Aydin's Carnival Party

My little man turned two in May and to celebrate we held a Carnival party.  I wanted to keep the food, sweets and games simple, fun and bright for the little ones and focused on a very simple dessert table featuring a circus train cake and circus cupcakes. The table would not have been complete with yummy candy, pop corn, hotdogs, icecream and lemonade.

Of course it was of no surprise that I chose the gorgeous Circus train printables designed by Style Me Gorgeous!. These exclusive printables are available from Boutique printables. I highly recommend their website which has a selection of amazing designs from some of the most talented graphic artists around!!

The circus train prinables were perfect for this party.  I love the little personalities of each of the characters on the invitations and I tried to incorporate these on the cake which was inspired by one of this countries talented and amazing cake artists - Mr Handi Mulyana. (Thank you Handy for allowing me to use some of the lovley elements of your original design)

The cake was caramel mud cake, layered with dark chocolate ganache. The figurines were all hand made. I wish I had more time to include a few more animals like a seal and a few more circus animals, but as always time just got away from me.

Vanilla cupcakes with buttercream swirl were displayed in the gorgeous ferris wheel cup cake stand and is available for hire here.

The drinks station served yummy cordial lemonade and the children loved helping themselves to the beverage using mini glass bottles purchased at The Little Big Company.

A small photo booth was set up where the children got to dress up for some fun photo opportunities (and the adults had some fun with this too).

Carnival Games were a highlight of the afternoon as the children enjoyed their luck at duck pond fishing and the bean bag throw. I found some authentic tickets, which the children had to collect, and then choose their "prize" based on the number of tickets won

My little man handed out fairyfloss at the end of the day and the kids got to fill their own lolly bag (which is always a such a hit!!)

Vendor credits:

Styling and Sweets - Studio Cake

Invitations and party printables - Boutique Printables (design Style Me gorgeous)

Backdrop - Drinks Station designed and printed by Little Dance Invitations

Lollypop Canopy, soda crates and ferris wheel cupcake stand - can be hired from Boutique Party Hire

Stands and selected candy and candy jars - Sweet Style

Mini Glass bottles, carnival lanterns - Little Big Company

Ruffle table cloth and Lolly Pop Canopy can be purchased at Vintage Sew and So

Photography - Katie Toland Photography

Thank you for stopping by xx

Le Mystique Masquerade

I have always loved the idea of holding a Masquerade ball to celebrate a special milestone like my 40th Birthday, where guests are required to wear a mask and dress up for the chic occasion.

I did a lot of research months leading up to my birthday, and drew inspiration from the so many amazing Venetian masks and gorgeous Parisian decor. My vision was to create a setting that my guests would feel relaxed and have fun!

My 40th birthday bash was held at home and my guest list included my very close friends.
I chose a bold colour palette of fusia, black and white.  Sarah of Style Me Gorgeous designed and created the invitations, and party printables which were just perfect and exactly what I had envisaged.

Although I incorporated the masquerade mask, which adorned the extended two tiered black and white cake, I wanted to include my love of bird cages into the design and hence my sweets table included bird candy jars and vanilla cookies using the same bird cage motif as the buffet labels.

Black bird cages were scattered around my deck to create a striking visual element. I wanted to add opulence to the setting and chose a beautiful chandelier candle holder as a centre piece and added just the right amount of tea lights to enhance the mood.  I especially love the fusia onion lanterns and black lanterns purchased from Moonlight and Whimsy that provided just enough lighting on our deck.

The chocolate fountain was a hit and it was lovely to see everyone indulging in my sweet delights.  The beverage menu consisted of vodka and raspberry and an assortment of beverages to help my guests stay hydrated throughout the night.                       

The striking and stunning Versailles Chair was hired from To Embellish, Event Syling and Decor and was the perfect prop for my photo booth!

The sweets menu consisted of vanilla cupcakes, vanilla cookies, cake pops, strawberry mousse, macarons, profiteroles, and a yummy assortment of candy.

My party was featured in HWTM blog, and I feel very honoured have been featured along side some very talented party stylists. You can check out the feature here.

Thanks so much for stopping by xx

Vendor Credits
Sweets and Styling : Studio Cake

A very big thank you  to the following Vendors that helped make my 40th Fabulous!! xx

Photography : Katie Toland Photography
Party printables : Style Me Gorgeous
Black Burlesque ruffled table cloth : Vintage Sew and So
Fusia glass cake stands, black urns and mirrored glass plates: Little Big Company
Candy: Sweet Style
Backdrop :  Polkadot Prints
Edible images : Little Dance Invitations
Event Decor : To Embellish, Event styling and decor
Lanterns : Moonlight and Whimsy
Tissue pom poms : Ah - Tissue

Me....  Celebrating my 40th in style!..... relaxing on the gorgous Versailles Parisian Chair

Baby Elephant baby shower

I am so thrilled that my baby brother is going to be a daddy in the next few weeks.  And when he and his partner asked if I could help with the baby shower... well, I was very excited!.

My sister in law chose the very popular baby elephant printables designed by Style me gorgeous, for the invitations, buffet lables party spots and thank you spots.
I love love the baby elephant printables. This design was my inspiration behind the marble mud cake and colour palette for the sweets table.

To say that Studio Cake was soley responsible for the dessert table would be a lie... this was a family affair.. lol
From the design of the cake, to the elements on the table, Hailey was totally involved and very enthusiastic.. We had such a great time constructing the backdrop for the table. A very simple but effective ribbon background.

We wanted to keep the sweets simple and compliment the design of the printables, hence we chose ombre macarons (strawberry, raspberry and lemon), Tim Tam cake pops and a selection of yummy candy!

A very special thank you to my other wonderful sister in law Corrine for making the delicious yo yo's (my all time favourite sweet treat - scroll down for the recipe) and the vanilla cupcakes with buttercream swirl and lemon curd.

Vendor credits are below.

Thanks for looking xx

 

 

Yo Yo's (recipe below)

Yo Yo's (otherwise known as Melting Moments)

Ingredients
250g unsalted butter - softened
100g pure icing sugar
300g plain (all purpose) flour
60g custard power
2 teaspoons of vanilla extract

Buttercream filling
160g pure icing sugar
80g unsalted butter - softened
1 tablespoon custard powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method

1. Preheat oven 160 degrees and line two baking trays with baking paper.

2. Combine butter, icing sugar, sifted flour, custard powder and vanilla extract and mix on low speed until a dough forms.

3. Roll tablespoonfuls of dough into balls and place them on a the lined baking trays. Flattern slightly with fork

4. Bake for 15min or until firm to the touch, cool on wire rack

5. Prepare filling - combine all the ingredients and beat on low speed until combined and then beat on high speed for three minutes

6. Sandwitch the cooled biscuits together with the filling

YUMMMM!!! enjoy!

Note that these can be stored in an airtight container for up to a week.
Recipe makes 15 yo yo's



Vendor credits

Sweets and Styling - Studio Cake

Baby elephant printables - Style Me Gorgeous

Candy and pink milk glass stand - Sweet Style

Gorgeous Candy Jars - Little Dance Invitations

Pink suit cases - Lily Chic Events

Photography - Love that photography

Drink dispensers and candy jars available for hire here  from Boutique Party Hire

Blast off for Ethan's 5th Birthday!

A few weeks ago we celebrated our middle son's 5th birthday.  Each year I ask my children to think of a " theme" they may like for their birthday, they do some thinking and get back to me ever so excitedly!!!. I love that they want to become involved in their own party planning and dessert table styling!.

It was my son's last year at kindergarden and for the majority of the final term they were learning about Space, planets, rockets and astronauts, so it was of no surprise to myself that Ethan would choose a "space theme" for his party!.  He has actually developed a keen interest in the planets and can name them in the correct order to the sun...

We chose the invitations from Polkadot prints and Jordan went out of her way to ensure the matching wall paper arrived just in time for the party!. We printed off matching straw lables (how cute are these) and attached them to the star straws available from P is for Party. They looked great in the mini glass bottles don't you think?

The sweets table included yummy caramel mud and milk chocolate ganache rocket ship cake, gingerbread rocket ship cookies, " alien" oreo cake pops and vanilla space cupcakes.  The sweets table would not have been complete without the delicious jelly beans and sixlets from Sweet Style. They looked so cute in the mini glass apothecary jars, also available from Sweet Style.

The children had such a wonderful time, we played pin the rocket ship on the planets (a game where each child had to wear a "space helmet".  They then had to stick down their rocketship on the planets poster - the child with the rocketship closest to the sun won a small prize.

We also made little Astronaut survival kits were the children got to fill their very own goody bag to take home. The "kit" included an astronaut manual (sticker and colour book), space bubbles, a milkyway bar and a space pencil!.

Lee Bird Photography captured the awesome photos of the table. I especially love the shots of the alien cake pops!!!

All in all, the party was a huge hit, the kids had a great time and most importantly Ethan got to spend time with those special in his life right now.

A huge thank you to Amy Atlas, for featuring the party on her blog. This is my very first submission and to say that I was very excited to have recieved an email this morning advising that they would include in their featured submission, would be an understatement!!!

You can find more photos and the guest dessert feature here

Winter Wonderland Christmas

I have always dreamt of a white Christmas, where snow would fall outside, whilst we ate our christmas dinner and sang Christmas carols by the fire.  It's summer here is Australia so a white Christmas would only be a dream for me!. We had a very warm night on Christmas Eve and a very humid Christmas day here down under. But that did not deter my dreams of a white Christmas!.

I wanted to create a dessert table which was inspired by so many fabulous recipe's and decorations I had at home, and I figured if I couldn't have snow on Christmas Eve, I would bring elements of a white christmas wonderland to our sweets table. 

I painted a wooden tree I had in my stash of Kaiser products, white (yes. I was once a very keen scrapbooker) and hung cookie ornaments off the tree. I loved how it turned out.

Dessert menu consisted of vanilla cookies, pannacotta, raspberry swirl vanilla cupcakes, white chocolate mud cake, dulce de leche roll (caramel yule log ), cakepops and an assortment of macarons!

Candy buffet: Pink raspberry jellybeans, Blue lemonade jellybeans, Rafaello's, Dark chocolate bars and milk chocolate silver bells.

I hope your Christmas was as sweet as mine!
Merry Christmas!
x

Printables : Winter Woodland by Style Me Gorgeous
Cake stands, small glass pots, wooden spoons and jellybeans : Sweet Style
Panacotta recipe couresy of Blissfully Sweet

The very hungry caterpillar party

I had the pleasure of styling a very dear friends baby girls first birthday on the weekend.  When I heard she wanted to incorporate elements of her daughter's favourite book - "The very hungry caterpillar", into the party, it bought a smile to my face as this book has always been one of my favourites.... oh and the fact that my mind was running wild with the endless possibilities for the dessert table!

The backdrop to the dessert table was the greenery of a local park - and there was no need for added decorations to the backdrop or table as the elements of this dessert table were very bright, fun and told the story beautifully with printed buffet labels purchased from Jennifer Leonardini on etsy.

Vanilla Caterpillar cookies , vanilla cupcakes with butter cream swirls and Oreo ice - cream cake pops - all by Studio cake
The gorgeous mud cake adorned by handmade sugar elements was made by the talented Tanja of Choice Cakes.

Fruit platters - courtesy of the clever mummy!

Thank you Milly for allowing me to be part of your special day x