Last night we had guests for dinner, and I wanted a real summer dessert.  I made pavlova.  The original recipe is from allrecipes.com, with a few slight changes.

Summer Pavlova

• 4 egg whites
• 1 1/4 cups white sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon white vinegar
• 2 teaspoons cornstarch
• 1 pint heavy cream
• assorted summer berries, I used strawberries and blackberries

Directions

1. Pre-heat oven to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C). 
2. In a large bowl, beat egg whites until stiff but not dry. Gradually add in the sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat until thick and glossy. Add in vanilla extract, white vinegar and cornstarch.
3. Spoon mixture in a large circle on to a large baking sheet sprayed with non-stick cooking spray.  Working from the center, spread mixture toward the outside edge, building edge slightly. This should leave a slight depression in the center.
4. Bake for 1 hour. Cool.
5. Fill the centre with sweetened whipped cream and top with summer berries.

It was very well received.  Light and crisp on the outside, and gooey and marshmallow in the middle, with a little sweet cream and tart fresh berries.  The perfect light ending to a big meal on a summer evening. 

Try it this weekend!

I have recently fallen in love with felt food, and decided to try my hand at it. I think I love it more than my little girls do, it’s just so cute! I found there were lots of great ideas, inspiration and free patterns on the web. I was also very tempted by some of the ones that are already made and for sale on Etsy, but mine came out pretty well for a first try, and I’m quite pleased with them.

I started out with the cupcakes. If I were making more I think I would invest in a pattern. I tried a method I saw on line of cutting up a regular paper cupcake liner and using it as a pattern, but it’s not too precise, given the accordion pleating. Still, they came out to be very cute. They are all decorated a little differently. My favourite is the strawberry one. I used a free pattern for the strawberry I found here and it turned out great, wouldn’t a whole bowl of these strawberries look great!

I also tried my hand at felt sugar cookies. I love the way they sparkle with their beautiful bead sprinkles. I used a free tutorial and pattern found at Keeper of the Cheerios.

Unlike any one else in our family, my youngest daughter loves chocolate, so I had to make her a couple chocolate chip cookies.

I also made a donut, and couldn’t resist giving it some sprinkles as well. I found the pattern here.

All that’s left to do is have a tea party in the garden!

I have linked this post up to: Just Something I Whipped Up, Today’s Creative Blog, and Nightowl Crafting.

A little while ago, I tried my hand at making teacup birdbaths.  They looked really cute, but unfortunately the glue didn’t hold   I used epoxy in the first round, but after some more research attempted it again with Gorilla Glue.  First step was removing the old glue, and getting everything ready to go.  The teacups are from the thrift store, I also used a nut and a metal threaded rod.

After applying the glue, it needed to be clamped for 1-2 hours drying time.  I improvised with some heavy cookbooks weighing them down.

After they dried it was time to attach them to the threaded rods.

Then it was time to insert them in the flower bed, fill with water and wait for the birds…or just let them look cute!

I’m linked to these parties;

http://itsahodgepodgelife.blogspot.com/

http://heathernow.blogspot.com/

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_NgH-mlTcwHE/TEpCXpgOOzI/AAAAAAAAL2I/ZEBONM5y170/s1600/weekend+wrap+up+button.jpg

http://toolsareforwomentoo.blogspot.com/

We decided that for our purple bridal shower, we wanted to have an all purple dessert table.  I hand made the cupcake flags from white toothpicks, assorted purple ribbons, and purple pearl beads.  I love how they turned out and the cupcakes were delicious!

In the background you can see the purple fruit tray my mom made with fresh grapes, blueberries, black cherries, and figs.  She also made a purple dip with black cherry yogurt, and cool whip.  Yum!

Also included were my homemade purple marshmallows.

The other item I made was individual blueberry trifles.  They were made in juice glasses, and consisted of a layer of pound cake, custard, a blueberry layer made of blueberries cooked in a little sugar, water, and cornstarch, and a final layer of whipped cream, with a fresh blueberry for garnish.  They tasted as good as they looked!

The rest of dessert table consisted of different kinds of purple candies and sweets.  My favourite was probably the purple cotton candy.  We served it in small shot glasses on a purple platter, so pretty and whimsical!  Top Tip:  Don’t put it out ahead of time, cotton candy looses it’s fluff after being exposed to the air and humidity a little while -wait until the last min.

I was lucky enough to find cone holders at my local Liquidation World a few days before the party.  I made individual paper cones out of two shades of purple card stock, and filled them up with caramel corn and vanilla clodhoppers.  I think this is great idea when doing a colour themed dessert table, sometimes if the serving pieces are in your colour, like the paper cones, the actual food doesn’t have to be and it will still fit in nicely.

The rest of the candy was served in my collection of milk glass candy dishes, and it really helped to tie the whole look together.  As well, the footed bowls were a great size for a small gathering.  The candy we used was grape liquorice, milk chocolate truffles wrapped individually in purple foil, Hersey’s dark chocolate kisses also wrapped in purple foil, chocolate covered blueberries, and candy stick lollipops in purple.  I made the chocolate covered pretzels better fit our purple food theme by melting some purple candy melts and drizzling them with it.

It was a purple paradise!

You might also be interested in these previous posts:

Purple Party -Part I or Homemade Purple Marshmallows

I joined a link party here.

This past weekend my Mom and I hosted a bridal shower for my cousin who is getting married in a few weeks.  The colour of her wedding is purple, so we made that the theme of the party.  My house is fairly neutral, so it was easy to add purple accents every where and create a real purple feel for the party.

Purple candles everywhere!

I have a lot of milk glass, and used it as the candy bowls for the purple candies (I’ll show the food tomorrow in Part II), and as vases and accent pieces.

We got a BIG bouquet of purple balloons, which the kids loved after the party.

We had some special purple accessories for the bride-to-be to wear.

My cousin’s name is Jessica, so I made a big “J” out of foam core and silk flowers.  I was really pleased with how it came out.  We also used different purple ribbons in lieu of streamers, so pretty!

We set up the drinks in the kitchen.  There was tea and purple punch, made of grape juice and ginger ale, served in beautiful purple wine glasses.

Stay tuned for tomorrows the Purple Party Part II -food!