Ten

On Tuesday of this week Lily turned 10. A whole decade. To celebrate reaching double-figures I laid on an after-school afternoon tea for her and six close friends. It was relaxed, fun and I hope memorable. Celebrating such moments in life is time well spent in my book.

So I set to work making tiny cheese & cucumber rolls, filling pretty striped paper cups with chipsticks, baking sausage rolls and filling cocktail sized vol au vents. Then there were mini strawberry & cream meringues, individual coconut & cherry loaf cakes, mini chocolate cakes, mini orange & almond cakes and paper cups filled with lemon cupcake popcorn, berries and chocolate discs and to top it all off a 'fox' birthday cake.

It's the decorations and tableware that also make a gathering an occasion and, in this case, turn one of the most special days of the year into one of the prettiest. All the decorations and tableware in this shoot are from My Little Day, a French online boutique that sell all the kit required to host the most beautiful children's birthday parties. From bunting, confetti-filled balloons and tassel garlands to paper plates, cups, straws and napkins in contemporary patterns. I even made party bags using the paper bags and mini paper rosettes  - they were the icing on the cake.

Arthur's 5th Birthday {Kite} Party

 

This weekend we threw a kite themed party to celebrate Arthur's 5th Birthday. We pitched up at the beautiful Stanmer Park and the sun shone down on us (how lucky were we?). We sent out d-i-y kite kits as invites so the kids could bring them along with any other kites that they may already own. We had 15 children with seven extra siblings and 20 adults: quite a party.

I made individual picnic lunchboxes for the kids (cheese roll, mini cheddars, mini raisin box, apple juice and a tunnocks teacake) and, for the adults, two big batches of pasties (swede & potato and spinach & ricotta). I also filled a big wicker basket with pea pods and provided brown paper bags (greengrocer style) for kids and adults alike to put their peas into. We stole the idea from all those aperitivo bars we saw in Milan last month.

As well as flying kites, trees were climbed and chocolate birthday cake was consumed. Finally we sent everyone off with a bag of sweets and a CD that we compiled especially for the occasion. Here's the track listing:

Come Fly With Me Frank Sinatra
(Fly High and) Let Me Go Gary Barlow
Up, Up & Away The 5th Dimension
Flying The Beatles
Let's Fly A Kite Mary Poppins
Little Fluffy Clouds The Orb
Up Where We Belong Joe Cocker & Jennifer Warnes
Move On Up Curtis Mayfield
Being For The Benefit Of Mr Kite The Beatles
Eye In The Sky The Alan Parsons Project
Eight Miles High The Byrds
Higher Than The Sun Keane
Learning To Fly Pink Floyd
Fly Me To The Moon Julie London
Mr Blue Sky Electric Light Orchestra

We love playing our CD at home and I heard reports today that some of the pint-sized party-goers are forgoing CBebbies, preferring to play their CD and dancing around to Frank Sinatra at full volume! You've got to love that!

Party {Can} Bags

 

 

Whenever I throw a party I always look for inspiration on the party blog Oh Happy Day. They never fail to set my creative juices flowing. Last year it was their crepe paper flower tiaras, but this year it was their 'birthday in a can'. 

I purchased a dozen tins of chopped tomatoes (decanting and freezing the contents) and made these party 'can' bags, which I filled with sweets. I'm glad I didn't have more than 12 to make, but they were a fun and unusual party bag. They would also work just as well as a ceative way to 'wrap' a birthday gift if it was small enough. You can see a step-by-step guide of how to make them over at Oh Happy Day.

What a Beautiful Wedding

Any long-term readers of the blog may recall a post I wrote back in March about the engagement of David's niece Lucy to her fiance Dom. Well, this weekend was the wedding. I can't believe how quickly it came around. 

It was a beautiful day in every way; crisp autumn bright blue skies, lovely guests, great food and great fun. My duty was to make the wedding cake. The end result was much admired and enjoyed. After much research, thought and consideration I went for the three-tier red velvet cake by Lorraine Pascale. I cut out the red food dye by quite a bit as I'm a little uneasy with sponges that are too red. The result was more of a devils food cake; a good dense fudgy sponge. I thoroughly recommend the recipe to anyone who has been asked to bake such a celebration cake.

It was a big day for Lily too; she was one of the bridesmaids. She had been building up to her 'big day' for weeks and was so excited. She took her role very seriously, reading her much thumbed 'how to be a bridemaid' book on the car journey that morning. The day lived up to all her expectations and more. She wore the most beautiful dress that made her feel 'just like a princess', enjoyed a 'grown-up' dinner and after such a busy day still had enough energy for some past-bedtime dancing late into the evening.

Chocolate Guinness Cake Recipe

As promised, I am showering you with cake recipes this week - my all time top five no less. Today it's the turn of the wonderful Chocolate Guinness Cake recipe. The addition of the Guinness gives the chocolate cake a rich fudgy taste which is set of perfectly with the White Chocolate Cream Cheese Icing. It only uses a wee bit of Guinness so teetotaler's, expectant mother's and children are free to indulge should it take their fancy. I made and took this cake to my niece's engagement party earlier this year only to leave the party with the job of producing the wedding cake. So beware of the repercussions baking this cake could bring you. It really is that good.

Chocolate Guinness Cake

Serves 10-12

250g softened unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing

200g soft dark brown sugar

100g good-quality dark chocolate, melted

2 large free-range eggs

200ml Guinness

275g self-raising flour

30g cocoa powder

1 tsp baking powder

1tsp bicarbonate of soda

For the icing:

200g cream cheese

75g icing sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

4 tbsp soured cream

125g white chocolate, melted

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/ fan160C/gas 4. Grease and line a 23cm loose-bottomed cake tin.

2. Beat the butter with the sugar until pale and fluffy - this may take around 5 minutes or so. Gradually beat in the melted chocolate until smooth, then beat in the eggs one at a time.

3. Gradually whisk in the Guinness. You will have a smooth batter at this point. Sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda, then fold carefully into the chocolate mixture.

4. Pour into the tin and bake for 35-40 minutes until a skewer comes out clean. Leave to cool in the tin, then turn out onto a cake plate.

5. For the icing, beat the cream cheese, icing sugar and vanilla extract together until smooth, then mix in the soured cream and melted chocolate. Spread evenly over the cake and serve. If you want the icing a little firmer before spreading, pop it into the fridge for 10 minutes or so.

The dark sponge against the pale icing is quite stunning, but I do have a weakness of decorating my cakes with a little floral sprig or two. So finish the cake as you see fit and enjoy.

What A Swell Party It Was ...

Yesterday afternoon we threw a small party at home to celebrate Arthur's 2nd birthday. It was delightful. All the little guests seemed to enjoy the celebration. Experience has taught me that the under 6's actually make perfect guests, so long as you keep the numbers low (our party was for 8). A simple meal and plenty of toys to hand is a winner for them. Those who know me are aware that I have difficultly keeping things 'simple', but I think I did okay. I forcefully limited my creative bursts to the cake, a bit of decor and a little take-home gift. The weather was dry so we decided to bring some of the party outside. The children enjoyed playing in the red house (which was a rather weather-beaten pale pink until I got handy with a paint brush last week). I put table and chairs outside complete with printed place names and little floral arrangements (I know they're only two, but just humour me!) for an alfresco tea of fish-fingers & chips. When plates were clean out came the birthday cake. Arthur simply loves cake and ice-cream, so I kind of combined the two, making individual ice-cream cone cakes. They are basically a cupcake baked into an ice cream cone. The result was complete silence, a high usage of wet wipes and 100% approval from the little people! After more play came home time, which some guests find a little hard -  after all who ever wants a good party to come to an end? But I hoped that the take home gift of a jar of homemade playdough and a bag of No. 2 shaped chocolate-chip cookies made it a little bit easier to bare.

Party Time - Part Two: The Poms

These are my Poms. Everybody loves a Pom it seems. I made fifteen of them to decorate our living room with for Lily's party this weekend. After the party each child took one home with them. A few children on receipt of their Poms squashed them on top of their heads to make them look like hats and did several laps around the living room - it was a full energy party you know! Other's carried them out the door like they were the most delicate petal flower they'd ever held and took them home to hang from their bedroom ceiling - it has to be said, that reaction warmed my heart deeply. 

I first made Poms for Lily's party last year and they went down really well. This year was going to be all about my fabric party hats - these were to be the new Poms. But as the party drew nearer parents of children who came last year began to ask if I might be doing the Poms again this year as their son or daughter loved theirs and still had theirs up from last year. One mother even told of her daughter's recent Pom trauma that was bought on by the delicate Pom not surviving their recent house move. I felt a huge responsibility to go down the Pom road again and I ordered my batches of tissue papers.

Poms are actually great for many reasons. Firstly they create quite an impact decoration wise and they are cheaper to make than alternative similar garlands. They're also a good eco option as the children won't want to throw them away and the Poms can continue their existence quite happily hanging from a bedroom ceiling. The original reason we opted for Poms was that unlike a balloon they won't go bang. With Lily not keen on balloons it seemed the best option. Who would have thought they would have gained such a fan base. I'll probably be making them for her wedding reception in years to come!

Extended Family ...

I love a happy occasion and I love any excuse to bake. Yesterday we all went to the engagement party of David's niece Lucy and her fiance Dom. It was the first time both Lucy's and Dom's families met.
We had a lovely afternoon; a fun one that without anyone really noticing spread into the evening ... time has a habit of doing that when you're in good company. I baked and took along a cake to celebrate the engagement. It was a 'Chocolate Guinness Cake' topped with a cream cheese and white chocolate frosting. Appropriate I thought as Dom's family are from Ireland. It seemed to go down well ... I've been asked to make the wedding cake.