Archive for Fabulous Party Theme!
35 Cookies
I’ve been doing lots of cookie party favors lately, and wanted to share one with you. My fab sister decided to throw her hubby a surprise 35th birthday party. Her parties are pretty awesome too– she pays attention to every little detail… for example- this party’s theme was black and white– so not only should you have dressed in black and white cocktail attire- but all the invitations, decor, food and beverages were black and white: A black and white striped birthday cake, Samual Adams Black Lagar and White Ale were served along with a Black Martini made with Black Blavod Vodka and a White Dirty Martini– ahh I wish I could have been there!
As my contribution to the party since I could not travel cross country to Boston for it, I made sugar cookies with 35 written in black sugar- they were uber cute- a bit time consuming, but totally worth it. I seriously love making custom cookies and think they are an awesome personal touch to any party or celebration. These were served alongside the other desserts, but also could have been fab as party favors too.
After doing these cookies I got to brain storming a bit- which seems to be a constant state of mind for me at the moment as I am forever trying to figure out my life–I love parties and I love cookies… so why not develop a portfolio and a new page on my website specializing in cookie favors and party treats… hmm… I think its a fab idea! It’ll take me some time to develop- but I think its a good start in a good direction.
Happy Baking and Cookie Decorating!
-Kristy
Rough Weekend!
Greetings! My apologies for my sporadic posts over the last week. I was glad to be back from my visit with nephew, but I have been a bit overwhelmed with everything I needed to get before Thanksgiving… then… yesterday… I ate some very, very bad sushi… needless to say its 7pm on Monday and I am just starting to feel functional again. Anyways… its a new week… here’s hoping for a productive one!
In thinking about Thanksgiving, I couldn’t help but think about the importance of having a beautiful table setting! So I thought I would share with you the table setting my brother and sister in law have on their table because its super adorable, simple, yet festive! A leafy place mat, simple white plates, deep red napkins and dazzling napkin ring. The fabulous thing about having white plates, is that you can simply, easily and inexpensively change out the place mat and napkins and have an entirely new look. Their setting looks awesome on their rich chocolate brown table, and dazzled with a beautiful bunch of deep red, rust orange and yellow flowers.
Just as the food you serve should look fabulously tasty… so should what you serve it on!
Happy Baking and decorating!
-Kristy
A Wonderful Event at Surfas!
Last Friday I went to a talk and event at Surfas, a wonderful kitchen store/cafe/teaching kitchen. Lisa Baker Morgan, a personal chef and owner of catering company Ciao Yummy presented on Halloween Treats featuring incredible in-season eats. Lisa was a wonderful presenter. She was knowledgeable, funny, engaging and made it clear what a great chef she was. I couldn’t believe I forgot my camera, but the pic to the left was taken with my phone… not bad but just please note how cute and festive she made the teaching kitchen at Surfas!
Before I delve into the awesome recipes Lisa presented, I first need to let you know what a seriously inspiring person she is. During her talk, she let on to that fact that she was a runner. When I later checked out her website, I learned she runs marathons, is a single mother of two and runs her own catering and event planning business. AMAZING! In addition, Lisa was a lawyer in her past, but later went back to culinary school and made a huge but very exciting career change. That was especially appealing to me since I have recently begun my project, Will Bake For Tuition and am essentially considering a career change myself. In Addition, Lisa is all about making healthy choices, eating all natural and passing along these healthy eating tips to others. As much as I eat sweets, eating as natural and healthy as I can is super important to me as well. I totally love Lisa’s eating philosophy and am totally in aww of her all accomplishments since I am new to the culinary world.
So on to her delightful recipes. What I liked so much about the treats she presented was that she steered away from using the typical candy corn garnish or pumpkin-shaped-what-not. All of her treats featured the seasons best ingredients, but had an spooky Halloween undertone. One treat she presented was Ghoulish Puff Pastry Fingers… Pistachio puff pastry dough, stuffed with sugared dates with a pistachio ‘finger nail.’ So super cute and sooo delicious! There was also an delicious apple souffle and a robust pumpkin soup with a cream cheese spider web garnish. Lisa also made one hearty dish which was an apple braised pork shoulder which was so flavorful and moist. We got to try everything, plus some extras she had available like brownie cookies and curry macaroons! OMG everything she made was seriously tasty. I was super impressed with everything she made and if I ever need a catered event I would not hesitate in the least to give use her service! She also made me feel comfortable trying all these recipes… many of them used techniques that were new to me but she made the seem so simple. They are all on my to-try list over the next couple weeks!
This was my first talk at Surfas, and since it was such as wonderful experience, I know I will be making an effort to check more of them out! If you are in the LA area, this is a total must for any foodie! For more info on Lisa and her company, click here!
Happy Baking!
-Kristy
Any Sex and the City Fans Out There?!?!
I came across this picture today and had to share it with you, despite the fact its over a year old! Are any of you Sex and the City Fans?? Well I am! So last summer when the movie came out in theatres, my girlfriends and I decided to have a Sex and the City pre-veiwing party. We all purchased tickets to the midnight showing opening night at our local theatre and all the ladies convened at my pad for food, drinks, the Sex and the City trivia game (which I kick ass at!) and of course watching as many episodes as we could.
In order to fully embrace our “Sex and the City” party theme, we decided to have only food and drinks at the party that were featured in the show… so we ate Fried Chicken, Krispy Kreme’s, Chocolate Cake, Chinese Food, Saltines with Jelly, and drank Manhattans, Absolute Hunk Martini’s and of course, lots of Cosmopolitans! ( I have no idea how we made it through the movie after all we ate and drank that night!) Along with the Absolute Hunk (which was absolutely delicious!) my other contribution was the “I Love You” Cookie (I tried to find the scene on you-tube but was unsuccessful… if any of you find it send it my way!). This cookie was featured in the scene where Dr. Robert Leeds arrives at Miranda’s apartment with Pizza and another dessert mystery box. Dr. Leeds gets paged, needs to return to work and is unable to stay for dinner. Once he leaves Miranda peeks into the mystery box and discovers its a cookie that reads “I Love You” in chocolate chips! She inevidbly panics since she doesn’t know if she loves him and eats the whole thing! HA! Hysterical!
So, here is my own version that I served at my Sex and the City Pre-Viewing Party!
Hint, Hint to my Boyfriend… You can tell me you love me in a cookie any day of the week! I think it’s an awesome way to share your feelings and feed your belly!
Happy Baking, Party Planning and Sex and the City Watching!!
-KM
PS- Sex and the City 2 is supposedly already filming! Yippee!
Check Out This Cake!
So my friend Camille sent me the link below to this blog. This cake is awesome! Take a look for yourself! http://whisk-kid.blogspot.com/2009/08/say-it-with-cake.htm
This blog is fantastic! The cakes are enormous and the photography is beautiful!
Happy Baking!
-KM
Adopt a Pup Event!
This post is long over due, but better late than never right?!? Back in April, I donated cookies to an event my friend Charla was hosting. Charla owns Charla’s Place in Marina Del Ray. Charla’s store has glitzy girl wear for women, children and the favorite four-legged animal in your life. The event at her store was an Adopt a pet event, so her store was filled with adorable pups and kittens looking for a loving home. So for the cookies I donated, obviously puppy and bone cut cookies were most appropriate!
I decided to stick with two kinds of cookies, sugar and peanut butter. I absolutely LOVE how these cookies turn out… not only did they taste delish, but each cookie and the platters came out awesome! Each sugar cookie got detailed with homemade butter cream frosting, and all the peanut butter cookies with drizzled with semi-sweet chocolate. I even donated some homemade puppy treats for pups at the event!
I am happy to report the event was a huge success! I stopped in and a few pups and kittens had already been adopted, and her store was packed! Kudo’s to Charla for a great event for a great cause! For info on how to adopt your own four-legged friend, click here!
Happy Baking!
-KM
A Dinner Date With Derek!
Recently my good friend Derek had me and a few others over for a Dinner Date. Derek and I work together and he is known at work for his culinary creativity. He actually does some catering from time to time as well. So needless to say, I was quite excited to see what he would be creating! Derek had informed me the theme on the night was ‘Citrus’… Yum!
So the evening started out with a homemade orange and rum beverage that was actually served in an orange, followed by orange glazed chicken wings, citrus chicken satay skewers, fresh veggies and rice…. all was absolutely DELICIOUS!
After eating all that, there was still dessert to eat! And since Dessert is favorite meal of the day, I Always have extra room for it! Tonight’s dessert was in individual citrus spiced cake, with orange cream cheese glaze… OMG… Derek is Amazing…
This cake was seriously wonderful. It had a great balance of citrus and spice, neither were too over powering. I loved the touch of baking in a slice of orange. It added to the flavor I’m sure, and looked fantastic. The frosting was awesome too. This cake had the perfect mix of sweet and spice!
Actually– I would say Derek is also the perfect mix of sweet and spice! Thanks for a Fab evening!
Happy Baking and Dinner-Partying all!
-KM
One Mean Basket Weave!
As I am about to embark into the advanced cake decorating class, I thought I should finally post the last cake I make in Cake Decorating 101 at Gloria’s. In the last class, we worked on flowers, roses, ropes and basket weaves.
The basket weave, to me, initially looked super difficult. But , please allow me to toot my own horn for a moment here.. Toot-Toot- Beep- Beep….I kicked ass! I do one hell of a Basket Weave! The basket weave is the type of technique that once you get the hang of it, and understand how simple it is… it turns out fab!
Flowers… on the other hand, are a bit more difficult– or maybe I am just clumsy and that why I struggled a bit with them. Anyway, something important I did learn in cake decorating is that in some instances, it can be forgiving. For example, when making a flower- you don’t actually make it on the cake. The flowers are made on a flower nail, are set to dry, then placed on the cake. So, needless to say, all my reject flowers did not make it onto the cake! Only the A+ flowers made it on my cake– and, again– toot-toot-beep-beep— make cake looked store bought!
This might be just a touch random- but this cake had just a little bit of sentimental value to me- and maybe this little family story might jog some memories for some of you readers. I grew up with a large extended family with many, many cousins (Irish, Catholic and from Boston– need I say more?) Growing up, just about every month there was a family gathering to celebrate the birthdays that had just past or were up in coming– there were always a few! And, we always got a sheet cake, with flowers on it from Star Market— Wait… I’ve lived on the west coast too long.. it’s Staah Mahket in the traditional Boston Accent…. Anyways, my many cousins and I used to fight over who got the big bunch of icing flowers off the birthday cake. Usually, it went to whoever’s birthday it was.. but sometimes.. you just happened to be in the right place in the right time.. and you also got extra flowers… meaning extra frosting and extra sugar… and everyone else was jealous! Oh the delights of being a kid… is it odd if I still hope to always get the big bunch of icing flowers off the birthday cakes?!?!? hmm…..
Stay Tuned for more Advanced Cake Decorating Updates! This month should be exciting!
Happy Baking!
-KM
We’re gonna party likes its 19…90?
Recently I attended the birthday party of one of my BFF’s from High School. And, as with any great party, it had a theme… NEON! Yes, bring on the early 1990’s… Magenta lip stick, scrunchies, New Kids on the Block, Hammer Pants, slap bracelets and anything dyed or painted (admit it… you know you had one of those multi-colored splatted paint shirts too!) in blindingly bright colors! This party was decked out with black lights, neon posters, florescent drinking cups and glow necklaces for everyone.
Here is the best part of the party— Even the food was either glowing under a black light or dyed with neon food coloring! Turns out, McCormick recently came out with a new set of food colors that are all neon! How cute are these cupcakes! The colors were super bright and totally added to the hip, 1990’s style of this party. For more info on the food coloring, Click Here.
In addition to the exciting new food coloring… Some of the food actually glowed under the black light! The cupcakes were actually angel food cake and most of the drinks were made with tonic water- both of which contain a small amount of quinine. The quinine in the food causes it glow under a black light! How cool! This fact seems to be making it way around, as I recently saw it used in a Cake Challenge on the Food Network as well. Mary Maher added tonic water to clear piping gel, to make her cake glow and sparkle. It turned out fab and she actually won the challenge.
Neon clothing, neon food, glowing drinks…. Now that’s my kind of party! Kudos the party planners! Awesome job!
I hope this inspires all of you to host your own neon party!
Happy Baking!
-KM
