Mother's Day 2013

We hosted Mother's Day this year for about two dozen people!! That is a huge amount when you consider that we live in a dollhouse. Luckily, the weather was amazing so we were able to use the patio. This year we decided to go with a bee theme. My sister came over the night before to help prepare the desserts. We prepared the Pioneer Woman's French toast casserole (a perennial crowd favorite). We used challah bread instead of sourdough. You pop it into the oven for about an hour before your guests arrive. Your house will smell like a cinnamon roll factory. Absolute perfection. My siblings all contributed something: breakfast burritos, roasted potatoes with green peppers and onions, pasta salad, biscuits, fruit, and mimosas!!

But really, we only care about the desserts! We made the Amy Atlas' beehive cake (you can buy the Nordic beehive pan here), bee sugar cookie pops, honeycomb 3D sugar cookies (check out Haniela's tutorial), Amy Atlas' marzipan bees, and SprinkleBake's honey cupcakes (with a simple vanilla buttercream). We wanted to make SprinkBake's divine poured fondant, but I let the syrup cool too much before processing in the food processor. It turned out really stiff...but super tasty. I will make these cool cupcakes with the chocolate bee stamps another day!!

We finished the table with bit o' honey, tiny flower candies, and sticks of lemon honey.

Happy Mother's Day, Moms

Paul and I hosted a Mother's Day brunch for my family which included about 20 guests. Stella and I made this kind of artsy sign. It originally said Mom, but Paul commented that there would be more than one Mom present! So true. And even if you're not technically a mother, we all mother somebody. We used letter stencils from Amy Atlas' Sweet Designs: Bake It, Craft It, Style It (buy this book, trust me, you will LOVE it). We taped the letters to a mirror which isn't the best design choice but it looked kind of cute in person!

My Mom loves lemon so we decided to give her a lemon dessert table including a Vanilla Sixlet Cake with Lemon Custard Buttercream and Vanilla Buttercream, Vanilla Sugar Cookies, Lemon Shooters, and Tangy Lemon Bars. We added lemon drop candies plus a jar of sixlets. Guests were encouraged to take home sixlets, lemon jelly belly beans, lemons, and limes.

The Vanilla Sixlet Cake with Lemon Custard Buttercream and Vanilla Buttercream was dreamy. I used Amy Atlas' Vanilla Butter Cake recipe (p. 11) and vanilla buttercream recipe. I added Trader Joe's Lemon Custard to about one cup of buttercream. I used this for the filling. This cake cuts like wedding cake...perfect slices every time. The texture is sturdy, but delicate and so good. Stella helped by separating the sixlets by color since we were only able to find bags of yellow/green/white. The top looks a little lonely. Mental note: decorate the top next time!

Stella helped me stack the Vanilla Sugar Cookies. I decided to decorate with yellow and green polka dots to mimic the sixlets. Stella really enjoyed placing the cookies on a bed of lemon jelly belly beans.

The Lemon Shooters were the star of the party. Everyone loved the refreshing sweet and tangy flavor. I made the vanilla pastry cream from the recipe for Boston Cream Pie Cake found in BAKED Explorations: Classic American Desserts Reinvented (p. 135-137). I used a pastry bag to add the pastry cream, then a layer of Trader Joe's Lemon Custard, then I topped it with fresh homemade whipped cream. I served them in shooters with adorable little spoons. I wanted to sprinkle with crushed gingersnaps, but decided to pass since I associate gingersnaps with the Fall.

I didn't take pictures of the food (apologies, but I'm a dessert girl!), but we also served bacon/sausage, Roasted Potatoes with Green Peppers, Shutterbean's Baked Artichoke Squares, Pioneer Woman's Cinnamon Baked French Toast with Blackberry Butter, fresh fruit, Biscuits and Gravy, and mimosas.