My Pink and Fluffy Birthday Tea Party

Ohmigosh, I’m finally posting something new! You probably thought I was never going to blog again. Sorry. I took most of the week off and relaxed. Because … birthday.

That being said, now I’m totally going to brag about the amazing, pink, fluffy, frilly, all out girly tea party that I threw myself on my birthday.

It was the best ever.

I learned something about myself on this, my 5th annual 29th birthday…

I’m actually a five year old.

I had a pink, fluffy, sugary tea party, filled with lacy doilies, stripey straws, and flowers and polka dots, for which I dressed up as a Gryffindor student, while wearing Mickey Mouse ears all day, and I got dolls and toys for gifts.

That’s right, I got three, yes THREE, Lalaloopsy dolls (two of which are full sized), an amazing Sonic Screwdriver, and a 16-inch tall Snow White doll. AND I got to go to the ballet. Which I guess is kind of grown up, even though I sat through the whole thing with eyes shining, like the little girl who always wanted to be a ballerina.

All these gifts from the Hubster, the kiddo, and my friend Tina. The only grown up gifts I got came from my sister.

Plus! Plus, Tina made me the most incredible Hogwarts Acceptance Letter Cookie in the history of ever. And my friend Heather made me the most perfect birthday cake a Firefly loving girly girl could ever ask for. The only thing that would have made it better is if it were here for my tea party! Do I have the best friends ever, or what?!

Like I said, I’m a five year old.

But I’m cool with that, because this birthday takes the cake (no pun intended) for birthdays. It was, without a doubt, the best birthday I’ve ever had. My boys were so sweet and generous to sit down to not one, but two girly tea parties with me (one int he early afternoon and a second after dinner, for cake and presents), where they enthusiastically participated in the enjoyment of tea (in the English style, of course), tart raspberry lemonade, and all of the sweeties and treaties I worked so hard on. I’m one super blessed lady.

Before getting started on any recipes for my party, I had to first get the decorations up. My theme was pink and fluffy, but I added elements of light blue to the mix, as well. I hung sweet, lacy paper lanterns from the ceiling, a pretty paper pennant banner zigged and zagged across our dining room window, and the table itself was covered with white and lacy tablecloths and pink and white dishes and cake stands.

I bought some surprisingly beautiful faux flowers at Michaels to display front and center on the table. I had hoped to find real flowers for the occasion, but they all tended towards darker, wintry or fall-ish flowers, so I was thrilled when I found these. And for the price, they were a much better value (only $12).

While I was at Michaels, I also snagged some inexpensive glass candle holders ($.99, each), and some pretty washi tape. I got a two pack (one roll was pink and white polka dots, above, the other was white with little pink roses, below) for $4.99. Admittedly a smidgen pricey, but totally worth it for my party. I wrapped each of the candle holders in one or both of the washi tapes to tie them into the pink, flowery theme.

I also wrapped some of the washi tape around each of our straws. I used stripey straws from The TomKat Studio with my pretty glass milk bottles from Bake It Pretty (all resources are listed and linked below). We had homemade raspberry lemonade in the milk bottles, and it was wonderful.

To keep things a littlemore boy-ish for my guys, I gave them each blue stripey straws………but they still got pink washi tape flags.

I kept my place settings nice and simple by sticking with clean, white or clear dishes and doilies.

Once all the settings were placed, I added a small doily to each plate and topped them with some pink and white chocolate cameo boxes that I made.

Inside each of the chocolate boxes I put fresh raspberries. In case you haven’t picked up on it yet, the food theme of the day was raspberry.

So that’s the decor…how about we get into the sweeties?

First up, I had to have some Chocolate Filled Raspberry Meringues. They’re one of my favorite recipes I’ve ever made, and they worked perfectly, both for the raspberry theme, and the tea party theme.

I made half of the meringues white, using this rose technique, then sprinkled them with soft blue disco dust.

The remaining meringues, I made soft pink, sprinkled with silver disco dust and stars.

Aside from the rose shaped meringues, I also made some standard meringue kisses. They looked beautiful and shabby chic all piled together in a ruffled bowl.

Next up, I made sweet and simple tea tag shaped shortbread cookies, iced with raspberry glaze.

I tinted some of the glaze light blue and personalized the cookies with “D” for Darla and little hearts.

Once they were set up, my tea tag cookies joined some delicious macarons that the Hubster picked up from Ken’s Artisan Bakery up in Portland.

Of course, there had to be cake. I kept things simple and shabby chic with a sweet pink cake, decorated with a few ribbon roses, some silvery dragees, and a pretty pink candelabra candle.

Then came some mini raspberry cupcakes, topped with whipped raspberry buttercream and fresh raspberries (recipe coming soon).

Last, but definitely not least, the Hubster picked up these beautiful petit fours for me while he was up in Portland. They came from the sweet Helen Bernhard Bakery and they were divine!

Just look at the pink and sugary, you guys! This was the most wonderful, girly, happy, and even geeky (thanks to my Gryffindor get-up) birthday tea any five year old in a grown woman’s body ever had! I hope you all had fun hearing about it.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Supplies:

Cake stands – TJ Maxx, Homegoods, Amazon, and Michaels
Birdy cupcake stands – Whitney Smith Pottery on Etsy
Ruffled plate – TJ Maxx
Lacy plates, plain white plates – Pier 1 Imports
Milk Bottles, pennant banner, cupcake papers, birthday candle, cameo box chocolate mold – Bake It Pretty
Stripey straws – The TomKat Studio
Round and square doilies, white porcelain tea spoons – Sur la Table
Washi tape, candle holders, paper lanterns, flowers – Michaels
Silver bowl (holding the flowers) – Pottery Barn
Glass tea cups – Amazon

Recipes:

Homemade Raspberry Lemonade
Chocolate Filled Raspberry Meringues
Tea Tag Shortbread Cookies with Raspberry Glaze (substitute raspberry extract for lemon in the glaze)
Raspberry Cream Brownie Cake (substitute raspberry purée for the strawberry in the frosting)
Raspberry Cupcakes with Whipped Raspberry Buttercream – coming soon

Macarons - Ken’s Artisan Bakery, Portland, Oregon
Petit Fours - Helen Bernhard Bakery, Portland, Oregon

Tagged as: Birthday, Cake, Cookies, Cupcakes, Frosting, Macarons, Petit Fours, Raspberry, Recipes, Shortbread, Tea, Tea Party