Sweet's gardening party with pink and grey party table

Sweet's 8th birthday party this year was a pretty grey and pink dessert table with a garden theme to tie in with the main party activity which was.......gardening.

We purchased some packets of easy grow flower seed and pots that eventually break down and the kids got to fill the pots with soil and plant the seeds. The pots were just the right size to fit into cupcake boxes which made packing up and taking home both pretty and easy.

I was lucky enough to find some little trowels the week before the party for $1 each at the local supermarket which the kids took home along with their little garden boxes.

If your not trying to be as economical as me this would work as well with a few punnets of plants instead of the seeds, but I managed to get enough for 12 kids along with a few of those sunflower and tomato ready to grow pots (that I used as party prizes for other games) for under $20.

All the rest of the stuff I used to decorate the gardening table with I already had (see that pink polka dot fabric it was from Bubble's 5th birthday party I blogged about 5 years ago).

Apron and string in tin - Greengate
Garden pots, seeds - Big W discount department store
Trowels - Coles supermarket
White plant stand with blackboard - Bunnings hardware
Pink polkadot cupcake boxes and pinwheels - Choice discount variety store

Party Table

The party table colour theme was based on the lovely grey with pink rose and white dot fabric I used as a table covering. I picked it up because it was so pretty intending to have dresses made for the girls, it was from Lincraft at around $8 a meter.

I had a fake window/mirror shutter I had from a while back I got in a closing down sale and was part way through restoring an old wooden plate rack I picked up on Ebay, so I added them to the table. The pink riser that the candy jars are on is a bathroom caddy I picked up at a discount dollar store last year and painted pink for another party.

Then when I was out one day I spied those big moss balls and I don't know why but I got them. For some reason I really like them, anyhoo they added some colour to the table and a bit of texture the big one was $10 and the 2 smaller ones $5 each from Vast Interiors.

The day before the party I picked up a stack of flowers to pop in little pitchers and vases scattered around the table. It was a pretty relaxed table.

Overhead are some pink hanging lanterns which don't quite make it into the photo's.

Party table menu

Decorated cookies - royal icing stripe cookies with fondant rose accent and fondant pink quilted cookies with white royal icing dots (Click here for free tutorial to make similar quilted cookies)

Birthday cake  - Ombre butter cream decorated cake in shades of storm and pink sunset - Italian meringue butter cream with strawberry cake. The butter cream was applied with an offset spatula to evoke the feeling of an artist's pallet.

Candy - Chocolate sixlets, marshmallows and bon bons. There were also pink pig sours on top of the white plate rack and I bought out a selection of other lollies for the kids to fill up their own take home loot bags.

Homemade raspberry macarons (Click here for recipe) served in a Greengate Sophie Vintage bowl.

Cinnamon scrolls with pink cream cheese frosting- we are loving cinnamon scrolls at the moment so we prettied them up with sugar flowers, butter cream piped leaves and sugar sprinkles. What more can I say - yum (click here for a cinnamon scroll recipe)

Linda Vandermeer is a blogger, baker, maker and author of the cookbook ' Sweets on a Stick': More than 150 kid friendly recipes for cakes, candies, cookies and pies on the go!. Published in the US the book is available at most online book stores.

Original Ideas, photography and recipes by Linda Vandermeer do not reuse without permission.  

Ice cream sundae macarons

These neapolitan ice-cream sundae macarons might be some of the funnest looking macarons ever.

I made them for Bubble's 10th birthday party which had an ice-cream bar and they worked in perfectly with the theme. (Ice-Cream Party CLICK HERE)

The red 'cherries' are sixlets which are candy coated chocolate balls (if you're Australian that's like a smaller size jaffa without the orange flavour), the dripping chocolate topping is chocolate royal icing and the white swirl of cream is stiff peak royal icing.

If you don't happen to have any sixlets about you could always just add some extra sprinkles on the top and they still look extra sweet.

I used macarons I made myself but of course you could pick up some from the store and do the decorations yourself

Ingredients and equipment

Macarons *see note below (Click here for recipe)
White Royal Icing (stiff peak consistency)
Chocolate royal icing (add few Tbsp sifted cocoa to 1 cup royal icing or you can just add brown food colour) 20 second consistency#
Red sixlets
pink sprinkles
Round piping tip (eg #2) in piping bag
Star piping tip (eg #18) in piping bag

 *Macarons can be shop purchased and any type you like. However I made mine using the recipe in the link and then coloured them in a neapolitan theme. When making the macarons divide mixture in half and colour part pink and part brown. My filling was raspberry flavour whipped white chocolate ganache with americolor white food color added.
#20 second icing is when you run a knife through the royal icing mixture and the line disappears after 20 seconds :)    

Put the chocolate royal icing in the piping bag with the small round tip. Pipe an uneven splat outline on the top of the macaron, going right to or over the edge in some spots. Fill the splat shape (I left the middle un-iced just to reduce the amount of icing I was using as it gets covered with the white swirl) with chocolate royal icing.

Sprinkle a few pink jimmy sprinkles over the top of the chocolate royal icing shape. Allow to set.

Pop the stiff peak white royal icing into the piping bag with the star tip. Pipe a swirl/ rosette onto the top of each macaron by holding the bag upright and piping a tight circle.

Place a sixlet in the middle of each white rosette and allow to set.

Linda Vandermeer is a blogger, baker, maker and author of the cookbook ' Sweets on a Stick': More than 150 kid friendly recipes for cakes, candies, cookies and pies on the go!. Published in the US the book is available at most online book stores.

Affiliate links may earn me money and contribute to supporting this blog.

Original Ideas, photography and recipes by Linda Vandermeer do not reuse without permission.  

Vintage Royal Albert Enchantment China and a pretty afternoon tea

One day I spied some Royal Albert Enchantment china on Pintrest. It was so pretty and I was immediately  smitten.

It didn't have a name or even brand in the comments, but I searched and searched and finally found it.

I don't use it everyday, but now and then I pull it out. The other day I made up some cinnamon scrolls and decorated them with pearl sixlets, little blue flowers and sprinkles to match and we had a sweet afternoon tea.

I think the new vintage look Christina Re forks and spoons match perfectly.

I'd love if you let me know if you have any favorite vintage china patterns or maybe a favorite pintrest board to check out.

 Linda Vandermeer is a blogger, baker, maker and author of the cookbook ' Sweets on a Stick': More than 150 kid friendly recipes for cakes, candies, cookies and pies on the go!. Published in the US the book is available at most online book stores.

Original Ideas, photography and recipes by Linda Vandermeer do not reuse without permission.  

Free video tutorial how to make a marshmallow and macaron tower

Phew that took me longer than I thought but YAY, I've done up a video showing me making that super pretty macaron and marshmallow tower so y'all can make your own of you like.

Click on this picture below to check it out:


Of course if you just prefer the written step by step instructions CLICK HERE for my previous blog post :)

 Linda Vandermeer is a blogger, baker, maker and author of the cookbook ' Sweets on a Stick': More than 150 kid friendly recipes for cakes, candies, cookies and pies on the go!. Published in the US the book is available at most online book stores.

Original Ideas, photography and recipes by Linda Vandermeer do not reuse without permission.  

How to make a macaron, marshmallow and strawberry tower

It all started with the marshmallows I had left over from Sweets party but it didn't end there.......

Yup I had strawberries left over as well. Lots and lots of strawberries. Now I'm not going to dwell on the obvious issue which is why I didn't just put them out on the dessert table regardless of whether they colour matched the rest of the stuff.

I'm a glass half full type of girl so I decided to take those strawberries and the rest of the left overs and make them so fabulous that no one could resist them.

I had already made up my pretty macaron and marshmallow tower and then I thought, hmmm this looks good but what if I added strawberries.

CLICK HERE to see more pictures and details of the marshmallow macaron tower

So I did and it looked great. It transformed the tower from a dreamy pastel tower of sugary sweetness into a more complex textural and vibrantly coloured dessert offering with a choice for anyone who wanted to join in but still be healthy.

Or something like that. It looked good and it tasted great so I guess that is the main thing.

I did think about dipping the strawberries in white chocolate coloured pink and adding some more sugar flowers but that would take away some of the texture and colour, plus I mostly believe that the strawberries are best on their own. This way you can have the fresh fruit and then a macaron as well.

I was a little worried that the strawberries would weep and ruin the tower, but I left it out for a few hours as an experiment and it still looked great with just minimal juice running down the fondant (note the weather was mild when I tried this out).

How to make a macaron, marshmallow and strawberry tower
This is a modified version of my last post just replacing the mini macarons. Make sure everyone eating from the tower knows there are toothpicks being used and check kids marshmallows before they eat them to ensure sticks have been removed.

Styro foam cone 10cm (4") bottom by 25cm (10") high (available craft stores)
Ready Roll Fondant
Large Rolling pin
Toothpicks
8-10 medium strawberries washed, dried and with the leaves cut off
15-20 regular macarons (Click HERE for macaron recipe)
up to 40 marshmallows (mine from Big Lolly)
Sugar Flowers (CLICK HERE for instructions to make your own)



Knead fondant, dust workbench and roll out fondant until quite thing. Brush the cone with water and then wrap the fondant around cutting off any excess at the back where it joins and pressing the fondant down it into place on the cone. Use fondant smoothers if you have them otherwise you can use your hands,

Cut toothpicks in half and starting at the top push a toothpick into the cone through the fondant. Stick a strawberry onto the toothpick and then repeat the process working your way down in a softly spiraling line as shown in the picture (the picture shows mini macarons instead of strawberries). This will be the front center of your tower so make sure it is adhered in a pretty even line. Push a whole toothpick into the top point of the fondant covered cone.

Starting at the top again attach a layer of marshmallows on either side of the strawberries. I used toothpicks in the picture, but you can use royal icing# to adhere the marshmallows as the toothpicks can lodge in the marshmallows when being removed.

#do not adhere macarons with royal icing as the delicate shells will not easily lift off, toothpicks do not stick to the macarons the same as they do marshmallows.

Work a layer of macarons on each side of the marshmallows. Continue to adhere marshmallows and macarons to the back of the tower. The back of the macaron tower will not be as pretty as the front, but try to work the macarons and marshmallows in a design that looks even.

Finish the tower off with a regular sized macaron at the top of the cone (in the whole toothpick you popped in the top at the start).

Using royal icing adhere a few sugar flowers to the macarons as decoration.

Linda Vandermeer is a blogger, baker, maker and author of the cookbook ' Sweets on a Stick': More than 150 kid friendly recipes for cakes, candies, cookies and pies on the go!. Published in the US the book is available at most online book stores.

Original Ideas, photography and recipes by Linda Vandermeer do not reuse without permission.