{Celebrate} Kaitlyn's Favourite Things Party

Planning my daughter's 8th Birthday was such a joy to create as it was a real snapshot of who she is and everything that makes her unique and wonderful.  I utterly enjoyed planning this party and had some wonderful vendors on board to help me bring this Favourite Things Party to life!  I would like to give a BIG Shout Out to Emma from Haven Lifestyle Photography who captured every special moment and made the day so enjoyable. {THANK YOU}

{Bake) Oreo Truffle Mousse Cake inspired by Sweet Style

During the week l spotted a Dessert Table created by Leanne from Sweet Style which got me really excited! Not only was it perfectly styled like all of Leanne's work but it was full of delicious Oreo's.  I have never really understood people's obsession with this little cookie until l made Oreo truffle cake pops last weekend and now l am obsessed!  It is amazing how this cookie is transformed into the most deliciously decadent truffle by simply adding some cream cheese!

{Celebrate} Laser Tag Party for Byron's 10th Birthday Bash!

Laser Tag Party Dessert Table

I can hardly believe that my little boy is already 10 years old and is growing up so quickly!!  It feels like yesterday when we welcomed him into the world and held him in our arms for the first time.  It is so true how time just seems to slip by and each year seems to go quicker and quicker. I remember his first year and how l was wishing for him to grow up and meet all his milestones and now l just want him to stop growing and be my sweet little boy forever.

{Create} Upcycling and How to Create a Ruffle Garland

I am a HUGE fan of upcycling old things into new and not only is it a great way to recycle and reduce landfill but it is also cheap, and let's face it l am not afraid to admit l am cheap!!  I mean who doesn't love a bargain and even better when you can create something for free??

Last week l was going through some old fabric and found some Ikea curtain scraps in my stash that l remember keeping for just in case....they had been sitting there for 5 years so l thought it was about time l created something with them!

{Bake} Glamorous "Barbie Inspired" Pink & Black Cupcakes

It has been quite a while between blog posts but today l finally had some time in the kitchen and created some very, very pretty cupcakes for my son's teacher as it was her Birthday! It was nice to have an excuse to get into the kitchen and create something Glamorous with "Blanche"! Just in case you are not aware who Blanche is... well she is my new assistant and now l don't know what l did without her before!! She is my Sleek New Almond Creme Kitchen Aid and the most lovely gift EVER!! I received her just over 2 weeks ago for my 35th Birthday from my Hubby and all my gorgeous Family and Friends..and l don't know how to Thank them all enough but l am sure they will all be happy with the creations she will make!!

{Bake} A Lithuanian Dessert Table for Mothers Day

Hey Lovelies,

A couple of weeks ago l was filled with nostalgia and a hankering for the delicious Lithuanian dough-nuts (spurgos) my grandmother used to make for us after school! So l decided that l would prepare a dessert table laden with Lithuanian Desserts for Mother Day. However in my quest l did not find too many and don't remember eating too many sweet things growing up either!! I did come to a conclusion though that all Lithuanian food is Beige! hahaha!

{Celebrate} Shabby Chic Vintage Paper Doll Party for Audrey

Hello Lovelies,

A couple of weekends ago we celebrated little Audrey's 4th Birthday with a Shabby Chic Vintage Paper Doll Party. Audrey has loved playing with paper dolls since she was around 2 and after her Fairy and Wizards party last year l knew l wanted to create a Vintage Paper Doll Party for when she turned 4!

I wanted to create a party that was pretty but fun and fell in love with the vintage images of Betsy McCall. For those not familiar with Betsy she is an American Icon from Mc'Calls Patterns, who every month issued a new Betsy Doll, outfits and story in their monthly magazine.

l had been inspired by Louis Vuitton's current spring collection of pastels and lace when creating this party for Audrey and knew l could rely on Diletta from Todi Boutique to make my vision a reality! The lovely Diletta created some very pretty 1950's inspired printables in a colour palette of powder blue, candy pink and a touch of beige with sweet Betsy McCall Images.


I created a 1950's kitchenette for the backdrop of this party to feature her oh so pretty play kitchen which she adores! The party was held under our pergola and my technical consult (Lawrence) and l constructed a wall out of 4 packing sheets for the background and l painted it in Wattyl Raspberry Whip. We then hung up white picture frames with sky blue paper and masking tape to create little windows and l made some sweet curtains hung on dowel and positioned over the windows. I had some pink and white vinyl wallpaper l found at my grandma's house and used that on the floor for 1950's lino. I used the same pretty shabby chic patchwork curtain material for the dessert table backdrop and the party table. I had found some lovely powder blue lace tinware from target (they now have pink for mother's day... ohhhh l am tempted to buy more!! hahaha) and wanted to feature these on the dessert table along with a 1950's dolls wardrobe which l painted white and hung little Betsy Dresses on wooden hangers to form a garland. I hung some white eyelet lace paper lanterns to suspend over the dessert table, and then used the cupcake towers and wrappers from the Martha Stewart's Doily range. I wanted the table to be white so l covered it with a white lace doily tablecloth and then some ruffle and lace white fabric which l gathered at the ends with some powder blue ribbons and hung a pennant polka dot bunting across the front of the table. I also created a welcome sign near the drinks station using an old 1950's picture frame with more paper doilies and hung a Betsy bunting over the little shelf we made for the welcome sign.

I wanted the desserts to be pink and white and made vanilla bean cookies with flooded patterns topped with pink sixlets, pink and white chocolate cherry cake pops, rosewater cupcakes with marshmallow frosting, mini blueberry cheesecakes topped with marshmallow hearts, lemon slice with fondant blossoms and a giant chocolate and raspberry buttercream cupcake with rose swirls, fondant flowers and fondant pearls. I also bought some mini meringues in pastel shades and put these in gold footed crystal dessert bowls.

A drinks station was set up under the other faux window with tutti frutti punch, milk, lemon lime and bitters, sparkling wine, water and flavoured drinking straws on offer for the party guests.

I bought some white lace paper bon bon boxes and filled these with mini musks and attached a helium balloon as party favours for the guests. For the tableware l had some plain plastic ware left over from Christmas which l wanted to use up. For the plates l used a punch hole and then threaded pink and blue ribbon and tied it with a bow. The clear cups were rather flimsy so l decided to double them and put a paper doily inside with a Betsy dress image and then secured them by attaching some pink or blue ribbon around the top of the cup. I bought some roses, field carnations and baby's breath and filled some tall glass jars with posies attached with some natural eyelet lace and a scallop punch topper.

The children played many vintage games such as musical statues, pass the parcel, panic post, pin the tail on the donkey and the finale was a pinata. Nicole from Tradewind Tiaras had inspired me with her tutorials http://tradewindtiaras.blogspot.com.au/2010/10/diy-project-tissue-paper-rose-pomander.html on how to convert a plain ol' ugly pinata into something quite beautiful!! I had found a hannah montana pinata for only $9 and then stripped it and decorated it with blue and white paper rosettes and ruffles inspired by Audrey's party dress and then made some little bags decorated with white paper doilies and a Betsy image or scallop punch topper for the children to collect their goodies in.




We had such a wonderful day and Audrey and her friends had lots of fun in her 1950's Kitchenette!! I wanted to keep our pergola like that FOREVER!! But now it is back to normal and l miss my pink wall.... but eventually it will make an appearance when we finally have our Ken & Barbie Party!

I hope you have all enjoyed seeing the photos from Audrey's Shabby Chic Vintage Paper Doll Party which was so much fun to create!!


Take Care
XOXO
Larissa

Here are the list of vendors:

Party Styling, Concept, Photography and Desserts by Sweet On Parties

https://www.facebook.com/sweetonparties

Party Printables - Todi Design Boutique

http://www.etsy.com/shop/todi

Children's Table and Powder Blue Chairs - Tiny Tables and Chairs

www.tinytablesandchairs.com.au

Balloons - Let's Celebrate Parties
http://www.letscelebrateparties.com.au/

{Celebrate} "Dear Baby Girl" Baby Shower for a Dear Friend!

A couple of weeks ago l had the privilege of creating a gorgeous dessert table for my Bestest Friend who is expecting her second little bubba at the end of March.  Her sister was hosting the event and had asked if l could provide the desserts whilst she organised the Lunch.  It was a Lovely Day and the sun shone brightly as we sipped on sparkling wine and sat in the garden enjoying Lunch and each others company!

The "Mum to Be" and l have been Best Friends since we were 8 years old so she is more like a sister to me and one of my oldest and dearest friends so l wanted to create a table that was sentimental, girlie and of course vintage!!  When l saw Dilek's "Little Deer" Baby Shower Printables l was in LOVE and had envisioned a very pretty baby shower with lots of natural elements such as wood and Hessian and then contrasting soft delicate doilies and pretty bows.

I wanted to make this shower not your typical woodland baby shower which l do love but instead wanted to give it a bit of a sentimental touch so the idea of "Dear Baby Girl" was born!  I created a little guest book for my dear friend and asked guests to write little messages of love for the dear baby girl who would be a part of our lives soon.  I also incorporated the use of gorgeous white tin mail boxes from http://www.tlbc.com.au/ to hold the chocolate bar favours to carry on this theme.

I loved this colour palette of peach, white and red and how it looked so striking against the natural tones of the wood!  I think it truly looked splendid and had a real vintage charm and was girlie but not overly girlie and a little bit different to your typical pastel pink baby shower.

I created all of the desserts with love based upon the Mum to Be's favourites and these included Mini Lemon Meringue Pies, Sticky Date Cupcakes with Butterscotch Frosting, Meringue Kisses with dark chocolate, Vanilla Bean Cookies with white chocolate fondant toppers and fondant bows, Chocolate Brownie Bites with chocolate ganache and sixlet toppers and the cake was a 4 Layer Vanilla Cake with Raspberry Buttercream.  All guests also took home a personalised chocolate bar with details of the baby shower as a favour.

It was such a joy to create this table and it was a lovely day spent spoiling our Dearest Friend and her little baby girl who will arrive very very soon!

I hope you have all enjoyed seeing this little soirée and l have to give a special mention to Katie from The Ivory Social https://www.facebook.com/theivorysocial who lent me that GORGEOUS Deer to top my pretty little cake!  She is just the SWEETEST!!  And that Little Deer was really the star of the show!!

Also a BIG Thank You to Louisa from http://www.tlbc.com.au/ who always stocks the most GORGEOUS party items and continually supports me and my little party endeavors and inspires me with her AMAZING Event Styling!

And Finally a continued Thank You to Dilek from Todi Boutique http://todidesign.blogspot.com.au/ for creating the most beautiful printables that inspire me and for being such a SWEET Friend and Support!  Please have a look through her ETSY Shop as l am sure there is SOMETHING that may INSPIRE you to create a bit of SWEETNESS in your life or for those you love! http://www.etsy.com/shop/todi?ref=seller_info

XOXO
Larissa

{Create} Novelty Cakes....The Good, The Bad and The UGLY!!

I know l have been a bit quiet of late with my Blog entries but l have been so super busy that l have not really had to much time to sit down and write or maybe l have not had the courage!!

You see my ego took quite a beating a few weeks back, when l had an ABSOLUTE Fondant Disaster and it has taken nearly a month for me to recover!!  I was about to give up baking FOREVER!!  Of course we all have a few disasters here and there but l have never had one where someone was relying on me to deliver the perfect cake!!  I do have to blame it partially on the weather but it was my poor time management that let me down as well as my cake decorating supplier!!

I was absolutely devastated when l turned up the day before my cake was due to find out my supplier did not have the product l had ordered and that they also had no intention of getting it in for me but had failed to communicate that to me!!  So when l turned up to collect my White Chocolate Fondant l was in disbelief that it was not there!!

Luckily for me Let's Celebrate Parties http://www.letscelebrateparties.com.au/ was there to the rescue and supplied me with a lovely Satin Ice Buttercream flavoured Icing which is absolutely DELICIOUS and far superior to the white chocolate fondant l had been using for 10 years!

Unfortunately due to weather conditions my Thomas cake did not turn out as l had intended and poor Thomas looked like he really needed a trip to the repair shop for a bit of Botox!!  I was so devastated and spent an hr or so crying as l tried to complete the cake as l could not start over!!  If only l had the fondant a few days before this would not have happened or if l had applied the fondant topper straight away then his face would not  have cracked and looked wrinkled!!  The concept was there and the cake did look quite good but was just not of my high standards so l felt like l was a total failure!!

I have since overcome my fear of fondant and recently produced quite a cute cake for a lovely friend at my husband's work whom they nickname smurfette!  I had lots of fun creating this novelty cake and it was a lovely suprise ordered by one of her colleagues and a close friend of mine!!  It was a 4 layer chocolate cake with white chocolate cream cheese ganache and then covered in Buttercream Flavoured Fondant! TRULY DELICIOUS!!

So this past month has had it's highs and its lows... it has been good... bad... and ugly (puffy eyes ugly) but l have learned so much and are truly grateful for all of my lovely supporters who kept my spirits up and had faith in my abilities!!  I would especially like to thank Amanda from https://www.facebook.com/redwagonevents who has been an amazing support, along with my family and friends!

Love Ya's All!
XOXO
Larissa

{Bake} Valentines Day: Vanilla Cake for two and Carnation Petit Fours

Ok l know this post comes a little too late but hey better than never!  Sorry l have had a most exhausting week and have failed to write this early as l had planned!!  So this will be the quickest post l have ever written l think!!!

Last week l had a bit of fun in the kitchen and made vanilla cake and rose water macarons with a Turkish delight infused white chocolate ganache!!  Yes a complete mouthful!!!  Don't think that will appear in recipe books anytime soon! hahahaha! Finally my French Macarons worked!!  I followed the basic macaron recipe created by Steph from Raspberri Cupcakes and finally l have found a method that actually works!!  So here is her recipe for some delicious Strawberry Balsamic Macarons! http://www.raspberricupcakes.com/2011/10/balsamic-strawberry-butter-cake.html

I also transformed my Vanilla Cake into a cupcake cake for two with cute white chocolate spoons and a fondant heart and finally white chocolate coated vanilla cake with vanilla butter cream!  I had lots of fun testing out a new piping method where you paint food colour on inner of piping bag and then press together and then put in your butter cream and start to pipe until the colours blend!!  It was so fun to do and created the prettiest icing ever!  I will definitely be using this method more often!  So much fun!

Hope you all have a wonderful Valentines Evening!

Kisses and Hugs

Larissa
XOXO

{Bake} Conquering the Giant Cupcake!

I have been a bit MIA the last 2 weeks as l have been busy busy with getting the kids off to school and kindergarten but during this time l did manage to conquer the giant cupcake!!  I was uncertain at first if l could do it but l pleasantly surprised myself! 

Giant Cup cake made by me!

Inspiration for Giant Cupcake from client

A neighbour of mine approached me to make her grand daughters birthday cake as she had tried to make it several times with no success!  Her Daughter had an image of how she wanted the cake to look which included the chocolate casing! (think mine came pretty darn close!!) Now my neighbour is a great baker so l thought oh no if she can't do it l wonder if l can??  

I was a little scared...to say the least so l decided to do a test cake for Australia Day as we were having guests over for a BBQ!!  I decided to make it into a HUGE Lamington Cupcake which looked rather good and tasted mmmmm DELICIOUS!!

Giant Lamington Cupcake

My giant cupcake worked out perfectly thanks to a wonderful tutorial l came across on Cake Central which l wanted to share with you all!  Of course l didn't have candy melts but used about 1 tablespoon of copha in 300g of chocolate but go take a look at this tutorial as it is quite comprehensive!  Don't you just love her gorgeous giant cupcake??  I do!  https://cakecentral.com/tutorial/giant-cupcake-candy-melt-base  

Another great resource l came across was on you tube through Cupcake Addiction where she put in a whole heap of chocolate into the base and swirled it around the pan to cover all the grooves and l have to say that this worked best leaving a nice smooth finish!  Here is the link to the video by cupcake addiction who also provide a tutorial for making the whole cake in several parts 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QG3n1OHwMYk

Well l hope this has helped any of you wanting to attempt a giant cupcake and l wanted to also thank the Gorgeous Apsi from Dream House Cakes who made all of the Gorgeous Butterflies for me!  She is so very talented and you should go check out her wonderful cakes on her facebook page!! https://www.facebook.com/pages/Dream-House-Cakes/168070723263553?ref=ts   A true talent wouldn't you agree??

I will be back soon with a Valentines Day post of cake for two and a pretty flower petit four!

Take Care

Larissa

XOXO

{Bake} Celebrate Australia Day with a Milo Cupcake with Tim Tam Frosting

Printables from a little delightful
http://alittledelightful.blogspot.com/2012/01/australia-day-trifle.html

Today l had a bit of a disastrous day in the kitchen but that was good since now l can give you pointers on what not to do and what l would do next time l made these Lil' Beauties!!  Yep in this post l am gunna lay on the slang cause l can!!  It is nearly Australia Day so l wanted to give all you Sheila's and Bloke's a recipe you could make to bring along to your Barbie that is authentically Aussie!.....Mmmmmm ok l will stop with the slang as much as l would like to continue it just isn't me and l may need to start cursing and l am a lady most of the time so l only let the occasional one slip!! Hahahaha! LOL!

{Bake} Say Happy Birthday with a Choc Chip Cookie!!

Hey my lovely readers just a quick post today as l wanted to share my Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe and a cute idea for birthdays or even Valentines day??  Why not give an edible cookie with a message instead of a card???  I am not sure if this is a new idea or not but it is one of my Bestest Friend's Birthdays tomorrow and we were catching up tonight and yep... you guessed it... l forgot to get a card!!!  But l had made a batch of choc chip cookies which just happen to be her favourite yesterday so l thought why not giver her a birthday message on a cookie!!

Birthday Message on Choc Chip Cookie

{Celebrate} What is pink, blue, red and has stripes all over it?? The Mooo Party Range and it is Stripealicious!

Cute Stripey Party Range from mooo.com.au

Ok l think you can tell by the title of this post that l am rather excited?????  Who would have thought on my quest for school labels l would come across a company that sells high quality paper party goods??  Well l certainly didn't!!!

I think l am in love with Mooo and would love to put together a pink and red stripey dessert table with their gorgeous party range for Valentines Day!! Who would have thought label shopping could inspire such creativity!! Hahaha! I know l always find it hard to find a party range where everything matches completely from table wear, to napkins, to loot bags and decorations and even straws but Moo has thought of it all... the only thing l would want as well are invitations but ...oh wait a second.... l think they are coming to the website too???  It is great to have a one stop shop where you can get everything you need for a party and not only does everything co ordinate perfectly but it is at a nice price too!!

Gorgeous Paper Chain Kits from Mooo.com.au

Sweet Paper Bowls from Mooo.com.au

Lovely Loot Bags from Mooo.com.au

So hop on over to Mooo http://www.mooo.com.au/party for your next party and make it stripealicious in Red, Pink or Blue!! Oh and they also have 20% off!!  YAY!!

I will be back in the kitchen this week dreaming up some new recipes and hopefully getting a chance to photograph them before the kids eat them all!!!

Take Care
Larissa  XOXO