Bridal Shower Tea Party

Now this post is way overdue, but with summer comes long days and jam packed weekends. With summer also comes wedding season which means showers, bachelorette parties and the actual weddings. I was not expecting to be in one of my best friends weddings but when she asked me I was so excited and honored, this was my first time being a bridesmaid and I knew exactly what to expect. I have planned enough weddings in the past few years which is why I was probably more excited about being a bridesmaid then the normal girl.  Part of a bridesmaids job is throwing the bridal shower. The bride knew exactly what she wanted, so there was no issue with choosing a theme, it was a tea party. Floral dresses, big floppy hats, tea cups, honey favors, tea sandwiches and desserts, which brings me to this post. 

Baking is my thing, yes I like to cook, but baking is what I love. The bride is on pinterest, obviously, so I started there for inspiration, and she gave us plenty to work with!  To me the final details of baking is what makes a dessert, you know, the pretty part, not the technical. When you are hosting an event with lots of food, your guests will first judge what they choose by sight. If it doesn't look pretty to the eye, then chances are they won't choose it and move on to what looks nice. My main project was a tea party Barbie cake.

The bride and I did not meet until high school but learned that we were both obsessed with Barbie growing up. (To think if we were friends in our younger days!) I got to work with the technical part, baking and shaping her gown, and the MOB made the most beautiful floppy hat to finish her off (details!). I then started with the pretty part, frosting! Hand-piped mini flowers, round and round and round until she was perfect! What a hit, everyone loved her and asked when to cut it....hahaha obviously she wasn't going to be cut up until later that night when the shower was over, silly people! Sometimes when things are too pretty you just can't break down and ruin it to soon!

Next I got to work on three different mini desserts served in their own little individual "shot glass". Three flavors, banana cream pie, chocolate Oreo and cherry cheesecake, all with their own little silver spoon. These were quite simple ans they had to be, I made about 100 of them! The secret, pudding! So simple yet so pretty and delicious. The banana cream pie was made with banana pudding, mini vanilla wafers and fresh sliced banana. The chocolate Oreo was Oreo pudding and mini Oreos and lastly the cherry cheesecake was cheesecake pudding and cherry pie filling. The key, serving in cute little individual glasses, neatly layered and finished with a mini silver spoon. Who can resist a cute, little, easy individual dessert. This makes it easy to grab and enjoy. The small portion also allows you to try one of each and not feel as guilty! I'll say it once more, presentation, finishing details to make food beautiful is key. 

So you may be thinking that I was done, well I wasn't. What's a tea party, or any party for that matter, without cupcakes! I decided to make two types, white chocolate raspberry chocolate and also Strawberry Pineapple.  I used basic boxed cake mixes for both cupcakes, chocolate and strawberry.  On the chocolate I then used the white chocolate raspberry frosting flavoring and added that to pre-made butter-cream frosting, topped it with a fresh raspberry and beautiful! On the strawberry I substituted the water in the cake instructions with pineapple juice and reserved the actual crushed pineapple (from 1 large can of crushed pineapple) to add to butter-cream frosting.  Lastly, I picked up some cute little floral cupcake pan liners at Michael's just to make them stand out and go along with our theme.  One last time, making things pretty is the best part of baking! Enjoy!