{Pin of the week} Pinata cookies and GIVEAWAY WINNER

The winner of the book Les Sweet Table is Karri with comment number 2: "Would love ideas for girly birthday parties :)"
Well Karri I am sure this book will provide a lot of inspiration! 
Please get in touch so the book can be sent to you by Eyrolles.


Now, for my pin of the week, I have chosen these Pinata cookies !!! what a brilliant idea they are !!! Multi colored cookies filled with mini sweets !!! Very clever.

Complete tutorial on SHE KNOWS

{Giveaway} Only one day left to enter !

Only one day left to enter !!! Make sure you take part for a chance to win this fantastic book by Laure Faraggi.
Giveaway here.

New blog design !

I am so excited to finally share the new look of the blog with you guys !!! I have wanted something more personal than a default blogger template for a while and it’s finally happened ! Thank you Jackie from Jackie Design Studio for the great design.


How do you find it ? Like it ???

{Ice Cream Party} Favors

Well I have been thinking about this for a while and I have also spent quite a lot of time online trying to figure out the perfect favours for this ice cream party.

Our little guest will all be around 3 years of age, so even though there are tons of super cute ice cream related stationery, I just can see the point for children this young... My daughter certainly can’t draw properly yet and I don’t think she would particularly enjoy getting a pen and eraser as gift (however cute they might be!).

I am not too keen on sweets either, and they will get little bags of ice cream shaped chocolates during the party anyway.

I thought about cute hairclips with felt ice creams, but we have invited several little boys too, so that wouldn’t work since I can’t think of any boy equivalent...

So what could I get them ???

Well, the answer was obvious and I can’t believe it took me so much time to come to that conclusion: mini tubs of homemade ice cream to take away !!!

All that's left is to package them with cute embellishments.

Here is some inspiration for tub decorating !!!

1 - Ice cream tubs favors (with free printables) by One Charming Party

2 - Notes from a Cottage Industry

3 - CupKate's Event Design 

4 - Notes from a Cottahe Industry

5 - Free Homemade Ice Cream printables by Homemade by Jill

I must admit I had trouble sourcing the tubs but I finally got them: small (8oz) white paper tubs with paper lids from the Little Candy Co on ebay.

That was one the only place I found selling the 8oz tubs in small quantities.

{Pin of the week} Strawberry ice cream

The pin of the week has got to be this delicious-looking easy strawberry ice cream with cloud macaron from La Receta de la felicidad !
Follow the link for this super quick ice cream recipe (the recipe is in English at the bottom of her post)

I just love the styling of this picture !

{Giveaway} Les Sweet Tables by Laure Faraggi

I am so excited to be hosting my first ever giveaway !!! My little blog is growing and I would like to say a huge big THANK YOU to all of you for following my party adventures here at That Cute Little Cake !!!

Les Sweet Tables, by Laure Faraggi

Published by Eyrolles

I have one copy of Laure Faraggi's AMAZING new book to give away, so make sure you scroll all the way down to take part

I am pretty sure you've heard of Laure before because she is the founder of the Sweet Table Contest, the international contest for non professionals.
She is also the author of Ma Jolie Lettre, a unique weekly newsletter in which Laure shares her latest inspiration and finds.
Do you want to see more of Laure's work ? Then watch this Video of one of her very cute Sweet Table.

Laure has got a real talent for making beautiful table and her book is full of ideas and inspiration.
This is how Laure defines a Sweet Table:  “It is the art of decorating a party table so perfectly with details and precision that it can take months to set up.  A Sweet Table is imagined and drawn. Then come the organization, the search of the perfect cake, candies, sweets, decoration and gifts. All of them have to match with the chosen theme”

The book opens with a small "technical" section giving loads of advice on how to create a Sweet Table.
Follows the main section of the book, with pictures and (gorgeous) details of 18 different Sweet Tables !!! This is pure eye candy to me. Every table is amazing and they are so many original details.
I can't even choose a favourite !
The last section is Laure's address book.

The book is only published in French at this time, but the pictures talk for themselves. You can only be inspired by Laure's elegant tables.

Blanc Coco, the parisian table

Oh Baby take a bow table

Les Sweet Table is published by Eyrolles and is now available on Amazon




Giveaway open to UK residents.
a Rafflecopter giveaway

{Party Feature} Pink and Blue 1st Birthday Party

This stunning pink and blue first Birthday party was featured last week on Amy Atlas's Blog Sweet Designs. This is totally my color scheme for Chloe's party !
The table backdrop is amazing and I love every single detail.
Enjoy the pictures.

How beautiful are these cupcakes ?

Super cute pots !

{Recipe} Cream cheese frosting

As you probably know by now, I have been using Glorious Treats's recipe for cream cheese frosting for quite a while and always with great success. So much in fact that people keep asking me for the recipe !

Well the thing is my European friends and family are usually put off by the original recipe calling for cups of ingredients. They keep requesting a recipe in weight instead of volume, because this is what we are used to here, good old grams !!!

So here it is, finally !

I have also created this handy table for ingredients name equivalents between US English and UK English.

Glorious Treats' CONVERTED Cream Cheese Frosting 
Original recipe here

Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting
115g unsalted butter (set at room temp about 10 minutes, but should still be cool)
225g cream cheese (directly from fridge)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (always use pure vanilla extract if possible)
500g powdered confectioners sugar
1 to 4 Tablespoons heavy cream, heavy whipping cream (or milk- although I do like the richness that cream adds)

Directions:
*Place butter in a large mixing bowl and blend slightly. Add cream cheese and blend until combined, about 30 seconds.
*Add vanilla extract and powdered sugar and blend on low speed until combined. Increase to medium speed and beat until it begins to get fluffy.
*Slowly add the heavy cream, a little bit at a time until desired consistency is met. (Don’t add too much if you want the frosting to stay in place when piped on cupcakes.)
*Beat until fluffy, about 1 minute.
*Use at once or keep refrigerated. (This frosting will keep well in the refrigerator for several days, but you may need to re-beat it for the best texture.)

The recipe above will produce a delicious VANILLA flavored frosting, here are a couple of other options to try…

For a Stronger Cream Cheese Flavor: Use an additional 112g of cream cheese. This is good for any cake/cupcake recipe that is traditionally topped with Cream Cheese Frosting, like Carrot Cake, or Red Velvet Cake.

For Chocolate Frosting: (my favorite!) add 60g unsweetened cocoa (I use Ghirardelli brand, it’s really good). Add the cocoa powder before adding the powdered sugar, so it gets fully incorporated into the butter and cream cheese.

Strawberry, Blackberry, etc: Add 2-4 tablespoons of preserves. Depending on how chunky or seedy the preserves are, you may want to blend it in the food processor, and/or strain it through a fine strainer before adding it to the frosting. Add the preserves to the frosting mixture before adding the heavy cream. Depending on the amount of preserves you add you may need very little or no cream, especially if you want the frosting thick enough to pipe. A final option would be to add a drop of food coloring to add to the color of the preserves (for example, pink coloring for the Strawberry flavor).

* This recipe will frost about 22-24 cupcakes if you are piping a nice swirl, or even more if you just spread it on. If you’re making a cake, this will frost and fill a two layer 9″ cake/22.5 cm.

{Ice Cream Party} Invitations !

Chloe's Ice Cream Party will be to celebrate her 3rd Birthday. As most of her little guests can't read yet I really wanted the design to be fun for them, something they would enjoy receiving.

Chloe loved the invitations... so it's a success !

I found these super cute free ice cream printables over at Eat Drink Chic. They are normally for a memory game but I thought they would be the perfect design for my invitations.

Image from Eat Drink Chic

I saved the pdf as a picture, added the details of the party (in Publisher but you can use Word or Powerpoint too) and just printed them out. I folded the lollies as instructed and glued lolly sticks inside.

For the envelopes, as I did not have glassine ones, I made my own using baking paper !!
And I added some very cute Cath Kidston stickers from this sticker and label book.

I tried several designs until I was satisfied.

You can't do any more DIY than this !!!



 Linky Parties

{Pin of the week} Bake Sale Printable label set

The end of the school year is fast approaching and soon it will be time for the famous "end of term" Bake Sale !

I found these very cute (and free!) Printables over at Anything But Perfect. Aren't they adorable ?

{Party Feature} Secret Garden Birthday Party

Funny thing... I had only just bought the digital paper pack for Chloe's Party when this exquisite Secret Garden party got featured on Kara's Party Ideas !

The printables are based on the same papers I purchased ! So this was the perfect inspiration for the vintage Ice Cream party I am planning.

Enjoy the pictures, they are beautiful and there are so many details I like in this party!

Love the lace around the jars !

For more pictures, visit Kara's Party Ideas

Birthday party theme reveal

By now you know pretty well I am planning a Ballerina party for September. This will be my eldest daughter’s birthday party.

I started crafting for it and gathering ideas (mainly on Pinterest, see my Ballerina Party board here) months ago because everything takes me so much time !!! First I am one of those never satisfied people, so it takes me a quite few attempts before I get it exactly right. Then with 3 young children and a part time job, my time is limited. And finally I have had so many other projects in between !!! I managed to fill the year with dessert tables and A LOT of baking !!! (check out all the tables here and the recipes there).


But this is not all I have been doing :-) It will be Chloe’s Birthday soon and I started working on her party a while ago too !

Saying Chloe is into food is a HUGE understatement ! She is actually obsessed with food. Don’t try to hide anything edible from her, she’ll find it !!! If she is hungry and you are not available, she will quite happily sneak in the kitchen, grab a stool and rummage through the cupboards...!

So a theme based around food came to me quite naturally ! And since her birthday is in the summer I decided on an Ice-cream party.

For this party, I am dreaming of a little vintage ice-cream shop. How much of the dream I will manage to achieve, we shall see !

And to go with the vintage theme I would like the party to be like a summer fete with lots of old-fashioned games.

It is high time I shared some crafts and inspiration for this party and today I am starting with my colour scheme: it will be pink and blue. And the vintage effect will come from the old English roses pattern I will be using throughout.

I found the perfect digital paper collection on Etsy, it will be perfect to create all the printables for the party:

Ellah Rose collection from Hello Love too

Come back tomorrow as I will be featuring a exquisite birthday party !

{Shop} Latest find for a Ballerina Party

I was out shopping in Monsoon last week and look what I found, a few items perfect for a Ballerina Party. I immediately bought the necklace and bracelet set for my daughter to wear at her party and I am thinking of getting her the Ballet bag as well.

I also wanted to draw your attention to the fact that ASDA sell Angelina Ballerina mini water bottles ! I saw these at a Birthday a couple of weeks ago, and I had to get some for my daughter's party ! If you buy these for a Ballerina Party, you don't even need to change the labels !

I usually struggle to match the water bottles to my colour schemes since the caps are only ever blue or purple. So this was such a good find ! And they also have yellow ones (Sponge Bob).
I never imagined I would get excited over a water bottle !!! ;-)

{Pin of the week} DIY Shanty cupcake tower

I am completely addicted to Pinterest. I use it constantly to keep records of the millions of ideas I find on the internet. This is truly an amazing tool.
So every sunday I will be sharing with you one of my latest pins, a craft, party or recipe that caught my eyes during the week.

You can now follow me on Pinterest


This week I am sharing this amazing tutorial from Shanty2Chic to make a cupcake tower.
I will definitely have to find time to make one of these !!

{Recipe} Pistachio Financiers

Financiers are traditional tea time favourites in France. There are soft bite-sized almond cakes and this pistachio version is simply delicious.

Ingredients

2 egg whites
60g ground almond
70g icing sugar
25g plain flour
70g butter
1 tablespoon pistachio paste

Directions

Melt butter in a pan over low heat until light brown in colour and smelling of hazelnut (beurre noisette) and leave to cool

Mix ground almond, icing sugar and flour.
Add the egg whites and mix well.
Add melted butter followed by the pistachio paste and mix until well combined.
Let the mixture rest for 1 hour in the fridge.

Preheat oven to 180 degree Celsius (160 degree C for fan oven)
Grease the traditional rectangular financier moulds or any mini mould and fill with mixture.
Bake for 20 minute.

I baked them for this table and they were delicious:

Read more here

 Linky Parties

Interview with Bird from Bird's Party

Today I have the great pleasure of interviewing Bird from Bird's Party.

I discovered Bird's Party a few months ago and I have been admiring Bird's work ever since. She is well know for her beautiful party printables and I am sure you have seen some of her recent features such as her Rule Britannia Party on Amy Atlas

or her gorgeous Milk and Cookies Valentine feature on Pizzazzerie

Her blog is an endless source of party inspiration and tutorials. And I have been lucky enough to recently write a tutorial (the fondant Union Jack cupcake topper) for her series "Cake it Pretty"

She is also the editor of the amazing Bird's Party Magazine, an online magazine packed with party ideas and stunning features. I am so looking forward to reading the next issue in the fall.

Bird was kind enough to answer a few questions for us and I hope you enjoy learning a bit more about her.

An Interview with Bird

Hi Bird

Thank you so much for taking part to this little interview ! You are such an inspiration to me and I am dying to read your best tips and trade secrets !!! 

Thank you for the love my friend, not sure I have any actual trade secrets but I'll try my best! ;)

I think what I would most like to know first is how it all started for you? How did you first stumble upon the world of beautiful parties?

As a mom, finding unique party supplies for my kids’ birthdays that appealed both to my creativity and budget was proving to be quite a challenge here in France, so I resorted to designing my own. The beauty of party printables is that they’re an affordable luxury!

Through blogging, I realized there were many moms in the same situation - they enjoyed creating something beautiful and unique for their kids’ parties without spending a fortune. I then got to discovering the world of Dessert tables and styled parties through famous blogs like Sweet Designs by Amy Atlas or HWTM.

What was the first party or dessert table you designed and what was the occasion?

It was my Bollywood Bling Collection for my wedding anniversary.

What inspires you when you design a party or a dessert table ? 

It all varies from party to party. It can be a theme, color, a dessert, a piece of clothing, a fabric pattern, an image that I see in a magazine, or even a piece of music! 

But if a customer already has a particular theme in mind, then I start designing the background pattern first, and looking at colors and fonts.

What is you favourite part of the design process? And what is the most stressful time for you ?

I love the initial stages of design when I sketch in pencil the main design icons. Then transferring that to a digital format and seeing it come to life on the screen. 

A little stress is always good to keep me on my toes, but sometimes I have a hard time saying no, so I can find myself with several projects to design at once and a tight deadline.

What would be your favourite or most essential piece of kit when putting together a dessert table?

I'd have to say the desserts off course! Though I'm a printable designer, I feel the food should be the star of any desserts table, and the printables should have the "best supporting role" to help personalize your table and bring the theme to life!

What’s in the pipeline now ?

Crazy busy with magazine Fall Issue designs, and a couple of little surprise projects! ;) 

Your favourite sweet ?

I don't like sweets (candy)! Shocked?! :)

I like desserts - Anything chocolate and chocolate cupcake with chocolate cream cheese frosting are a particular fave of mine! 

Thank you so much Bird !

{One week to... Design a dessert table} Table reveal !

I created this dessert table for my husband's birthday but it would also be perfect for Fathers' day.

In a week I managed to create a table with the natural feel I was after and full of my husband's favourite treats.
I made the wood log pile backdrop especially and I baked most of the desserts on the table. You can read more about how I designed the table here.

I hope you will enjoy the pictures.

Chocolate Brownie Bites

Chocolate Mud Cake covered with dark chocolate ganache

The Mini-Bunting is a free printable from The TomKat Studio

Custards (pistachio, chestnut puree, chocolate and vanilla) - recipe to follow

Carambar caramel Pots

Pistachio financiers - recipe to follow

Macarons

Meringues

Chocolate and vanilla fudge

If you missed the previous posts from this series:

Day 1: Start of the design process - Choosing a theme and a colour scheme

Day 2: Tutorial - How to make a wood log pile backdrop

Day 3: Partyware and china

Day 4: Baking and recipes

Day 5: I was still Baking!

Day 6: Finishing touches and DIY labels

 Linky Parties