Alyssa's Bridal Shower

This weekend I put together one of my most ambitious parties yet, with the collaboration of my most awesome partner-in-crime, Claudette. This was a Bridal Shower for Alyssa, the lovely daughter of our other bestie, Lisa. Alyssa will be getting married in America, and then living there afterward, so this was our chance to celebrate her upcoming nuptials with her, and we wanted to do it in style!

Since Alyssa would be relocating we though a travel theme would work really well, and it all just snowballed from there.

First I created the invitation:

The map with the wording "Travelling from Miss to Mrs" was the first step, then when deciding whether to make the invitation a folded card or to make it postcard style, we realised it would be really cool to make it not only postcard style, but to look like an actual postcard!

Next was to design the cake. I would really have loved to make Alyssa's wedding cake, but since that can't happen, I decided to make her a formal cake for the shower. I knew I wanted to have an element of lace (to reflect a wedding dress), I just had to figure out how to fit the travel theme/map into the cake design too. I remembered that a friend of mine has an edible printer, and a design formed in my head (she printed both icing sheets for the bottom tier and wafer paper sheets for the flowers).
The cake turned out almost exactly as I had imagined it!

I would be trying three new techniques on this cake - wrapping cake with printed icing sheets, stencilling lace with royal icing and making wired wafer paper flowers!

The bottom tier was American yellow cake with chocolate buttercream, covered in chocolate ganache and then ivory fondant. The printed icing sheets were applied directly to the fondant, the joins covered with fondant button detail. The top tier was my rich dark chocolate cake (a firm favourite of all my friends) with cherry chocolate buttercream, also covered in chocolate ganache and ivory fondant.

I used the wrap technique to cover both of the cakes with the fondant. I find that when covering such tall cakes, this gives much sharper corners and more uniform sides, which were necessary both for sticking the maps onto the bottom tier and stencilling the top tier (and both techniques would easily cover the join down the side).

The stencil I used on the top tier is a beautiful lace mesh stencil I purchased from Evil Cake Genius. I attached the stencil to the cake using straight pins, then used a spatula to apply the coloured royal icing and a plastic scraper to scrape the excess off again. I had to add quite a lot of white food colouring to the royal icing to make it opaque enough for the detail of the design to be seen (a bit of trial and error before touching the actual cake). It was brilliantly easy to use and the results look incredible - so detailed! Once stencilled I added just a touch of edible glitter for some sparkle.

Next up I need to make the wafer paper flowers. I used this tutorial by Sharon Wee Creations. Again, there was a bit of trial and error here. I had completely forgotten to buy piping gel, so I decided to use a bit of tylose powder mixed with water. This did work very well, but I had to vein the petals while the tylose glue was still moist, or the wafer paper was susceptible to cracking quite badly. My petals also seemed to be a bit stiffer than hers in the final product and more curled (no idea if either was due to the use of tylose glue or not), though also very tough (much stronger than the original wafer paper), which is a good thing! I also found that I could not spray water (with the airbrush) onto the printed side of the wafer paper (it changes colour), so for the printed flowers I used one layer of white wafer paper and one printed, and glued them together with the tylose glue, then before veining I would spray the back (white side) of the petal, leave it for a few second for the water to seep in, then spray the back a second time and press he petal in the veiner. I cut all the petals by hand, making each one just a little bit different.

Next we focused our attention on the party itself. Maps would be needed for hall decoration, as well as flags, suitcases (especially vintage ones) and, of course, what party would be complete without fairy lights?

Since we wanted this to be a classy event, we decided to serve canapés. I made square devilled eggs and chocolate spoons with raspberry mousse. Claudette made fruit skewers, pastry pinwheels and 2 different ritz cracker canapés - chicken with cream cheese, chives and balsamic vinaigrette (which she was told by one guest were the best thing he had ever eaten); and cherry tomatoes with mozzarella and pesto.

The biggest trick up our sleeves, however, was out "Make Your Own Mocktail Bar!" We had ingredients, equipment and recipes for three different Mocktails that guest's could have a go at making themselves - Virgin Strawberry Daiquiri, Virgin Pina Colada and Virgin Mojito. As well as some jugs of Virgin Pimms. This was so much fun, and a delicious treat. A few guests even had a go at creating their own mocktails.

YUM!!! Those virgin strawberry daiquiris were especially popular!

Finally, no Bridal Shower would be complete without some games / activities.

We started the party off with a game we called "What Did Zach Say?" We prepared 12 questions in advance that we got the groom to answer on video. We then asked Alyssa each question and she had to try and guess how Zach will have answered the question. Neither our bride nor her mother knew we had collaborated with the groom, so this was an extra special surprise for them. She did very well indeed, only having to pop a few sticks of gum into her mouth (when she got a question wrong). It seems the groom deliberately answered some of the questions with the aim of throwing the bride off. So funny!

There was a station where guests could create "Date Night Idea" sticks, writing unique (and some naughty ;) date ideas onto wooden sticks and decoration them with washing tape. Along with the party invitations, we gave out blank recipe cards, so had a box for those to be put into.

The favourite game of the evening had to have been "Kiss the Groom," it sure produced a LOT of giggling!!
I made the stamps, used for 'kissing' the groom, myself. Three of us each kissed a plastic rubber/eraser with dark lipstick and I carved them out with a craft knife, then glued it to a wooden block to make for easier stamping.

We also played "Don't Say BRIDE or WEDDING", each of us wearing a plastic jewel ring and trying our best not to say either of those words. I am hopeless at that game, and lost my ring within the first few minute of the party! The winner had quite the collection of rings on her fingers by the end of the evening.

To finish the evenings activities off (before cutting the cake), we played "Say Yes to the Dress!"
We split into 5 groups (and spectators) and had three toilet rolls and a glue stick with which to create a toilet paper wedding dress. This is actually the first time I've played this game, and it was hilarious!! The problem with cheap toilet paper - it tears really easily! The dresses produced, however, were very creative and quite impressive! One even had gummy rings stuck all over it (I won't ask how they got them to stick Lol) and we had a little flower girl too.

It was a wonderful evening and I hope it was very memorable for our beautiful bride and her gorgeous Mum. I love you guys and wish you all the best for your future with Zach, Alyssa. We will really miss you xx

Gender Reveal Party

This Moustaches and Bows gender reveal party was so much fun to plan and execute! It was a joint effort between Mamma-to-be Anna, myself and my BFF Claudette. Anna saw a photo of a cake that she really liked, and the whole theme of the party snowballed from there.

I have to be honest, this is not my favourite cake. The fondant I used to cover the cake was awful, left a pitted and elephant skin surface which I just could not remedy, so I piped all over it with royal icing (it was originally supposed to just be a decorative edge to the bracket frames). Unfortunately, my arm is just not yet up to the task and my piping looks really terrible viewed close up. I think I need a bit more practice with the chalkboard effect too. Thankfully, Anna and Paul loved it.

All the decorations, and most of the food, was hand made by the three of us. Anna spent hours folding all the concertinas to make the rosettes! Our friend Erin cut all the triangles for the bunting. All the little moustaches and bows were cut on my silhouette cameo.

The food was all themed to the old Nursery Rhyme "What are little boys made of?" Each table (blue and pink) had the following framed artwork on it. Click on the images to download the pdf for your own use.

On the blue table we had cocktail sausage snails, worm pudding, nuts, crisps and sandwiches. My daughter watched us set up the table, checking off each item against the nursery rhyme. She was happy with the snails and decided that worms were close enough to slugs, but then we put down the nuts and she exclaimed: "Nuts? But boys don't have nuts!" Needles to say, party preparations stopped for a few  minutes while we all rolled around on the floor laughing!

How cute are the snails that Claudette made?!? And they tasted great too - never thought I'd actually eat snails ;)

The girls table had gingerbread cookies, strawberries, marshmallows, chocolate dipped pretzels and caramel popcorn balls. All very sweet and very yummy!

Actually, both tables had gingerbread cookies on, but I couldn't only make bow cookies, those moustaches are too cute!

We even dressed up the drinks dispensers, and coloured the punch too.

As guests arrived they were directed to the table below. They were to vote for whether they thought Baby Robinson was going to be a girl or boy - write their name on the relevant bow/moustache, and pop it in the jar, then take a bow/moustache pin and wear it throughout the party. They could also suggest names for the baby.

Once everyone had arrived we played a couple of games. First up was a Quiz based on old wives tales. Everyone got a quiz sheet and had a few minutes to complete the quiz (some worked in groups). Once they had finished it, we went through the answers and had Anna and Paul test each of the tales. We ended up with the baby being just as likely to be a boy as a girl.

I found the Old Wives Tales Quiz at a blog called Through Clouded Glass, but adapted it to fit our party theme. Click on the image above to download the pdf.

Click here for the ANSWER sheet.

Then we played a team game. All those who voted girl formed a seated line along one side of the room, boy along the other side. We ended up with 2 more on the boy team than the girl team, so one switched sides to make it even. The aim of the game was to pass a cup down the line, passing it from lap to lap without touching it with anything but your legs.

It was quite hilarious to watch! The team who voted for Baby Robinson to be a girl won.

With that, it was time to cut the gender-revealing cake! Drumroll please...

It's a GIRL!!!

Just look how happy they are :)

Both wearing pink bows, they were very pleased with the pink cake.

Happy Mamma!

We had also set a photo booth up for guests to entertain themselves throughout the evening. We supplied plenty of props in the way of hats and wigs as well as a good selection of cardboard cut outs on sticks - moustaches and bows of course, glasses, lips and bow ties.

It was a lot of fun!

Congratulations Paul and Anna, we can't wait to meet the little lady!

Rainbow Art Party

My little girl is very artistic, and will spend hours every day drawing and creating. This year she decided she wanted to have an Art theme for her birthday party. As we started coming up with various ideas for the party, we decided that we would pair the Art theme with rainbows as well, as we thought it would make for a very bright and cheerful party.

The cake is gravity defying, with rainbow cake in the paint can as well as the cake itself. The sponge is filled with vanilla icing, then covered with milk chocolate ganache and fondant.

Natasha decorated the white fondant by drawing all over it with edible markers, before I added all the 'spilled paint'.

For about 2 weeks before the party we were busy making all the bright, rainbow coloured decorations to hang around the room:

• Paper rosettes spelling out NATASHA
• Paint spattered table cloths

• A balloon wreath
• A melted crayon canvass 

• Polka dot bunting (made by sewing card circles together to make a long string)
• Rainbow balloons hung from the ceiling

• And a piñata (ribbon pull type)

The party food was also rainbow coloured (wherever possible).

• Rainbow jelly (jello) push pops

• Rainbow fruit and veg
• Rainbow coloured candy paint pots

We even had rainbow coloured plates and straws.

All sitting in a row at the back of the table, you can see the party 'bags' for the guests to take home. Each pot contains a little pipe cleaner craft project (to make little monsters) and some candy.

You can certainly tell that there is a party going on in there!

Once the party got going, we had plenty of fun activities and games to keep the kids busy. We started off with some 'cookie canvas' decorating. Each child got a large royal icing covered chocolate sugar cookie to decorate, using edible markers, rainbow coloured royal icing and various sprinkles. They made some really beautiful works of art!

Next up, we played a series of team games.

First, each team had to work together to see who could build the tallest marshmallow tower, using toothpicks (dyed rainbow colours, of course) and marshmallows,

In the second game, each team was given a white paper plate and a lot of little coloured stickers. The aim of the game was to completely cover the top of the plate in stickers, so that there was no white left shoeing at all. The winner being the first team to completely cover the plate (we then judged who came 2nd and 3rd by coverage).

The third team game was a drawing game. We had prepared a stack of cards for each team, with the names of objects on them, like Lion, Car, Octopus, Surfboard, etc. Each member of the team had to draw a card and look at it, but not let anyone else know what their object is. They then had to start drawing that object. After 15 seconds the clock stopped, and they had to pass their drawing to their team mate on their left (receiving one from the right at the same time). The clock started again and they had to continue drawing the picture now in front of them (but of course they don't know what it is supposed to be - hopefully the previous player left enough clues in what the drew), again with a 15 second time limit. This continued until the drawing once again found itself in front of it's original player. A point is awarded for every drawing that resembles what is was meant to be. As you can see, there were some very humorous results!

The "Marshmallow Girls" won the team games and each received a medal.

Then it was time to sing HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

 Followed by pulling the piñata ribbons - the birthday girl managed to choose the winning ribbon!

We concluded the party with 2 more activities. Sand Art, made using salt coloured with chalk (I crushed the chalk, then blended it into the slat in my MagiMix).

 And canvas painting - each child was given a small canvas, with there name on it, to paint.

It was a very successful party, the kids had a lot of fun, and were kept busy every moment.

Thank you to Claudette, who sacrificed her whole day to help with both setting up and running the party as well as cleaning up afterwards. You are the best!