A Couple of Cutie Pies

I recently threw a bridal shower for my very near and dear friend Crystal in my mom's back yard. The theme was "backyard bash" complete with plenty of lemonade and pie. It was so much fun to plan (I love creating cohesive environments) and even more fun to be a part of as we got to celebrate Crystal and her future union with her fiance Sean. So without further ado, or too many words, here is the shower, here is Crystal and here are the recipes I used for the pies and lemonades.

We begin our journey the day before the shower, during my mom and I's pie baking marathon...

Love the look my mom is giving the camera.

My mom makes the best pie crusts, have I ever mentioned that?

Isn't it puurty?

On to the shower...

So I made this glitter banner just by printing out some huge letters, cutting them out, gluing and glittering them and then stringing them on some fishing wire to hang in front of the fabric.

Time for pie!

 For the pie toppers I just copied this clipart banner and typed in the words I wanted. Then I printed it onto some bone cardstock, cut and glued it to some coffee stir sticks.

Plus, all the pies had these flavor labels. 

My mom and I made a Bluebarb (blueberry + rhubarb), Cherry Almond Crumble, Ginger Peach and and Apple. The recipes are linked to the names, of course we used my mom's bomb pie crust, not the ones in the recipes, as well as her apple pie filling so you can ask her for both if you are lucky enough to know her. The cherry is a compilation of this pie filling and this topping.

Mmmmm.... even more delicious with vanilla ice cream and Fleur De Sel Caramel on top. Of course, I had to try a piece of each!


What about the Lemonade? You got it!


Watermelon Rosemary Lemonade

Vermontuckey Lemonade (Maple Bourbon)

And my favorite, Lavender Honey Lemonade

I made the lemonade labels using this clipart image.

Ok, on to the rest of the party and the beautiful bride to be.

Hair tie party favors. Get it, "tying the knot???" So cheap to make to, you can make 20 ties for $1.50 worth of fold over elastic as opposed to $1.50 for 1 at some LA boutique.

Usually, I hate doilies (I'm not 80 after all nor am I a huge fan of the whole country chic thing) but they kinda worked with whole theme, so I taped the paper kind together to make a runner.

Crystal enjoying some 'ade.

Silly bow head.

And off she goes to get married!

Love you Crystal! And love all you readers for making it to the end of a very long post!

Gradution Time!

Tis' the season for caps and gowns, saying goodbye, new chapters of life and of course... graduation parties! Which is why I made these appropriately themed cupcakes.

Supplies:

• Package of Twizzlers (pull-and-peel)
• Bag of Miniature Reese's Peanut Butter Cups
• Two milk chocolate Godiva bars (made up of 10 squares each)
• One package of tubular cookies ( I used Golden Oreo Fun Stix)

 Directions: 

1.  Attach the chocolate squares to the bottom of the peanut butter cup with some leftover cupcake frosting.

2. To the top of the cap, attach a small piece of Twizzler with frosting to create the tassel. Refrigerate the caps until you are ready to assemble the cupcake.

3. Cut the tubular cookies into 4ths or 3rds, depending on how big you want the diploma to be, and tie a small piece of Twizzler around each one.

4. Place the caps and diplomas on top of your cupcakes. It's that easy!

Congrats to my brother PJ who graduated from high school and is off to....

Cheap and Chic Cupcake Decorations

So this blog is not so much about how the cupcakes I made for my friends bridal shower tasted (which I thought were pretty dang good, carrot cake and brown sugar buttercream are a pretty lethal combo) but about the easy and sophisticated decorations I made to adorn them.

I started with a theme, vintage wedding, and google image searched for 1950's and 60's bridal magazine covers, found a few I liked, shrunk them down to a small identical sizes, printed them on firm and glossy photo paper, cut them out, taped them to toothpicks and stuck them on top of my delightful cupcakes. To finish them off I rolled the edge in gold sprinkles and wha-la! A cheap and chic cupcake with minimal effort. And the idea is totally transferable to other occasions, themes, and events. Oh... but make sure the sweet stuff underneath isn't nasty because no amount of decoration can cover that up.