Derby Inspired Bachelorette Dessert Table

My best friend is getting married soon and we threw her a Kentucky Derby themed bachelorette

party this past Saturday.  We all wore fascinator hats from Grace Hats and I created this

Derby themed dessert table using the wedding colors.

 I love using Rock Candy in dessert tables.  I love anything that

sparkles and the rock candy instantly adds glam.

 To display the Rock Candy, I lined a plain white platter with black sixlets.  To spice up

plain serving platters try lining the bottom with candy, ribbon, cardstock, etc.

 Although the official drink of the Kentucky Derby is the Mint Julep I opted

for champagne as the specialty drink, as it is the bride's favorite.

I also created these Derby hat mini-cakes for the table.  To re-create these, bake a 9x13" cake. 

Use a circle cookie cutter to cut out circular pieces of cake.  Frost and decorate with

ribbon, feathers, gems, and flower to make the mini-cakes look like Derby hats.

 Close up of a Derby hat inspired mini-cake.

Treat bags filled with multi-colored sixlets.

 Kentucky Derby inspired bachelorette desert table.

Congrats to the winner of the 138th Kentucky Derby - #19 "I'll Have Another".

What an apt name for a Derby Bachelorette party!

Hoppy Easter!

Oreo Trifle!  I found this recipe on Pinterest:

1 bag Oreos - crushed

8oz cream cheese - softened

1/4 cup butter

1 cup powdered sugar

3 cups milk

2 sm boxes instant vanilla pudding

1/2 tsp vanilla

12 oz Cool Whip - thawed

Cream together cream cheese, butter, powered sugar & vanilla. In separate bowl mix milk and pudding. Chill until set. Fold in Cool Whip after pudding has set. Add cream cheese mixture. Layer with Oreos. Chill until ready to serve!

I made the chicks using blue gumballs, yellow chocolate chips for the beaks, and a black food marker for the eyes.  The nest is made out of crushed golden grahams.  The bunnies are made out of white gumballs, white sprinkles for the tail, and strawberry heart marshmallows for the feet!

Happy Easter!

Growing UP

Another year has come and gone.  Here is a Disney Pixar UP themed birthday dessert table that I created.

Grape Soda

Guests can drink a soda and make an Ellie badge with the bottle cap.

 Spirit of Adventure Bars

Fruit Loop bars which I made using the same recipe you would for Rice Krispie bars.

 Kevin's Chocolate Bars

 Dug's Gumballs

 Russell's Wilderness Explorer S'mores Mix

To make mix Golden Grahams Cereal with marshmallows and chocolate chips.

Carl's Jello Cloud Cups

Blue Jello with Cool Whip clouds.

UP Cake

Cake decorated with clouds and "balloon" cake pops.

For the Guests: Adventure books and passports.

Whoo, whoo

I recently made these owl cake pops for my friend Heather's baby shower.  I really like how they turned out.  Super cute and they matched the baby shower decor.  I used candy from a candy necklace for the eyes, chocolate covered sunflower seeds for the wings, miniature colored chocolate chips for the beaks, and sprinkles for the feet.  For full instructions on how to create these cake pops check out Cake Pops by Bakerella.

Congrats Heather!  You will make a great mother!

Pink Rosette Ombre Cake

This is one of my favorite cakes that I have made. I love the ombre look, and the rosettes are simple, yet elegant.  The inspiration for this cake came from Ross Sveback.  The recipe and instructions were posted in the Minneapolis, MN Star Tribune News Paper prior to Valentine's Day.

Start by mixing your cake batter.  Depending on how many layers you want your cake to be, remove part of the batter.  Add food coloring to remaining batter.  Remove another portion of the batter.  Add more food coloring and remove more of the batter.  Continue this pattern until you have the batter divided into enough portions to bake as many cake layers as you want.

Here is an example of how your batter should look.  Each layer should be slightly darker than the previous layer.

Mix the frosting for your cake and color the frosting in the same way that you did for the cake batter.

Bake all of the cake layers.  Here are the results of the different colored cake layers.

Stack the cakes and dirty frost to hold in all of the crumbs.

Using a 1M decorating tip and the darkest color frosting create rosettes around the bottom of the cake.

 Continue creating rosettes using the 1M tip, using lighter shades of

frosting as you go towards the top of the cake.

This is what the final cake should look like.  Both the cake layers inside and the frosting on the outside should go from a dark to light shade of color.  This is a very elegant look and simple to create.  Try it out!

Super Bowl

Super Bowl is my favorite day of the year and I love celebrating with family and friends.  Unfortunately for me (and the Patriots) the team I was cheering for lost, but we still had a great time. 

Here is the dessert/appetizer table from our Super Bowl Sunday celebration.

Marinated Tomatoes

These are so delicious, you must try them.  Recipe courtesy of The Pioneer Woman.

 Cucumber Rolls

Find the recipe at Good Life Eats.  (this was one of my finds on Pinterest, anyone else addicted to Pinterest?)

Walking Tacos

These are great for parties.  Buy small bags of chips, crush the chips, open the bag, and add the taco meat and toppings right to the bag.

 Oreo Football Truffles

These are always a party favorite.  For step by step instructions check out Bakerella's blog.

 Chocolate Cream Cheese Cupcakes

Another delicious treat.  I purchased the Football Cupcake Wrapper printout from Spaceships and Laserbeams.  Check them out, they have a ton of cute party decorations for boys.

 Lil' Smokies

A football party is not complete without these.

Chocolate Dipped Pretzels

Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day!

What better way to celebrate than some sweets for your sweetheart.