Ditch the lolly bags with these great DIY printable cupcake favors. Decorate the table and send a piece of the party home with each child. Simply print, cut and stick these super gorgeous cupcake favors and place a cupcake inside each one and pop the lid on. Fantastic Toys creator and designer, based in Minneapolis, USA, is a toy maker and makes everything from his own patterns.
Visit the Fantastic Toys Etsy shop here.
Raspberry Macaron Bouquet Recipe
WARNING: the following links can be addictive, click at own risk.
By now you would have noticed the dessert table trend of cake pops and french macarons. My new favorite daily must read blog, is that of a brilliant pastry chef, food photographer and food stylist, US based Tartelette has combined these two hot trend items in to one very stylish and delicious addition to a dessert table, Raspberry Macaron bouquets. Tartelette's other macaron recipes here
Raspberry Mascarpone Macarons:
For the shells:
90 g egg whites (use eggs whites that have been preferably left 3-5 days in the fridge)
25 g granulated sugar
200 g powdered sugar
110 g almonds (slivered, blanched, sliced, or meal)
1 tablespoon cherry pink powdered food coloring
Prepare the macarons:
In a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whip the egg whites to a foam, (think bubble bath foam) gradually add the sugar until you obtain a glossy meringue (think shaving cream). Do not overbeat your meringue or it will be too dry. Place the powdered sugar and almonds and powdered color in a food processor and give them a good pulse until the nuts are finely ground. Add them to the meringue, give it a quick fold to break some of the air and then fold the mass carefully until you obtain a batter that falls back on itself after counting to 10. Give quick strokes at first to break the mass and slow down. The whole process should not take more than 50 strokes. Test a small amount on a plate: if the tops flattens on its own you are good to go. If there is a small beak, give the batter a couple of turns.
Fill a pastry bag fitted with a plain tip (Ateco #807 or #809) with the batter and pipe small rounds (1.5 inches in diameter) onto parchment paper or silicone mats lined baking sheets. Let the macarons sit out for 30 minutes to an hour to harden their shells a bit. In the meantime, preheat the oven to 280F. When ready, bake for 15 to 20 minutes, depending on their size. Let cool. Once baked and if you are not using them right away, store them in an airtight container out of the fridge for a couple of days or in the freezer.
For the filling:
4 oz mascarpone, room temperature
2-3 tablespoon good quality raspberry preserves
In a small bowl, whisk together the mascarpone and preserves together until well incorporated. Fill a small piping bag with a large plain tip (Ateco #809) with it and pipe in the center of each shell. Let the shell mature at least 24 hours in the fridge so all the flavors have the chance to meld together.
A very special to thank you to Helen for allowing Mini Gaga to feature her brilliant jaw dropping work. Please do leave a comment to show your appreciation to Helen.
Please note that these images are the copyright of Helen M from Tartelette and can not used with permission. Her portfolio can be viewed here.
Shabby Shoppe downloadable confectionary apparel jpeg files are great for adding a special touch to your daughters birthday party. Just print, cut and assemble as per instructions and all for under $5 US dollars. The XOXO collection includes noodle boxes, popcorn boxes, crayon boxes, gift bags, purses, strawberries and circle tags for embellishing with more than one design in each. Just one look and you will not be able to resist the instant download.
Earlier this week we showed you Sarah's from Style Me Gorgeous invitations that she designed for her son, Max's naming day. Now we bring you the dessert table which is absolutely "gorgeous". Sarah designed all the stunning printed paperie. I love the colour palate I find them calm and soothing yet stylish and modern and very complimentary of each other. Thank you Sarah for sharing your families very special day. If you have gorgeous party photo's that you would like to share with Mini Gaga, we'd love to see them.
Spotted lanterns and Spotted cupcake cases are Robert Gordon
Striped lanterns are by Martha Stewart, available from Spotlight
Felt elephant from etsy store oritdotandolls
Elephant cutouts from etsy store PaperCreations123
Ribbons, card board shapes (used for lolly jar tags), wooden letter 'M', blue paper bags, scrap-booking papers, wooden pegs and spotted fabric also from Spotlight
Cord and elephant cookie cutter from details details
lollies and scoops from goody goody gumdrops
Vintage style blue suitcases from design child
Sarah at Style Me Gorgeous designed these divine invitations for her son, Max's naming day. The elephant theme follows on from Max's nursery, the illustrations are fun and the colours muted to make it baby appropriate and the results speak for themselves. Sarah also created a simply stunning dessert table and matching stationery for the big day and we will be featuring them later in the week.
Last Saturday was Tyler's pirate party, I showed you the invitations here and the dessert table here. It was great to see all the kids in their costumes and so much fun was had by all. Thank you La Toriana for my boys pirate costumes. My sister and I made the pirate ship from cardboard and painted in about an hour using sample pots from the paint shop. I made the bunting from a friends left over fabric and the pirate flag. The pirate tree was inspired from one of my favorite prints from Bell & Boo available at Habitat Baby, see below.
Yesterday was Tyler's pirate party, I will be posting the pirates next week but here is the dessert table. We had chocolate coated pretzels with blue edible glitter, pirate lego birthday cake, crabapple bakery recipe cupcakes, chocolate dipped shortbread, chocolate dipped kisses, wrapping paper covered pop tops, gold foil chocolate coins, chocolate stars meringue & popcorn.
The chocolate dipped pretzels were a hit with the adults and the "pirate juice" was a winner with the crew.
Under The Sea invitations by Inviting Kids. Cake by Hello Naomi. Dessert Table by Inspired Bride. Cupcakes by Hello Naomi. Cupcake Wrapper by The Cupcake Warpper Co from Complete Party Boxes. Mermaid paper plates, cups & napkins by Paper Eskimo from Complete Party Boxes. Blue & white polka dot cups by Sambellina by Complete Party Boxes. Sea Critters party favors by Gifts Define.
Suzi from Alannah Rose Stationery's little girl, Alannah had her 5th birthday and what better way to celebrate than to use the lala design from her mum's wonderful party invitations which were named after Alannah's nick name lala. This party was so brilliant that Amy Atlas featured it on her blog here.
Suzi created the most adorable dessert table carrying the strawberry and pink theme all the way from invites to cupcakes.The Happy Birthday banner is by Paperklip , the stunning hydrangeas were ordered specially from Camberwell Florist, the easy to follow instructions for the Martha Stewart tissue paper pom poms can be found here. Suzi got use her creative gene to add personal touches to Alannah's party by making extra special labels and party hats in the lala theme.
Suzi set up an outdoor drink station, the table centre piece was simply a handfull of fallen brances that she collected, spray painted and placed in a vase, then hung some lovely wooden birds from Bed, Bath N Table, together with some crepe paper roses that Suzi made herself.
Knowing that all children love party games, and whilst they played some traditional favourites like pass the parcel, musical chairs and pinata, Suai wanted to also incorporate something on theme. getting the idea for these nifty little cups from the Eat Drink Chic blog, and she thought they’d be great to use as ‘nests’ for the children to do an egg hunt. The child that found the most eggs got to choose a prize from the birdcage. (and of course they all got to keep their eggs).
The cups are super easy to make, simply buy plain paper cups, punch a hole either side at the top, insert ribbon and you’ve got a pretty little favour basket or candy cup.
Thank you Suzi for sharing you special day with Mini Gaga.
I had so much fun creating Tyler's 5th birthday party invitations. I got my sister (the artist of the family) to trace a map we got from the internet with a felt tip pen and copied them in the multifunction center. I then set to adding colour with pastels, my finger and cotton tip buds. I burnt the edges and smudged more pastel around the edge to give it a worn look, I did try tea but didnt like the result and it made the paper lift. Rolled them up and tied on a little pirate boy, which I did in the same way as the invites. I used pirate wording like "the ship is docked at" and "ye be walkin' the plank" to make it more fun and memorable. I will showing the party photo's in the coming weeks but have a lot to before the party like make a cardboard ship, a treasure chest pinata and sea monsters. Special thanks to the pirate lego for modeling the shoot.
