{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