Sunday, November 23, 2014

High Tea Time- Tea Party

I was so excited when the request came through for an authentic High Tea British Style tea party dessert table, not to mention that it was for a good friend which made it even more fun! I spent a few weeks researching authentic tea cakes and other styles to use in conjunction with my clients desired food requests. I was so pleased with how cute everything turned out! What a fun way to spend a Saturday afternoon, lucky guests!!
Traditional Battenberg Cake, similar to a butter cake or pound cake. It is served in a checkerboard pattern, with each layer generously covered in apricot preserves then the cake is wrapped in marzipan. I found this panthat made it super fast and super easy to make sure each of my layers were the exact same length depth and size
It was especially helpful since butter cake batter is so dense. I have found so many cute and fun uses for it in my children's cakes as well!

 mini s'mores cupcakes made with a graham cracker and chocolate chunk crust on the bottom, then sprinkled on the top of the cupcake. Topped in a chocolate marshmallow frosting and finished with a toasted mini marshmallow, courtesy of my lovely chef's torch!
 French vanilla and raspberry petit fours
 Traditional tea scones, in plain flavor and cranberry orange. I love this little scone panof mine!
Tea Time!!

Saturday, November 15, 2014

MInnie Mouse Birthday!

Minnie Mouse parties are always so sweet and cute! My daughter had her Minnie party when she turned 2, it was so fun to design her party and I'm always thrilled when I get to create another take on a classic theme like Minnie! Who doesn't love her?! For this cake the birthday girl chose a chocolate cake with yummy buttercream frosting. The Minnie head is molded with rice krispies in the wilton mini ball pan, which I love and use for so many little details such as this, it was then topped with modeling chocolate, as are the ribbon and heads and dots accessorizing the cake. The cupcakes were for a party where a girl had a chocolate and nut allergy, so the cupcakes were a black french vanilla cupcake with a sweet almond and lemon buttercream and the ears and bows on the cupcakes are strictly fondant.
 one of my favorite cake stands, cute and small and you can change out the
bow to match your yummy treats!

Saturday, November 1, 2014

Kids Fall Tea Party and Treats/ Goo Tutorial

We had such a fun filled October, with parties and activities. To finish off the month, my daughter has been wanting to have a tea party for about a year now, so we decided to have a Halloween tea party! We made things from some of my favorite blogs and a few things of our own and had a great time! Here are some fun Halloween ideas!
My daughter really loved doing pumpkin buns this fall- easy and super cute! We just did this one with a rolled up sock.
Getting ready for the party...
 Each kid had their own cauldron to take home all their goodies in. I found them cheap after Halloween last year, but you can also get them fairly cheap here. That's the cheapest I've found this year. For drink fun, we used Sunny D juice bottleswith sport tops, bonus=no spills! Then we wrapped them in this pumpkin waterbottle label free from Dasani.
 super cute and easy clementine "pumpkins", just use a piece of celery for the stem!
 banana ghosts
 mini monster cakes
 spider pops
 pb&j sandwiches and plain butter and jam sandwiches just cut with a pumpkin cookie cutter
 toilet paper mummy wrapping 101
 donuts on a string game- must eat without hands
some cheated :)
 After the donuts the afternoon of pure sugar continued with cookie decorating. We made ghost and pumpkin cookies and frosted them in advance with white and orange icing. After they were thoroughly dried, the kids were able to use edible markersto design their own cookies. My daughter absolutely loves doing this. Anytime I make cookies, I always save a few for her to do with my pens. They make super cute personalized gifts for grandparents! 
The kids finished off the party by making homemade goo (also called flubber). It's something that is super easy and one of the hits of the party most of the time! Kids and Goo, go figure!
 Monster Goo
Glitter Goo- oh the possibilities!
 I never knew how to make it until I tried a few recipes with much failure.
This one seems to work great!
Goo: use 2 bowls-
Bowl 1:
3/4 cup cold water
1 cup Elmer's Washable Glitter Glue (Glitter Glue is fun because its more like slime)
food coloring of your choice
Mix these together

Bowl 2:
1/2 cup hot water
1 tsp. Borax( if you can find a small box your lucky! I never could, so I keep my supply of  Borax and use it for extra laundry care or rainy day Goo making!)
Mix these until the  is dissolved
Slowly add the glue mixture to the Boraxmixture and mix well. Pour out any extra water and store Goo fun in a sandwich bag so it doesn't dry out. There are so many themes you can use with Goo. We have mixed in everything from glitter powder to little figurines and holiday decor! Its perfect with snowflakes for a "frozen" winter Goo!

Here are a few pics from our Halloween day traditions!
We pick up our daughter from school dressed up and head to lunch at the The Cheesecake Factory , mmm, before trick-or-treating to the mall...
Yummy Halloween Hot Chocolate-its fun for the kids because you can do all sorts of colors and toppings! We did monster green with candy eyeballsand pumpkin orange with sugar sprinkles. There is nothing better than homemade white hot chocolate. I love this recipe from Your Homebased Mom, we found it last year and L.O.V.E it!!! We pair the hot chocolate with yummy homemade donuts (buttermilk biscut pop and serve dough fried with canola oil-super simple) and there you have the perfect snack after a chilly night out trick or treating- or in our case, justified by doing anything outside in the fall or winter.... or maybe spring.....and summer, haha!
Happy Halloween from our Frozen family!