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March 21, 2011

Cake of the Day!


Today's 'Cake of the Day' comes from I Bake Cakes! I Bake Cakes is a custom cake service whose focus is to create a one of a kind cake without using eggs or animal products.

I love how elegant this cake is with her incredible use of fondant icing. To find out how to make fondant covered cupcakes, please head over to: Southern Belles Charm- fondant cupcakes.

See how creative you can get with the fondant icing :-)

Glittery Ballerina Birthday Party


Continuing on with our lesson on activating taste, I bring to you one of the greatest examples of activating taste with a party that Amy Oren from Blowout Party the blog did for her daughter. The attention to detail with every food and drink was amazing. Check out the Glittery Ballerina Birthday Party she hosted! Let's walk through....


You're cake is always your main dish and low focal point when it comes to a birthday party, and Amy highlights it well with her skills using fondant (check out the ballet slippers!). Fondant is a type of frosting or covering used on cakes and cupcakes and you can find it at any craft store (ie: Wal-Mart, Hobby Lobby, Michaels...my usual favorites).

The milk bottles were Starbucks Frappucino bottles that she got from Costco. Using strawberry syrup she mixed it in the milk to give it that pink color to beautifully match the color scheme of the party. So not only was the milk a drink, but it served as a way to enhance the decorations as well.



Dancing food?! Sure, why not! To make the desserts look like beautiful dancing ballerinas, Amy made pink meringue “skirts” and stuck in pink cardstock ballerina toppers.


The ballerina slippers pictured below were homemade using sugar cookie dough and icing made with pink food coloring (all of which you can find at your closest grocery store). Amy shaped the dough into ballerina slippers poking two holes (using a straw) in the dough to ensure there was a place to slip in ribbon to tie a bow....so creative!



Above you'll find that Amy wanted to be unique and wrap wafers in the personalized wrapping template she got from Eat Drink Chic. For the printed papers and boxes you have seen throughout the blog, she stuck with a white and pink damask pattern. This template was free from Eat Drink Chic...what a deal!

Going back to the use of fondant, Amy continued to put her skills to the test with her cupcake toppers.



I THINK SHE PASSED ;-)

As if everything else wasn't enough to give your taste buds a kick, Amy added:

Pink popcorn...

Pink rice krispie treats...

...and the best of all

COTTON CANDY!!

This party was a little girl's heaven and Amy did a great job of using her food to enhance the theme, and of course, activate the little ballerinas taste buds.

To read more about Amy's Glittery Birthday Party check it out at Blowout Party the blog!

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March 20, 2011

Beautiful Flowery Wedding Dessert Table


This weeks lesson is all about activating TASTE so my featured event that does just that is a beautiful wedding dessert table photo shoot by Erin Volante Floral and Portraits by Lucinda. I stumbled across this gorgeous dessert table via the Blowout Party Blog and had to walk you through just how this event successfully activated TASTE.




Dessert = SWEET so of course, this dessert table made its sole focus on sweet things. Pictured above we have cupcakes served with Effervé. Effervé is a product line of natural sparkling French lemonades under Eurobubblies Inc.


My favorite part of this photo shoot is how the dessert table included its own lovely rendition of an ice cream dessert toppings bar! MMmmmm!


What is a wedding dessert table without the wedding cake?! The peach colored wedding cake tied the whole dessert table well. Peach served as the best pastel color to use amongst the magenta and white color scheme.


Every dessert on this table makes me salivate and I can only image how delicious these basic, yet beautifully displayed desserts were.


Thanks for reading my featured event that successfully activates TASTE. To find out more about this beautiful garden wedding dessert table photo shoot go to Blowout Party the Blog! Keep reading to explore other parties that activate TASTE this week!


Vendor Credits:

Flowers: Erin Volante Floral

Photography: Portraits by Lucinda

Lanterns: Something Borrowed

Cakes and Cupcakes: Rebekah Foster

Hair and Makeup: CaraSue Hall

LESSON #1- PART 1: Activating TASTE

In Lesson #1 we discussed the importance of activating all five senses during an experience. Those five senses were seeing, smelling, hearing, tasting, and feeling (touch).
This week we are going to focus on TASTING.


Though taste is the weakest of our five senses, I think we can all agree that we find food and drinks at a party to be one of the most important parts. It is a crucial step in the party planning process to never overlook because we should know that our guests expect it; it is a standard.

Your brain is the Mother goose; your fives senses the little geese. In other words, according to Kids Health, none of our senses would be useful without the processing that occurs in the brain. Taste buds can recognize four basic kinds of tastes: sweet, salty, sour, and bitter. The salty/sweet taste buds are located near the front of your tongue; the sour taste buds line the sides of your tongue; and the bitter taste buds are found at the very back of your tongue. Taste buds play an important role in helping you enjoy food. When you ENJOY the food or drinks you are digesting this sends a positive message to your brain right?

March 19, 2011

Cake of the Day!


Tammie Coe Cakes is what I like to refer to as the CAKE BOSS of the West Coast. Above is a custom cake she made for W Scottsdale's 1 YEAR ANNIVERSARY (picture is courtesy of 944 magazine). Tammie Coe Cakes offers specialty cakes that can be created for any celebration or occasion. So, when you're looking for a cake option, keep Tammie Coe Cakes in mind :-)!

Karen's Basic Fundamentals of Planning a Party


You have seen a glimpse of some of the events I have hosted, but I think it’s time you know my Basic Fundamentals of Planning a Party. Every week I will feature a basic fundamental and team it up with some of my favorite parties I have personally done or witnessed. Before you know it, you will be ‘The Life of the Party’.

LESSON #1: Activating All Five Senses

Let’s play a game right now. Close your eyes, but before you do, think of a time when you really enjoyed yourself. Can you remember what it looked like? How about how it smelled? Do you remember the sounds you heard or the tastes you indulged in? What did you touch/feel? What feelings came over you?

Open your eyes.

If you can remember every instance in your most enjoyable moments we call that AN EXPERIENCE. Of course, not all experiences are enjoyable, but the point is that you use FIVE SENSES when going through an experience.

They are: SEEING, SMELLING, HEARING, TASTING, AND FEELING (TOUCH).

In order to have a successful experience, you must activate ALL five senses; IT'S THAT SIMPLE…so, in order to have a successful event, you must…? ACTIVATE ALL FIVE SENSES. Activating all five senses at an event is one of My (Karen's) Basic Fundamentals of Planning a Party.

Each week I will feature an event that successfully employed the 5 senses, focusing on one sense per week to give you an idea of how you can copy the same tools.

Your task: Go to a party or an event and pay attention to how they employ (or do not employ) the activation of all 5 senses.

Take notes :-)

March 18, 2011

How to say 'Thank You' to a group.... with $30!


You want to thank several people at work, but you don't want to leave anyone out. Individually writing 'Thank You' cards to everyone in the department would be a hassle and quite frankly you just don't have that kind of time or the money. A 'Thank You' display table is your answer! Food is the best and cheapest way to say thank you to a group, but why not do it in a creative way to really show them that you care.

Here's how you can say 'Thank You' to a group with $30. To make the above 'Thank You' display table, you first need to choose a COLOR THEME. I chose to stick with the colors purple and yellow since Spring is approaching. You can choose whatever color you desire, just make sure you are consistent. To make my 'Thank You' display table you will need the following items of which you can get these items at your closest grocery store (I chose Albertsons):

(Pictured: fruit snacks (they are the color purple), purple PEEPS, rice krispies, bananas, RITZ crackers, white table cloth, iridescent lavender grass, a big 'Thank You' balloon)

When choosing what food items to have on your 'Thank You' display table think salty & sweet meets healthy; there must be a balance between sweet foods, salty foods, and healthy foods. When you stick to this mind frame you are one, catering to everyone's interests, and two, giving people options if they are eating too much of one taste.

HOW TO SET UP YOUR DISPLAY TABLE

Just plop down the food right? WRONG. There is still a finesse to displaying food that must be kept. First and foremost you must create TWO FOCAL POINTS. One focal point should be high the other low. Why? You want to get everyone's attention that you want to thank them so a balloon serves as your high focal point.

Your low focal point should sit at the center of the table. This is the "main dish" so-to-speak. For me, I used a 3-layer cupcake tray (you can find these at Wal-Mart)to display my "main dish"; Rice Krispie treats.

Okay, so now you have your TWO FOCAL POINTS, now you need to evenly disperse everything around the table. If your table is round like how mine was think A-SYMMETRICAL. In an asymmetrical pattern layout your foods with this pattern in mind: HEALTHY, SWEET, SALTY....HEALTHY, SWEET, SALTY). Reason being, those that are walking around the table will realize there are many things to offer on the table. If you clump all the sweets in one area or all the healthy foods in one area, the other food you have to offer might get overlooked.

To display the food nicely, surround iridescent lavender grass to the food. It makes the food look more enticing while making the table look less plain ;-)

You're done! You have now said thank you in the most creative way and you did not leave ANYONE out. All this, with but $30...such a steal!

You can Thank Me Later ;-)