where the impossible becomes possible and every turn leads deeper into mystery and wonder.

The following set of recommendations are an custom picked to immerse you, the puzzler, into this fantastical world. You will find recommendations for:


Beverages 

Drink Me Potion


Early in her adventure, Alice encounters an enticing potion labeled “Drink Me” which is described as tasting like cherry tart, custard, pineapple, roast turkey, toffee, and hot buttered toast. The potion makes her shrink to the point where she can fit through a tiny door leading to the Queen of Hearts’ garden. Try putting your own spin on the original with this shimmering blue cocktail! Although it won’t make you shrink down to ten inches, it looks just as magical! Try it out here.


Queen of Hearts Cocktail


One of the main characters of Wonderland, The Queen of Hearts is known for her fearsome temper and threats of “Off with your head!”.  Though she gets terribly angry at everything, she has a clear love for the color red! Set the Wonderland mood with a Queen-of-Hearts-red cocktail featuring cranberry juice, vodka, orange juice, and Campari using this site, which also features two other Wonderland drink ideas!



Blue Butterfly Cocktail/Mocktail

Blue Butterfly Cocktail/Mocktail: In the Disney film of Alice in Wonderland, Alice meets a blue caterpillar who later turns into a butterfly. He is first found lounging on a mushroom, smoking a hookah, and the two have a conversation that leaves Alice a bit confused. The Caterpillar is a quintessential Wonderland character, and this fun drink is a brilliant blue to represent him! It can be made as a cocktail or non-alcoholic - your choice! Try it here .



Additional Alcoholic Drinks

This website features six different cocktail recipes based on characters such as the White Rabbit, Cheshire Cat, and Caterpillar. Enjoy exploring!



Mad Hatter Tea

Mad Hatter Tea: Tea is an essential beverage for those who want to feel as if they are attending the Mad Hatter’s Party! You can brew up any tea of your preference, and there’s certainly a wide range of choices. If you’re looking for something more specific to the theme, this collection is inspired specifically by National Mad Hatter Day. 


Drink Me Bottles

As another take on the well-known Drink Me potion, you can make an easy DIY non-alcoholic version by using small bottles and filling them with bright drinks such as tea or juice! You can add tags that say “Drink Me” to make them look more realistic, or use food coloring to make the drinks look like unique potions. Here is a link to some bottles with tags already on them, but you can surely make your own tags as well!


Food  

English Crumpets


Alice is served bread and butter along with her tea at the Mad Hatter’s party, a typical English tea fare. Equally common are foods such as crumpets or English muffins. Though two are similar, crumpets are more traditionally British while English muffins are actually more common in the United States. Crumpets are made on a griddle and usually served with butter, though jam or clotted cream are also popular options. Try your hand at the classic crumpet here to get in the tea party mood!



Mushroom Scones

For another savory snack, try making these mushroom scones! While exploring Wonderland, Alice finds the caterpillar lounging on a mushroom, smoking a hookah. He advises her to eat from the mushroom in order to change her size, helping her to adapt to Wonderland. These scones are inspired by that very mushroom, and this recipe also incorporates pepper because of the pepper soup made by the Duchess’ cook! If you aren’t the biggest fan of mushrooms, you can make these traditional English scones, which are commonly served with jam and/or clotted cream.



Tea Sandwiches 

These dainty sandwiches are the perfect way to replicate the Mad Hatter’s tea party! Though you can make tea sandwiches a variety of ways, here’s an example that is inspired by the card soldiers, with card suits on the front. This page also has inspiration for tea party decorations and other recipes that you can check out here! If you want some classic tea sandwich recipes, try these.


Mock Turtle Soup

The Mock Turtle is a character whose name comes from the Victorian dish of mock turtle soup, a cheap alternative to real turtle soup in the 1800s. This dish used a calf’s or sheep’s head to imitate the taste of turtle, which is directly reflected in the Mock Turtle’s appearance. He is depicted as having a turtle’s body with a calf’s head, hooves and tail. Though that was the original recipe, don’t worry - recipes today use ground beef instead, such as this one here.

Eat Me Cookies


Alice encounters a box of colorful cookies with the words “Eat Me”, which makes her shoot up in size until she is a giant. Cute and colorful, these cookies are the perfect wonky Wonderland dessert! This recipe helps you to create ones that look just like those in the movie, but feel free to switch it up as well. If you’d like to take it a step further, you could even cut out teacup shapes for some and write “Drink Me” on them!
 

Queen of Hearts Jam Tarts

In the book, the Queen of Hearts makes tarts that are stolen, and she holds a trial to accuse the Knave of Hearts of the theft. Though it’s not specified which kind of tarts she made, jam tarts like these are a classic tea time treat. What’s more, they are representative of the Queen’s favorite color, red! Try out this simple yet adorable recipe, which features hearts on the top as well.

 

Unbirthday Cake


The unbirthday cake is presented to Alice as the Mad Hatter and the March Hare sing her the silly Unbirthday Song in the Disney rendition of the story. If you’re feeling like going all out for a dessert, try recreating this cake yourself! It may be a little crazy-looking, but so is Wonderland! Find the recipe here.

Extras 

Costumes

To really immerse yourself in the game, you can also dress up as a character from Alice in Wonderland! Here are some basic DIY costume ideas for a couple of main characters, but feel free to purchase pre-made costumes or to make up your own!

Alice: Pair a blue dress with a white apron, white stockings, and black shoes. For even more detail, try wearing a headband or carrying a teacup with you!

Mad Hatter: This costume can be done many ways, but the key is to wear mismatched clothes with varying colors. Aim for pieces such as a jacket, trousers, or a vest, and add a top hat and a crazy wig to tie the look together.

Queen of Hearts: Wear a red dress with a black jacket and a white collar or cuffs if you have them! Add a crown or tiara on top, and carry some playing cards with you! If you’re feeling extra creative, try painting some red hearts on white stockings to spruce up your costume

White Rabbit: Get a white suit or jacket and pair it with a red vest, a pocket watch, and white gloves. If you have bunny ears, add those to fully complete the look! Cheshire Cat: Any mixture of pink and purple will do, but try to go for striped patterns, along with cat ears to finish it off!


Music/Podcasts

Looking to really set the scene for the whimsical world of Wonderland? Try putting on the original soundtrack from Disney’s animated film using this playlist! You can also try the sound track by Danny Elfman from the 2010 Tim Burton version here.