High Tea At Home

I hosted high tea this past holiday long weekend. 

On my menu: green tea with rose, red onion and cucumber salad with a balsamic glaze, Jacques Torres' chocolate chip cookie, an apple brie open faced French baguette, and shortbread lemon tarts.

I found it difficult to enjoy a high tea that I had prepared myself - a lot more work (interpreted as more stressful) than I had imagined but, all for a very special guest!

Mother's Day Sugar Cookies & Cupcakes

I invited a couple of mom's this afternoon for coffee, tea and sweet treats! It was a pre-Mother's Day celebration.

I tiered the desserts on two stands. On the bottom tier, MOM sugar glazed sugar cookies. The recipes can be found on: marthastewart.com and allrecipes.com.

And on the top tier, my favorite cake in cupcake form: chocolate cake with a vanilla bean cream cheese.

Happy Mother's Day to all you mom's out there! 

Gabrielle xo

40th Birthday Dessert Stand

I captured a few photographs of the dessert stand that posted yesterday. It was placed on a rather tall buffet so the cake was hidden unless you are 7' tall.

I wish I snapped a few more shots in the daylight but I was distracted.

On the bottom tier were chocolate brownies topped with fresh raspberries.

The second tier had "40" hockey stick sugar cookies.

A view of the top tier with my arms far extended. This was taken later in the evening.

My friend removed the cake from the top tier to have her husband blow out his candles. Happy birthday, Geoff!

3-Tier Square Dessert Stand Tutorial

My friend's husband turned 40 this week and she's throwing him a cocktail party tonight in celebration of the big 4-0. She has hired a catering company to prepare the food and drinks but decided to organize the desserts herself. I suggested that she display the desserts on a tier stand and she was very receptive to the idea. I ordered the styrofoam square cake dummies on her behalf from a local cake decorating supplier. Here are the exact sizes:

7 Square Styrofoam Cake Dummies

1 - 16" X 4"
1 - 12" X 4"
1 - 8" X 4" *see note below
4 - 4" X 3"
*Please note: The bakery where she ordered the cake doesn't sell 6" cakes so she modified the top tier to 1 - 10" X 4" 

We managed to find another day out of the week to pick out more supplies. The color scheme she chose for the party is silver, green and black - we decided on a 4" spool of black ribbon, green wrapping paper and silver baking liners. She wasn't quite sure how to assemble it so I offered to do it seeing that I have so many dowels laying around.

I was astounded when she dropped them off. I love how the tiers looked merely stacked but I promised her tiers.

It was time to pull out my husband's measuring tape. I measured to the center of each square dummy and marked it. I then pierced the dowel through the center of each tier (and removed it) after measuring the centre of each dummy.

The final step was to build the stand from the bottom tier up.

I should also mention that the dowel was 22" tall and that I only pierced the top tier halfway.

And here she is! 

My friend picked it up yesterday afternoon and I am really excited to see the final display tonight. Hopefully I'll remember to take a photograph of the dessert table.