{Bake} A Blue Inspired Christmas: Blueberry, Cranberry and Pistachio White Christmas Recipe

This year we decided on a Blue, White and Silver Colour Scheme for Christmas  which l truly adore!!  This colour scheme is so fresh and reminds me of cooler times in Holland but also the blue skies of Melbourne which seem to be a bit more grey these days!!  Hopefully the sun will come out on Christmas day and make these dull grey days seem sparkly and bright!

{Celebrate} Sew N Love Dessert Table

Over the past month l have had the pleasure of collaborating with the lovely and very very talented Dilek from Todi Design on a very special dessert table for the Sweets Table Contest.  This table comes from the heart and was inspired by my grandmother's sewing box she had given me many years ago and the antique table my father left to me when he passed away!  My grandmother has been very ill so l wanted to create a table that represented her and her passion for sewing and cross stitch and combine my passion for baking!  I thought Sew n Love was a great title for my table so l contacted my gorgeous friend Dilek to design all the lovely printables and papers for my lovely table!   l think these printables would be perfect for Valentines Day, Bridal Showers, engagements or anniversaries and hopefully soon they will be available in her ETSY Shop!! http://www.etsy.com/shop/todidesign 

For the background l used an old canvas and created a patchwork pattern with the papers.  I then decided to create some lovely large paper rosettes using kraft and metallic paper and some paper doilies and the printables that Dilek had designed for me.  I also thought it would be lovely for the guests to create their very own "Fill my Heart with Love" pin cushion as a favour so Dilek designed the pattern, bag topper and cute little love heart tag!

I am SEW n LOVE with the table we created and adore all the desserts l made which tasted just as good as they looked!!  I really loved making my vanilla bean cookies with their material embossed fondant and lovely pearl button and rose details!  I continued this theme with the cupcakes and made fondant shimmer buttons and some material inspired rosettes to adorn these delicious treats!  I also made an embossed topper for the cake and then adorned it with fondant roses.  The cake was inspired by raspberri cupcakes triple chocolate layer cake http://www.raspberricupcakes.com/2010/09/triple-triple-chocolate-cake.html which l had made a few weeks ago but l wanted to expose the layers of this cake as it was so delectably delicious and l thought it looked so enticing with its chocolately goodness bared!! 

I also made raspberry melting moments and some caramel kisses which l topped with chocolate ganache in a Hershey's kiss pattern and adorned with tiny red heart sugar sprinkles.  The chocolate fudge cake pops were also adorned with the heart sugar sprinkles and encased in white chocolate.  My favourite treat on the table was my sweet salty caramels which l secretly eat at about 10pm at night so l don't have to share them with the kids!!  I just adore their chewy goodness and really can't stop at just one!!!

I also bought some chocolate bars and covered them with Dilek's wrappers and my daughter also spotted some sugar heart candy that l had to put into little jars on the table.

I hope you have loved seeing my entry for the STC as l have truly loved creating it!!

So remember to Bake, Create and Celebrate!

Bye for now

Larissa

{Celebrate} A Little Backyard Sweetness!

It has been a very hectic few weeks here and obviously some sort of astrological  force is in my house of health!!  We seem to be on a bit of a merry go round with sickness circling around us and wondering when it will end??

My poor little girl Kaitlyn got terribly ill with her Asthma 2 weeks ago and suffered one of the worst attacks yet but now she is on new medication and is breathing easy!!  It was rather scary when she was not responding to the medications and l was dreading that she might be hospitalised but with many trips to the doctor she is now 100% better!

Unfortunately she had to have a week off from school to recover but this gave me an excuse to have a little picnic in the backyard!!  Audrey really loved having her Big Sister home and had been nagging me for quite a while to have a picnic in the backyard but this was back in winter and finally the sun came out so l indulged in the idea!!

Unfortunately it was a little too hot and after about 10 minutes of eating yoghurt with raspberries and sipping on Pink Lemonade we decided it was time for some sprinkler fun!!

I was so happy to capture these photos of the girls having fun in the sun!!  We ended the day with some yummy mini cupcakes with frosting out of a can and chocolate chips of course!!

The Girls loved it!!  A SWEET Day indeed! Pitty Byron wasn't able to join in on the fun but we managed to save him some sweet treats to eat!

So remember to Bake, Create and Celebrate!
Bye for now...
Larissa

{Celebrate} The Charm of Hentley Farm Wines - Where the Winery comes to YOU!

A couple of weeks ago we had a wine tasting at my brother's house, where our favourite vineyard came to us with their wonderful wines!!  It was a great night shared with our red wine lover friends and Matt from Hentley Farm.  I thought it was quite novel for me to create a savoury table for the evening but of course l could not resist putting in a couple of sweets!!

I wanted to create a rustic yet sophisticated atmosphere so l decided on a brown, beige, cream and gold colour palette and found a lovely textured fabric to use as runners on the buffets and cut strips to tie bows around the vases.  I also used an old brown suitcase as a riser to put the desserts on and l thought it was rather a nice touch since they were travelling to us!!  I used my faithful canvas and covered it in various papers and then used the brown glitter alphabet stickers from Merci to write " The Charm Of Hentley Farm Wines" to set the scene!  I also used the free "Thanks Giving" printables by Love the Day for the food labels which really complimented my colour scheme and l loved the elegant damask pattern. http://blog.catchmyparty.com/2010/11/15/free-thanksgiving-party-printables-from-the-love-the-day/

My sister in law (to be) and l created some wonderful finger food to accompany Hentley Farm's Big, Bold & Beautiful Wines!!  There were 11 wines on tasting and we created a dish to compliment each wine so ... yes ... we were in the kitchen all day but we worked so well together that l even had time to go home and get ready and attempt to take some photos of the table before everyone arrived! (I really need to learn how to take great photos so if anyone is out there and wants to teach me please .... pretty please let me know!!!)

The dishes we created were:

Cheese & antipasto platter with stuffed pepperdews
Crustini topped with chicken liver pate
Pastry cups with smoked trout mousse
Crustini topped with smoked salmon and creme friache
Stuffed mushrooms with ricotta and herbs
Goats cheese and caramalised onion pastries
Seared beef fillet with spinach & pesto
Redcurrant pork belly with an apple, craisin and almond slaw
Mini fillet mignon
Lamb shank filo pastries with pepperberry yoghurt dipping sauce
Lamb cutlets with fig paste glaze
Dark chocolate truffles with a gold dust
Chocolate caramel brownies with damask chocolate topper

It was a Fabulous evening!  Maybe a little on the warm side for a red wine tasting (I blame my hangover on the warm weather!!) but it was AMAZING nevertheless! Thanks to Deb & Al who opened their home for the evening and thanks to Matt from Hentley Farm who allowed us to share their wines with our wonderful friends and thanks to everyone who came to share in an evening of great food, great wine and great friends!

I will be back soon with another fun post of the girls backyard picnic but for now I say Bye Bye! 

So remember to Bake, Create and Celebrate!

Larissa

{Celebrate} Halloween Cupcakes and Spider Web Chocolate Tart

Last week l got into the Halloween Spirit and created some yummy treats for a lovely evening shared with my gorgeous friends and their families!  Halloween is not normally a tradition we celebrate but l had so much fun getting my spook on this year and getting a bit spookalicious in the kitchen!  I also had a bit too much fun turning Byron into a Zombie complete with fake blood and ash skin!!

It was a great night and the kids had such a great time trick or treating!  It is definitely not like it is in America but still a lot of families participated in this FUN Tradition this year, so the kids came home with a nice goodie bag of candy and even some licorice which l think was a trick!!!

For Dessert I made some chocolate cupcakes for the kids with a chocolate ganache and pumpkin and red back spider toppers made out of white chocolate fondant which l had a lot of fun sculpting!!  I then made my easy chocolate ganache tart for the adults http://sweetonparties.blogspot.com/2011/09/deliciously-easy-chocolate-frangelico.html and topped it with Wiltons white chocolate fudge pen and another red back spider!!  

So remember to Bake, Create and Celebrate!!

Take Care & Bye for now!
Larissa

{Bake} Sweetapolita's Chocolate Stout Cake was a Crowd Pleaser!!

Last week l was inspired by Rosie from Sweetapolita and her Divine Chocolate Stout Cake and jumped at the chance to bring dessert to my brother's place on Saturday night just so l could try it!!

This cake really did live up to it's reputation with it's rich moist centre and deep intense Chocolate aroma's which the stout seemed to enhance!  Best of all l didn't even need chocolate!!  This recipe calls for the use of Cocoa powder and from my experience cakes made with cocoa powder tend to be not as rich and moist like those made with melted chocolate, so yes l was pleasantly suprised with the results of this recipe!

I also had been itching to practice my rose piping skills so when Rosie used Donna Hay's Vanilla Buttercream Recipe that was the clincher!!  I knew that this cake would be DELICIOUS and l had the perfect medium to create a very pretty rose swirl cake!

{Celebrate} Birthday Cupcakes for School & Kaitlyn's Birthday Breakfast

Ok, Ok, l know l have gotten my posts mixed up and l should have posted this one before Kaitlyn's Unbirthday Party!!!  But to tell the truth l had forgotten about it as l was so excited to share her Ruffles and Lace Unbirthday with you all!! So does that make me a bad mother????  Probably!!! Hahaha but she will never know as she doesn't read my blog!

So what did Kaitlyn request for her class treat on her Birthday??  Well it wasn't cupcakes..... it was 30 massive heart flooded and stenciled cookies.... and my response was.....mmmmm l think cupcakes would be nice!!  So on Friday before the Party l brought to school 30 chocolate cupcakes and l also made the flowers to top the cupcakes which l am rather proud of as it was my first attempt!!  I also picked up some Bouncing Ball Balloons for the class and the children Loved them!!  She had a wonderful day and then we went off to the Kinder Disco that night where we won a Fruit & Vegie Tray!

Saturday morning we celebrated Kaitlyn turning 7 with our traditional breakfast in our bed!  Kaitlyn requested Crepes with Lemon and Sugar for her special Breakfast and an Iced Chocolate which she thoroughly ENJOYED!!
All in All l think she had a truly WONDERFUL 7th Birthday and l know l loved every minute of it and so did she!!

So remember to Bake, Create and Celebrate!
I will be back with another post tomorrow of Sweetness from Sweetapolita!
Bye for now
Larissa

{Celebrate} A Girlie Soiree .... Eat, Drink and Be Pretty!

Last weekend l had an Envy Jewelery Party with some of my Gorgeous friends as an excuse to have a bit of a Girlie Catch Up and to have a glass of bubbles or two ... or three... or four or maybe more!!! hahahaha!

We had a lovely day and even though it was raining outside we truly didn't notice as we sipped on champagne and ate till our hearts content!  My lovely husband took the kids out for the afternoon so there was lots of time to chat with my beautiful friends and to buy some GORGEOUS Jewelery!!

Here are some photo's of the dessert table l made for the day with jewelery accents to mark the occasion!!  I am loving lace at the moment and came across some lovely paper which looks like lace so l just had to have it to create a pretty and very girlie backdrop!  I also used the bobble wool l had bought for Kaitlyn's party that l had forgotten about to create a bunting!!!

I made eton mess, raspberry butter cream yoyo's, gilded diamond cupcakes with white chocolate fondant and frosting, raspberry and white chocolate cake pops and l had some coconut ice, vanilla bean cookies and white chocolate and apricot slice from Kaitlyn's Party.

I hope you enjoyed the photo's and thanks to all my lovelies who came for our little soirée!  I had such a lovely day and hope to catch up with you all very soon!


So remember to ..... Bake, Create and Celebrate!

Bye for now
Larissa