Friday, March 22, 2013

Pink and white cupcake bar

Tonight we celebrated the 171st anniversary of the relief society in our church. We had several little service activities and at the end we had refreshments. To make the evening feel more festive I organized a cupcake bar and went crazy on white and pink:) I love how it turned out and I had a lot of fun preparing everything.

 My husband's aunt and I made a total of 100 cupcakes for the evening, we had chocolate, lemon, nuts and yogurt cupcakes. I made the little labels using the silhouette program and I got the cute card holders in England.
 I went pinwheel crazy this week. I was planning on making three to go inside the white crate like in the picture below but they were so much fun to make that I made over 30 of them in the end...
 A sister in our ward turned 75 today so I made this small pink cake for her and tried for the first time to make a ruffle buttercream frosting.
 I used a wilton #104 petal piping tip. For a first try I'm really quite happy with it.

One more close up of the ruffle cake:)

I put little pink candies in the jars and also put the different frostings in glass jars.
 I made a sign (in french) explaining how to use the cupcake bar.

 More pinwheels and I also tried making french meringues for the first time. Of course I made them pink:) Here's the recipe I used. I made mine very small, a bit smaller than an inch and made 120 with that recipe. They are cute and very yummy too:)




 It was a great evening, we got a lot of service projects done and had a great time chatting and eating! Have a great week end!!


Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Golf/Jeeves & Wooster desert table

Last Sunday my father in law turned 60 (no the banner does not say goth party...). The Friday before I went into a party planning mood and decided to organize a golf/Jeeves & Wooster (british TV show) dessert table. Jeeves and Wooster was a bit difficult so we had the theme music on when my father in law came in and I tried to give the table a vintage feel since the show takes place in the 1920s, Wooster also loves golf and berets. My sister in law Linda helped me a lot with the food and my mother in law as well. 

 It all started with this cake that I saw on Jenny cookies, she is so talented. Making cakes is so not my thing, I'd much rather make cupcakes! Anyway I loved the idea of putting a golf ball in the cake:)
 Sunday was also St Patricks day so green was the main color and we had some yellow too.
 Yummy lemon meringue pie and delicious little vanilla and chocolate eclairs!
 Fresh home made lemonade and oreo cake pops, here's where I got the recipe for the cake pops (it's in french though).

A couple weeks ago I discovered how to make mini pavlovas (picture below), it's a marshmallowy (is that a word??) meringue base topped with homemade whipped cream and fresh fruit. I'll be sharing that recipe soon. It became an instant favorite in our family!
 So this is what I whipped up in 2 days. This Friday I'm organizing a cupcake bar for our relief society activity at church so I hope to post picture of that this week end! Have a nice week!





Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Pinterest recipe challenge: White chicken chili

A couple months ago I came across this white chicken chili recipe and it has become a favorite ever since. I did make a few changes because there were a few things that I didn't have but I think they are good substitutes and so far I have always made it with my changes.


1. I start by cooking the chicken breasts in boiling water and I use my stand mixer to shred the chicken. I set the mixer on 4 or 6 and it takes about 30 seconds to shred the chicken, it's awesome!
Here are the ingredients that I use:
1 cup chopped onions
1 green onion sliced
1/2 green pepper
1 thin green chili pepper seeded and sliced
2 Tbl olive oil
3 cups chicken broth
1 large 800g can white beans (partially drained)
3 cups cooked chicken breast shredded
1 tsp chili con carne mix
2 garlic cloves crushed
1 1/2 handfuls fresh flat parsley
1/2 handful fresh coriander
3/4 cup sour cream (I used crème fraîche because that's all you can get in France)
1 1/2 cups shredded cheese (I use gouda)
 2. In a large stock pot over medium heat, sauté onions, green onion, pepper and chili pepper in oil until tender. Chop the fresh parsley and coriander and add to the pot. Stir in remaining ingredients except sour cream and cheese.
3. Simmer for 30 minutes, stirring frequently. Shortly before serving add cream and cheese. Stir until cheese is melted.
 We usually eat this with homemade french bread, I'll be sharing that recipe shortly. Bon appetit!



Saturday, March 2, 2013

Pinterest recipe challenge: Carmelitas

Ever since I discovered Pinterest I've mostly been fascinated by all the lovely delicious looking recipes that are so easy to find. I've tried out a quite a few over the past 6 months and a lot of them have become favorites in our family. So I thought I'd start sharing my adventures trying out pinterest recipes with you:)

The recipe I am sharing with you today comes from luluthebaker, it is an original recipe that she came up with and I love it!! It's a delicious and very rich oatmeal/butter/chocolate/caramel dessert that is baked in the oven and tastes best the next day (if you made them in the late afternoon like I did) once the chocolate has hardened again after baking (oh and they taste best at room temperature!!)

 I didn't change anything in the recipe. For the caramels I used an entire 165g bag of Werther's soft caramels
 So you have a bottom layer of oatmeal/brown sugar/buttery goodness, then a layer of chopped chocolate, a layer of melted caramel and heavy cream and the whole thing is topped off with a final layer of the oatmeal mixture and then baked in the oven.
 I think I'm going to go make some for tomorrow! hope you enjoy this and let me know if you try it out!!