Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Valentine's Day Tea Party!

Ah the tea party! This is the event you have been waiting for since last Valentine's Day (well, at least I know I have!) This year I wanted to make similar treats to last year, but step it up a notch! I decided to make cake truffles again because they are always a crowd favorite!
Made a simple chocolate cake
Then mixed with raspberry butter cream and got ready to roll...but this year, instead of normal round truffles, I decided to try making them heart shaped! I let the little hearts chill in the fridge overnight, then set up a dipping assembly line. I found the best way to dip these little guys was with a fondue skewer, but it was a little more difficult than the round truffles, and the white chocolate started to accumulate bits of cake throughout. But they still turned out pretty great! I decided later to drizzle these pink hearts with red dyed chocolate, and dip some in white chocolate and drizzle them with pink!

Then I got started on making some mini cupcakes. I knew I wanted something different than chocolate, and something pink would be festive, so I went with the Sprinkles strawberry cupcake recipe I used last year for Fathers Day cupcakes! Simple but good ingredients! Puree strawberries then add to wet ingredients (milk and vanilla) Mix dry ingredients (flour, salt, baking powder) in a separate bowl Then cream the butter with sugar and add in one egg and two egg whites. Add in half the dry ingredients, then all of the strawberry mixThen add the rest of the dry and mix until just blended. Then pour batter into mini cupcake liners and bake for around 10 minutes! At this point your kitchen is smelling like an ice cream shop! While my mini's cooled, I started working on the perfect topping. Anyone remember the mini "cupcakes" I made for the holiday party that were really mini Reese's cups? Well... They just got tinier! When Reese's came out with these tiny mini cups, my roommate Virginia had the great idea to make itty-bitty "cupcakes" and put them on top of mini cupcakes, and I thought there was no better reason to try it out than a tea party! So I frosted all of the Reese's cups with vanilla butter cream, and then frosted all of the mini cupcakes with the same butter cream and pink sprinkles... Then put the baby on top of the baby! They turned out so adorable!

The day of the party, Virginia and her sister Annabelle (who was staying with us for the weekend to celebrate her birthday!) made delicious cheese puffs from their grandma Gigi's recipe! Annabelle plating the cute little heart shaped cheese puffs! As we were setting the party up, our neighbors came over to sneak tastes of everything (even though we specifically said no boys allowed! :) Once they saw all the hard work we put into making everything beautiful, our neighbor CR thought it would be a great opportunity for a photo-shoot! Thanks for the pics CR!

Photos below credited to Charles-Ryan Barber
http://charlesryanbarber.com/

Everything turned out so adorable! And we even let the neighbor boys dress up and stay to enjoy treats and tea with us! So glad I got to spend a wonderful day with the people I love in Athens! Hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's day with your loved ones!
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