Perfectly Pink Details - A Tea Party

I am not a professional party planner, baker, photographer, or writer.  (If you’ve read ANY of my blogs not only do you realize this, you understand why.)  But I would be remiss if I didn’t publish the recipes and photos from my tea party to celebrate the memory of Ava.

I wanted touches of pink everywhere for obvious reasons.  I learned of the annual tea party celebration too late to plan anything elaborate so I made things easy for myself.  I chose two strawberry desserts because both Little Misses like strawberries and it was natural for the pink theme. 

Once again, Glory from Glorious Treats provided an excellent recipe for cupcakes and frosting.  I followed her recipe exactly, but I made MINI cupcakes in 2-inch liners.  The recipe produced 48 minis AND four “regular” size cupcakes that served as take-home treats.  I baked the minis for 15 minutes and they were perfect.  I topped them with strawberry cream cheese frosting.  I used Smucker’s spreadable fruit rather than preserves because I wanted a totally seedless experience.  I found that 3 tablespoons of fruit provided the perfect amount of strawberry flavor but it did make the frosting slightly softer than the “pure” recipe.  Placed in the fridge for a few minutes, the frosting still piped perfectly however.  I did add some paste color for the pink tint and topped them with pink sparkle sugar.

The recipe for the strawberry tarts was literally stumbled upon through a search for another appetizer.  But I tucked it away in my “someday this sounds good” file.  I was right.  They were really tasty and incredibly easy to make.  I found the following hints will make an even better experience next time:

• The berries get VERY juicy.  Cook at a higher temp or for a longer time so that the liquid reduces substantially.
• Beat the cream cheese very well before adding the berry mixture.  Otherwise it takes a long time to incorporate and the cheese remains lumpy.
• Since the shells are so small, trim the berry pieces to fill nicely in the bottom.  The quarters to TOP the shells can stay the full piece.
• The cream cheese mix makes far more than what fills one box of shells.  It would easily fill two boxes to yield 30 tartlets.
• These can’t be made too far in advance or the shells will get soggy.

I served Earl Grey tea with traditional accompaniments of cream, sugar, and lemon slices.  This was clearly not my most detailed soiree but it was simple to put together and relaxed, and that's what an afternoon tea should be.

My Name Is Jennifer, And I'm A Party-Planning-aholic

If someone creates a 12-step recovery program for party planning addicts, I really should be the first to sign up.  I’ll admit, I’m a junkie and I’ve gotten at least one friend hooked:  she too, now needs a daily dose of fete fantastic and gleefully sends me updates about her quadruple birthday summer soiree planning. 

I thought, if I can get one friend hooked, why not get more friends hooked?  So, my dear friends & readers, I have compiled a “brief” list of amazing sites for you to visit, swoon over, and be inspired by.  You will either love me, or curse my head.  Or maybe a bit of both.  When you visit these sites, you can also “like” them on Facebook.  So, the problem is, when you “like” one, several other FB friends can post on that status, and you discover even MORE great sites. 

Pretty soon you’ve “liked” dozens of blogs & sites that you never knew existed.  In the morning you hop on the computer eagerly checking FB not for your friend’s review of whatever movie they’ve seen, not for your cousin’s update on her triathlon success, not for your niece’s cryptic message about some guy who has “the hots” for her.  NOPE.  Not you.  YOU check for the latest post on a free printable, a dessert table inspiration, a DIY centerpiece and a cupcake recipe.

What starts out as a casual use soon becomes a much-needed fix.  Yep, that’s addiction.  And it is wonderful.  This is the honest truth:  The very next day after my daughter Kyla’s second birthday party, I was online researching a theme for her third birthday party.  The balloons were still up and the remnants of a good time were still lingering and I was already thinking about next year.

The following is only a sample of the amazing sites and blogs out there for party planning, cooking/baking and DIY purposes.  Please, if you happen to stumble upon one that you find noteworthy, post a comment or send me an email.  Add fuel to my fire!  So without further adieu here are some sites to get you started down your own path of creative destruction:

I call this one “party porn.”  The submissions & photos are so amazing you wonder how people can be so talented.  I look at this frequently to swoon and then realize I will never duplicate a thing posted by Amy Atlas.

 

Got Your Attention?  OK, Get Ready…

These are a little more “down to earth” and user friendly.  I’m all about the free printables that they offer on their blogs.  You don’t have to think or work at all, you just print out their hard work and talent. 

Living Locurto (Great bits of “EVERYTHING” make this site almost one-stop shopping.)

Hostess With The Mostess (affectionately known simply as HWTM on the blogosphere.)

Pizzazzerie  (Not only does she have an amazing blog she recently got an English Springer Spaniel puppy and frequently shares super-cute photos of him.)

Tomkat Studio (If she was clearly not so sweet and lovely, you’d almost hate her for her talents!)

Eye Candy Event Details (A-dorable!)

Buckets of Grace  (She has a fantastic blog AND she’s from Wisconsin!)

Polkadot Market (I purchased some things for Kyla’s second birthday from her, and she is delightful!)

How Does She (offers bits of all things useful for a fab, pulled-together event) 

If you want to design your own invites or just want some fun fonts for other stuff, fonts for peas is amazing.  I’ve downloaded tons of their fonts and nothing has ever goofed up my computer.

For Cooking and Baking these sites take the cake, pardon the over-used pun…

Even if you feel your cookie decorating skills are WAY below Glory’s (and really, whose aren’t?) you will love her beautiful photos and extremely detailed how-to’s.  Someday I hope to get up the courage to try her tips & techniques.  Until then, I just drool over her posts at Glorious Treats.

It’s tough to write humor.  It’s tough to write great recipes.  It’s tough to take great photos of food you’ve prepared.  Somehow, Kristan manages to do all of these and more.  She is downright hysterical.  You’ll love her at Confessions of a Cookbook Queen. 

So are you goo-goo eyed yet?  Have you “liked” these ladies on FB yet?  Are you planning the next ten years worth of parties for your family?  Not only will you enjoy these sites you will find their authors are fun, approachable, down-to-earth real women just like us.  It’s not possible, you say?  No one could have a blog/site like any one of these listed above and be a regular person?  They are infinitely cooler than we are?  I thought that too, until I read this post by Glory. 

Lastly, if you send these great ladies a message, please tell them you read about them on this post of Ms. Elaine Kneeous.