How to Throw a Sparkling Tea Party (part 1, set-up)

Have you ever thought about planning a tea party and not known how to go about it?  It isn't as hard as it seems. 

I love to throw a parties!  I have even thought about making a business of planning parties for people.  I however, realize that I would be a VERY expensive party planner.  I love to keep adding more and more cool elements.  On the plus side, the party turns out really awesome, on the down side, it's a little crazy trying to fit it all in.

Since my daughter is such a girly-girl, I suggested a tea party.  I had never thrown one, been to one, or even drink tea regularly, so I did a lot of research.  One resource that I always check when planning a kid's party is this Birthday Party Ideas website.  This has a ton of ideas that can be searched easily by topic.  Maybe one has a cool game, but another had great food served.  What I do is read through them and pick out my favorite parts of each one.

Here is what I came up with.

I hand-made the invitations.  I found a template on a card making website, cut it out of solid colored card stock.  I stamped a design on the cup.  Added paper, buttons, and ribbons.

One thing that I did was to scour yard sales, estate sales, and thrift stores to find real tea cups and pots.  The girls loved using the real thing.  I wish that I started earlier, to have more time to find cheaper ones.  It would have been better to find them for $1 each.  I used the extras and more fragile ones for decoration.  I borrowed these from my friend, Andi who purchased them in Russia.

I created this vignette above the doorway with her bears having their own tear party.

since I wanted to enclose the space to make it more intimate, I put up an easy-up in the living room.  I decorated it with tulle and twinkle lights.  My friend, Kara, stayed late the night before to help me stay-up

I added small details to the "gazebo".  I found this cool butterfly at Christmastime.  I think it was a package decoration.

This was found at a yard sale of bridal decorations in a 6-pack.

We added roses and ivy to the legs to make it seem more like a 

garden gazebo.

For tables, my husband took large wire spools, took off the round tops, added 2x4 legs are voila, tables perfect for little girls.  For chairs:  I begged, borrowed and bought as many little kid chairs as needed.  (I only purchased 4), then Kara covered them with fabric found at a yard sale, tied with wire ribbon that was embellished with a rose from Dollar Tree.  This way all the chairs coordinated.  My friend, Kara, was a huge help with cutting them to sized and adding them to the chairs.

I borrowed table clothes from my step-mother in coordinating colors.  Each one was slightly different, but similar.  (btw, she had so many because she threw a french bistro shower for my sister), we added this piece of fabric to each table to be the same topper for all the tables. I found these awesome real doilies at a flea market and got a great price for buying multiples.  In addition, I found the teapot shaped frames at the flea market as a gift for each girl and place marker (double use!)  At the party, my friend, C, took pictures of each girl drinking tea and I sent it with the thank you card to fit in the frame.  Each table had a tiny vase with flowers.

My friend, K, loaned me these hand-made napkin holders made from bead and wire.  I had my mother help me make these napkins.  Just white fabric with a pink surged edge and their name embroidered in pink.  Another of their favors.  Their plates were found at Big Lots for inexpensive.

When the girls first arrived, they got to decorate their own tea hat.  I found the straw hats at the flea market and bought ribbons and flowers everywhere (yard sales, dollar store, etc)  They loved their hats and got to keep them

 After their hats were made, they were to accessorize with jewelry, "furs" or boas, fans, and gloves.  Again, I mined yard sales and borrowed from friends for all this.

 

When they were seated at their table, I told them about tea party manners and they all listened politely.  They all had perfect manners.  Even our younger friends.

For food, I researched tea parties and what you would serve. For the table, I used different trays on different heights to display the little treats.  I used glass, metals, white dishes, etc.

 The Menu:
Finger Sandwiches (a must - everything should be finger food, my aunt helped cut pb&js into triangles and strips)
Cucumber Sandwiches.  (I had never had one, found a recipe, man were they good!  Mostly the adults ate them, the kids didn't want to try them.)
Cheese, Ham, and biscuit bites (my son helped cut out the Pillsbury biscuits, cheese and ham in star shapes)
Mini Quiches (from Costco - mostly adults ate these as well.  Very easy, though)
Chicken Salad - made by my Kara, very yummy
Sugared grapes (just sprinkle sugar on grapes to add that extra little sparkle)
Petit Fours
Candy Tea cups filled with chocolate mousse and whipped cream
Assorted candy, crackers & cookies

I made my own, using store bought frozen pound cake.  You make the sugared glaze, color it and pour over the top.  Add small gumdrops, sprinkles, etc before they dry.  I think they need work, but very yummy.  This recipe is very detailed with a filling - I just did mine in squares.

Yummmmy!  And I never knew.  Here is how they are made.  So cool and tasty.  Almost all the descriptions that I found of tea parties, had these.

I saw these candy molds on-line and thought how cute they would be.  I bought 2 different styles.  What a pain they were.  It took way longer than I thought and trying to get the timing right was hard.  You were supposed to fill with chocolate, let sit for a certain length, and then pour out extra to leave a hollow cup to fill with the mousse.

A note on the tea: my daughter and I tried out a few fruity ones without caffeine.  She selected a Raspberry one.  Some girls loved it and some just politely didn't finish it.  All of them tried it.

While they ate, I read them a story about tea time manners, called "Tea for Ruby"

After lunch, they opened presents and had cake.  All the moms wanted to have a tea party of their own.  The girl's all loved it and everyone had fun.  It was so much fun, I would do it again.

 I would never have been able to do it without the help of my friends!  Thanks!
Meagan

3-D Cake Fun

I thought that I would just share a couple of quick cakes - just for fun! :)

I did this one with my mother for my Grandfather for his birthday.  He loves the Bulldogs!

 

For my dear husband who loves the Giants

In honor of my Grandmother, a Hen and her chicks for Easter

Enjoy!
Meagan

How to Make Cute Kitty Cupcakes

In honor of my friend's birthday, I made some cupcakes from the book "Hello, Cupcake" by Karen Tack & Alan Richardson.  This book is tons of fun for every skill level.  It shows you how to make cupcakes without special tools. 

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First, gather your ingredients together.  I decided to go ahead and use the recipe from the book for Perfect Cake-Mix Cupcakes Orange Spice.  A tip:  all ingredients should be room temperature, so warm up eggs, milk, etc.

If your recipe calls for Buttermilk and you don't have any, you make it using a tablespoon of lemon juice for each cup of milk.

A microplane makes quick work off orange rind.

Add all ingredients together and mix for 2 minutes as per instructions

The authors suggest using a Ziplock bag to fill your cupcake pan with.  They have full instructions on this.  Basically, though, it makes it easier to fill the cups evenly.

Mmmm, Orange Spice cupcakes! 

Now for the decorating.  Copy the fishbone from the book to make it easier to do.  Place a parchment sheet over it and pipe candy melts over fishbone lines.  Let dry.  This is fairly straightforward and she uses a Ziplock bag for this also.  They dry hard and you can place them easily

Fill one Ziplock or piping bag with about 1 cup of white icing

Divide remaining can and a half into 2 separate containers and color white icing gray and orange with food coloring.  Then place in their own bags.  You will also put chocolate frosting in a bag.  On a side note:  The Rich & Creamy frosting was a little on the runny side at room temperature, so I kept refrigerating it.  The chocolate, I did not have this problem.

These are the Famous Chocolate Wafers.  You are supposed to cut them with a serrated knife to make the ears.  You end up with a lot of leftover and cracked pieces.  Maybe a pie crust??

The 3 stages of icing the face.  Step one - attach ears (wafers) to head with chocolate icing about 1" apart.  Step 2 - Start piping the hair.  Step 3 - pipe entire head, except muzzle (leave for white)

Finish piping muzzle with white, now to move onto adding the features.

I had to make 3 substitutions.  The features call for Mentos (cheeks), Mini M&Ms (eyes), Starburst (tongue), Runts (nose), and Black Licorice Laces (eye brows).  I used Laffy Taffy for tongue, Conversation Hearts for nose and black Candy Melts for eyebrows.

The 4 steps of the body.  Step 1 - Pipe hair with color of body.  Step 2 - Place marshmallows that are cut in half diagonally in sets of 3 on either side of belly.   Step 3 - Using black candy melts, pipe fingernails.  Step 4 - Add pre-done fishbones

Birthday Wishes

A friend of mine (whose birthday is today), asked if I was going to post any of my cakes.  The answer to that is a definite "YES"!
You see, I was a proud member of "I can burn water" club for years.  Man, could I tell you stories!  After a few kid's birthday parties had come and I was stuck buying some generic cake for each one, I figured - I could do that!
For my first one, I just made a boxed sheet cake, iced plain and added my own decoration.

In early 2004, my first efforts were a little sad.  I guess that I should have read some sort of instructions.  It didn't turn out quite like I planned.  I wanted it to look like the scavenger hunt that the kids did for the pirate party.  My treasure chest looked like a brown blob. 

Fast forward 7 years and I have learned a lot and I have a lot TO learn.  I have made a bunch of cakes and found that I prefer 3-D cakes.  One thing that I have learned was to find inspiration somewhere.  A great place to find cake ideas is Cake Central.  All sorts of people, of all skill levels, post pictures of their cakes, which can be searched.  I usually start with an idea or theme and search by that.  There are so many cakes on there that you have to narrow it by something.
When I offered to make a cake for my friend's son's combined birthday party last November, I knew that the party would revolve around animals since their family loves animals of all kinds.
After vaguely searching the hundreds (if not thousands) of animal cakes, I realized what I wanted to make - a bathtub full of animals.  It just seemed so like her boys to decide to wash all these animals.  I narrowed my search.  I found some bathtub cakes that I like by searching for "tub".  I liked ones like this and used it to design my bathtub after. 

I HAD to include an Crocodile since that is her oldest son favorite.  He has been a "Croc Hunter" for as long as I have known them.  Also, on the right is their new Cockateil.

Also, they have quite a few lizards, so I ended up with a snake in the middle.  On the right is one of their cats (it did not turn out quite as I hoped).

Their newest addition (as of the party) is a very large turtle that lives in a doghouse in their backyard.

The whole motley gang - suds and all.

I piped "Happy Birthday" in icing bubbles and each boy got a towel with his name on it. 

Also, on the bottom left is one of their black labs.  I really would have loved to have more creatures in the tub and also have 2 her boys at the side of the tub, but I ran out of time.

 I made 2 different cakes.  The tub is 2 pound cakes carved into a rounded bottom cake.  Covered in handmade fondant with rolled top edges.  (FYI - I used to use the store bought Wilton fondant, because I thought that fondant would be too hard to make.  I found a great recipe that actually tastes great and is easy.)
I formed all the creatures, towels, bottles, and bathroom floor from colored fondant.  The bubbles is Wilton's Buttercream recipe.  The bottom cake is chocolate.  I think it turned out and it seemed to be a big hit with all the kids.  The thing that cracked me up was that all the kids wanted to eat the animals.

 So, Birthday Girl - This post is dedicated to you!
Happy Birthday and thanks for being my friend,
Meagan