Easy bite size dessert idea: rose-lemon cake bites recipe August 23, 2015

My daughter, Aubrie, recently had her 8th birthday party. She wanted a panda theme and of course, I was thrilled to style this party because I think that’s such an adorable theme. So, one of the first things that I decided that I wanted on the dessert table was some sort of cute bite sized dessert to be served on Chinese soup spoons. So, I scoured the internet and Pinterest looking for a recipe and ideas. I couldn’t find anything that looked cute or sounded tasty. I called my mum and she suggested angel food cake or pound cake because all I’d have to do is cut it into cubes. When planning a dessert table, it is always best to keep things simple and not too time consuming. I looked through my pantry and came up with this awesome and delicious dessert. Here’s the recipe!

Ingredients

lemon pound cake (store brought)

rose jelly/jam

heavy whipping cream

granulated sugar (optional)

fresh raspberries

fresh mint leaves

Directions

Cut the pound cake into cubes. I purchased the pound cake from my local Publix grocery store and it was pre sliced which made cubing it even easier.

Use an electric whisk to beat the whipping cream till it’s fluffy and thick. You can add a teaspoon of sugar if you’d like it to be sweet.

Set out your Chinese soup spoons and put a small dollop of the rose jam on each spoon. If you can’t find rose jam then you can use any flavor you have in the house. I found rose jam at an International Store when I was visiting Orlando and it was imported from Turkey (Sera Magic Garden Gül Receli).

Place a pound cake cube on the jam. Then add a dollop of cream, a raspberry and a mint leaf.

I found adorable little panda bento sticks on Amazon so I added those for a fun touch. A pack of eight sticks was less than $5.

TIPS

I grow mint (as well as basil) in pots. It is one of the easiest herbs to grow and you can add it to lemonade or water for a fun twist. If you buy it fresh from the supermarket, consider placing it in water for the roots to grow and then plant in the garden or a pot.

Remember to keep your portions small. The idea is to be able to eat this in one mouthful.

VARIATIONS

Brownies with whipped cream and add a fresh cherry

Lemon pound cake sitting on blueberry jam with whipped cream and fresh blueberries

White chocolate ‘blondies’ with strawberry jam and fresh strawberries

Photo credit: Danielle of All Things Great and Small Photography, based out of Pace, Florida.

Follow me on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook or e-mail me at apartystudio@gmail.com if you have questions. I love hearing from you guys. And if you’re interested in the panda birthday party, I will be adding the printables to my Etsy store shortly.

Inexpensive and Fun Party Glasses :: Starbucks or Archer Farms Frappucino Bottles! August 30, 2013

I love putting out these tall glasses at parties. They look adorable with a paper straw and maybe some ribbon or personalized labels to jazz them up a bit. If you missed my blog post about cleaning these Starbucks Frappuccino bottles to get them party-ready, you can check it out here. At my daughter’s recent 6th birthday party, one of the things the little girls went nuts over was drinking out of these! Funny how its the little things like that which have the most impact.

Here are the bottles from a few different celebrations that I hosted this past year… aren’t they so versatile?

Anyways, I wanted to do a quickie blog post because when I was shopping at Target the other day, I noticed the Archer Farms Latte drinks. I didn’t buy any so I can’t tell you how they taste but they are slightly cheaper than the Starbucks version and I liked that the corners were more rounded so they looked like old fashioned milk jugs. Of course, I grabbed my phone and snapped a few pics. What do you think of the shape of these? Has anyone tried the coffee? I’m sure it’s good and these are low-fat, too. I actually really like the Archer Farm products, especially the chips and granola bars.

All the party photos posted above were taken by Danielle of All Things Great and Small Photography in Pace, Milton. The out of focus pics of the the bottles were taken by me on my iphone. And yes, I did get some dubious looks from other shoppers when I got down on my knees to photograph these!!!

Please follow me on Twitter, Facebook or Pinterest! You can also contact me via e-mail: apartystudio@gmail.com

I love hearing your feedback and if you have any questions or need clarification, just leave me a comment on this blog post. Thanks… and happy party planning!

Inexpensive Sweet Treats February 2, 2013

 

 

So, a couple weeks ago, I was wandering through my local Walmart store’s frozen food department and discovered frozen cake pops! I posted a photo on my Facebook page and it seemed like I wasn’t the only one who’d never seen these before. I went shopping today and I purchased all three varieties. I will let you know that if you are looking for aesthetics then you may be a bit disappointed. The actual cake pops don’t look as cute out of the box as they do in the photo on the box’s cover. No huge surprise there but if your kids love cake pops and your unwilling to spend the time making them, then these are perfect. In all fairness, the birthday cake ones looked quite pretty so I’d have no qualms putting those out at a party.

So, a box costs $3.98 and there’s 6 per packet. That means the individual cake pops end up costing you about 67 cents. Not bad at all, especially since specialty ones can cost upwards of $2 each. So, these are a great idea if you are on a budget but still want the ‘fun-ness’ of cake pops at your event.

Here are the three flavors on offer:

 

 

 

Whilst I was checking out the cake pops, I also noticed that Walmart sells cake balls too. They had double chocolate and birthday cake flavor and these are made by Atlanta Cheesecake Company. Any of you had these before? I didn’t buy them since there wouldn’t have been enough space in my freezer but these were also super cheap. Only $5.97 for a box of 12 cake balls so only about 50 cents each.

 

 

 

The last thing that I spotted which excited me was taco ice cream made by Klondike. Yep, ice cream sandwiches disguised as tacos!!! How cool (pun intended) is that? At some point I will throw a It’s A Small World party for my gorgeous daughter since it’s her favorite ride at Disney World and she’s fortunate enough to have collected quite a lot of passport stamps. So, when I eventually do that theme, I will for sure be serving these ice cream tacos for dessert! They’d also be great for any Mexican fiesta or Cinco de Mayo. Again, I have never had these before but since Klondike bars are super yummy, I have high expectations for these fun ‘ice cream sugar taco cones’. They come in Peanut Butter, Chocolate and Original flavors. I’ll have one of each please…

 

 

 

I don’t normally peruse the ice cream or frozen dessert section at the grocery store. If I want ice-cream, I simply find the tubs of Haagen Daz and I’m all set. I typically  prefer to buy dessert from the bakery or make my own from scratch if I’m feeling adventurous but clearly I’ve missed out on a whole range of wonderful foods. I’m sure my taste buds (and for sure, my kiddies) will thank me for this discovery! Enjoy and let me know what you think of these. Would you set them out at a party or do you prefer to order from a bakery?

If you love looking at sweet recipes, then check out my board on Pinterest here and don’t forget to like my Facebook page or follow me on Twitter!!!

Brit Night to Celebrate the 2012 London Olympics July 28, 2012

Last night I hosted a Brit Night at my house. I had about 20 people, including kids and we watched the 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremony. I grew up in England and although I now live in the United States, I am very proud to see the Olympic Games being held in a city I absolutely love- London. To celebrate, I cooked a couple traditional English dishes and stocked up on English beer.

If I was in England, I’d probably invite over my friends, get a ton of fish and chips from the local chippie along with mushy peas and curry sauce. It’d be a lot less work and probably just as much fun.

I wanted to share with you my party plan- and a couple recipes.

Here’s a rundown of the menu:

• Salt and Vinegar crisps (potato chips)
• Bangers and Mash (mashed potato with sausages in an onion gravy)
• Shepherd’s pie
• Chocolate plum cake with creme anglaise
• Apple crumble with custard
• Selection of English chocolates (Lion, Maltesers, Smarties, Aero, Yorkie, Flake, etc)

Drink wise, we decided to go with all English beers. Of course, being in the the Florida panhandle makes it difficult to find imported goods but I was quite impressed with our finds:

• Boddingtons
• Samuel Smith
• Newcastle Brown Ale
• Newcastle Werewolf Ale
• Strongbow Hard Cider

I live in Pensacola and I was able to stock up after visiting Four Winds Fine Foods (the only place around here to get British style bangers/beef sausages, even though they are made in the US), World Market (good beer and chocolate selection) and my local Publix grocery store.

I have the labels I used available for FREE on Scribd.com and you can choose from blank labels or ones with text (using my menu above).

 

You can choose from blank labels or ones with text (using my menu above).

Here’s a couple recipes to get you started, too.

Shepherd’s Pie

Ingredients:

2 lbs mashed potato

1 lb ground lamb or beef
4 carrot, peeled and cut into half moons
1 large onion, diced
1 can cream of tomato soup*
3/4 cup water
1 cup medium Cheddar cheese, grated

Directions: 

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Brown the meat. I used very lean ground beef so I didn’t need to drain the fat off. Once brown, add the carrots and the onions. Continue to cook over a medium heat for about 10 minutes till the carrots are soft. Add the cream of tomato soup and the water. Mix well and then pour into a 2.75 or 3 quart baking dish. Carefully top with the mashed potato and then sprinkle with the Cheddar cheese. Cover with foil and bake for 20 minutes. Remove the foil and bake a further 10 minutes or until the cheese has melted and the meat mixture is bubbly. Allow to rest for 5 minutes before serving.

*When my mum makes shepherd’s pie, she always uses Bisto gravy granules. I had a limited amount of the Bisto on hand and I needed to use it for the bangers and mash so that is why I used the cream of tomato soup. If you do this with Bisto then simply make up about a cup of the onion gravy and use it in lieu of the soup.

English Apple Crumble

Ingredients:

7 medium tart apples (I used Granny Smith)
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 lemon, juiced
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
4 tablespoons butter

Directions: 

Preheat oven to 400 F and grease a 2-quart baking dish with butter. Peel, core, and cut the apples into chunks. Place the apples in a saucepan with 1/3 cup of sugar, lemon juice, and cinnamon. Cook over low heat, stirring once or twice, for 20 mins, or until the apples are tender but not falling apart. Spoon into the baking dish.

Combine the flour and the remaining 1/4 cup sugar in a small bowl. Cut in the butter in to very small dabs and then use your fingertips to blend with the flour mixture until the mixture is crumbly.

Sprinkle the crumble on top of the apples. Bake for 35 minutes, or until golden brown.

Serve with custard (or vanilla ice-cream). I used Bird’s custard powder which I found at Publix.

Hope you enjoy watching the 2012 Olympic Games! I love watching the Olympics and will be cheering for all the athletes, not just the British or the American teams.

 

Nutella Cake with Pirouette Cookies February 22, 2012

 

 

I don’t like baking very much. Actually, maybe it’s more a case of not being good at it, as opposed to not liking it. In any case… But, every now and then I need to make a cake at home. Perhaps the local bakery doesn’t have the exact flavor or look I want… Or, I just want to have some fun in the kitchen with my four year old! So thinking of way to make cakes look pretty whilst being super easy to make is something I DO enjoy 🙂

My hubby recently celebrated his 41st birthday and my daughter was very keen on making him a cake. So, I headed out to the store and picked up a couple of supplies (including cake pans!!!) and made this (somewhat cute) pirouette cake.

I baked two packets of white cake mix (so that I’d have a four layer cake). Thank you Betty Crocker! Then, I cut the each cake so that it was flat (not domed). I spread the first cake layer with Nutella hazelnut spread. It was really hard to spread. Maybe because the cake was so moist? I ended up using half my tub of Nutella! So, I decided to spread the next layer  with frosting instead. The final layer was spread with Nutella. I figured this would look attractive once cut.

 

Here’s how easy this was to put together:

 

 

The only complaints that I had were that the Nutella was really  hard to spread on the cake; hence, I also did a layer with frosting. Next time, I’d whip it with some chocolate frosting (or see if I can purchase hazelnut flavored chocolate frosting). My other complain was that the pirouette cookies got soggy from being pressed agains the buttercream. The kids and my husband didn’t mind at all but one of the things I like so much about this cookies is their crunch.

As you can see this cake was a huge hit. The kids LOVED it and my daughter was thrilled that she helped bake the cake! More photos from this celebration are available here.

 

Valentine’s Day: treats that you can make at home! January 31, 2012

The best part of Valentine’s Day for me is getting to indulge in a little something sweet! I love dessert and when it is pink and has a heart on it, who can resist? Here are some gorgeous treats that you can whip up at home. Just click on any of the photographs below to get to the recipe!

I hope one of these ideas will inspire you. Let us know if you make any of these and how it turned out 🙂

Chocolate Heart Peanut Butter Cookies from Betty Crocker. How cute are these? I love that the directions call for a store-brought cookie mix! Very easy. I’m thinking this would be a fun activity with a toddler. They’d love placing the Dove heart in the center.

If your baking skills are a little more advanced, you can try making these adorable Valentine’s Day Heart Cookie Sandwiches by Make and Takes. Again, you could definitely do this with a toddler or child.

Pink Lemon Cupcakes by Just Jenn Recipes. I love lemon anything so these look amazing to me! These would also be super sweet if you are doing a Pink Lemonade birthday party.

Heart-shape Macaroon by Trang’s Kitchen. Have you ever made macaroons? I think they are to-die-for but I’ve never had the guts to make these. Maybe next time my mum is visiting, we can attempt whipping up some!

My husband loves ice-cream so these Chocolate Heart Ice Cream Sandwiches by Pieces of Home Designs are sure to be a huge hit in our house!

Lollipop sticks turn plain cupcakes into these adorable Cupid’s Arrow Cupcakes! Thanks for the tutorial and free download, Bakerella. I think these would be perfect for a Valentine’s Day social or toddler play group.

Brownie Heart Cupcakes by Martha Stewart are also really cute. Martha of course makes everything from scratch but if you don’t feel like following her recipes and making brownies and cupcakes then you could get store-brought mixes instead. Or cheat even further- buy a pan of ready made brownies and some cupcakes from your local bakery and then use your cookie cutter to make the brownie hearts!!!!

Thanksgiving… one day to go! November 23, 2011

Are you ready for Thanksgiving? Got your turkey defrosted and all your ingredients ready to go? If you are still scrambling for dessert ideas, check out a couple of these cute, kid friendly desserts! Just click on the photo to get more details and the recipes. I am super lucky because my wonderful neighbor, Lisa, stopped over with her nine year old daughter to deliver a “turkey” dessert! Isn’t this sweet?

 

Check out these cute turkey cookies. This is a perfect activity to do with your kids while they wait for the turkey dinner to cook!

Love the idea of making cookie corn husks out of M&Ms and fruit roll ups. Another dessert project the kids would love to make!

Your guests will gobble-gobble up these adorable turkey cupcakes.

 

The traditional holiday horn of plenty, overflowing with autumn vegetables and fruits, goes kid-friendly with candy. Any unhappiness at being seated at the “kiddie table” will fade if there’s one of these in front of each place setting! Put out tubes of decorating gel and let each child decorate his or her own cornucopia. Thanks for the idea ivillage!

 

Do your kids love cake pops? How about pie pops?

Shaped rice krispies treats July 20, 2011

Check out these awesome party favors that Courtney gave out at her son’s Mickey Mouse themed second birthday party. How cute are these?

 

Party favors

Courtney did an incredible job styling her son’s Mickey Mouse party. Her attention to detail is amazing! I’ll be posting more photos from the party tomorrow.

 

You can have a lot of fun making these treats with your kids. Here are directions, direct from the Kellogg’s website!

 

 

If you make these, I would love to see photos so please e-mail me and I’ll post the pictures on my blog!

 

Ingredients

3 tablespoons butter or margarine

1 package (10 ounces) regular marshmallows (or you could use 4 cups of miniature marshmallows)

6 cups Kellogg’s Rice Krispies cereal

18 wooden ice cream sticks or 6 inch lollipop sticks

1 ½ cups white chocolate morsels

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

multi-colored sprinkles

 

Directions

1. In large saucepan melt butter over low heat. Add marshmallows and stir until completely melted. Remove from heat. Add cereal. Stir until well coated.

 

2. Using buttered spatula or wax paper, evenly press mixture into 13 x 9 x 2-inch pan coated with cooking spray. Allow this to cool.

 

3. Use a cookie cutter to put the treat into the shape you desire then push one stick into the bottom of each bar/shape. The 5 inch Mickey Mouse icon cookie cutter is available online from Amazon.

Mickey Mouse cookie cutter

 

4. Melt your chocolate. In small microwave-safe bowl combine chocolate morsels and oil. Microwave on high for 1 to 1 1/2 minutes, stirring every 30 seconds.

 

5. Dip bars into chocolate.

 

6. Pour the sprinkles onto a plate. Dip the bar into the sprinkles whilst the chocolate is still wet.

 

7. Place on wax paper lined baking sheet. Refrigerate until chocolate is set.

 

8. Put the treat in a sandwich bag and tie with ribbon. Add a personalized party favor tag to give it a polished look!  I have lots of printable party favor labels in my Etsy store but if you don’t see what you are looking for, just e-mail me and I’ll be happy to create it for you.

 

 

TIPS

These are best served within a couple days of making the bars so I recommend making them the day before the party.

Do not use diet, reduced calorie or tub margarine.

 

 

Refreshing summer cocktails July 19, 2011

Bring back 5 o’clock cocktail time! These refreshing and colorful drinks are perfect for unwinding. Every color of the rainbow is represented below so you can match your cocktail to your party’s color scheme (or do a rainbow and one of each).

Click on any picture to be taken to the recipe and directions. Do you have a favorite summer drink recipe? My family loves a classic shandy-  simply mix equal parts beer and 7-Up. Fill a glass half full of beer (light beer works best) and then fill the rest of the glass with 7-Up. Delicious! We’ve done this using Ginger Ale and it worked great.

RED

Sparkling pomegranate

Watermelon punch

 

ORANGE

Passion Fruit Mojitos

Satsuma

 

 

YELLOW

Sparkling Fresh Paloma

Lemon Shandies

GREEN

 

Apple Mezcaltini

Honeydew Fizz

BLUE

Blue Bahama

 

Blue Souvenir

INDIGO and VIOLET

Cointreau Tease

 

Purple Mother

 

Black Forest Gateau Martini

Pink and Yellow Birthday Cake June 5, 2011

Remember the post about the amazing Neapolitan cake by Sweetapolita?

I decided to make a similar cake for my daughter’s upcoming 4th birthday. I don’t bake. I don’t consider myself a baker. I don’t even make cupcakes or cookies. In fact, I think I failed the Wilton level one cake decoration class I took three years ago! So for me to undertake a cake-making project for this special event says a lot. I promised to share the results so here you are…

I used store bought cake mixes. Strawberry cake and yellow cake. The yellow cake wasn’t quite yellow enough for my liking so I added yellow food coloring. I let the layers cool then trimmed the top so that each layer was flat. I made sure to stack them in order: pink, yellow, pink, yellow. I put buttercream frosting between each layer and strawberry preserve.

Four layers stacked

 

Vanilla buttercream frosting

After I covered the cake with buttercream frosting (also store bought), I covered the entire cake with desiccated coconut. This covered all the imperfections in how I spread the buttercream frosting. I finished the cake with fresh strawberries and a 4 inch party circle, available in my Etsy store. After printing out the circle and cutting it, I stuck it to a 6 inch lollipop stick. Very quick and easy way to add a special touch to the cake!

I would have liked smaller strawberries around the base and if I had frosting left over then I’d have piped some on the rim, at the base of the cake, to help keep the strawberries in their place. Ok, the strawberries were big, but they were super sweet and super juicy!  We call our daughter Aubrie Strawberry so this cake was perfect!

Finished cake

Blowing out the candles

Pink and yellow layers

Slice of cake

 

Pretty...

I will confess that I ordered vanilla and chocolate cupcakes from a local bakery so there was a back-up plan!!! I ordered very plain cupcakes… white buttercream frosting and then added pink and yellow sprinkles.  Actually,
it was great to have cupcakes because the kids LOVED those and the adults got to enjoy the delicious cake!

Cupcakes

 

Cupcake with yellow sprinkles

Thank you to my friend Erin for loaning me the cake pans and the spatula! Couldn’t have done this cake without you! Also, Casey- thank you for the use of the cupcake stand (again)!