Craft Birthday Party

A craft party for early Primary/Pre-School kids is always a hit. This party was for 18 children, aged from 3-7. Chic n Sweet provided all the event design, birthday cake and scrumptious candy buffet. We had a 10 day turn around to have this ready from the booking date, not long and there were so many ideas that just didn't allow for postage!



Lets start with the table setup. The kids all had their own place mats, which are perfect for this age group, as spills can be cleared really easily. I was aware the table was going to be used for craft activities after they had eaten.

 The theme centered around numerous art easels. Each child had a place name on an easel at their seat, along with a Creative Juice. The child's name featured on cutouts and the napkins to ensure no one forgot whose birthday it was!

Table centerpieces were pots of paint with a matching colored balloon. The colors all matched the printing and chevron colors featured on the birthday cake. Our colorful tables and chairs which are available for hire were used. It really was a lovely bright inspiring area for the kids to follow on with their craft activities.

Cake, dare I mention it! It was really stunning! little Sophie was just in awe of it and so excited. I often send through little photos via text to make sure the kids know what work is happening on their party and feel a part of it! Inside was also rainbow themed.

Next to the cake was a handmade letter S for Sophie. This was decorated using matching printout patterns and Ric-rac. The birthday girl was able to keep her 'S' as a memento from her birthday party.

Now onto the main event, the candy buffet. Again the art easels featured with a Happy Birthday sign for the birthday girl. Lollies included musk sticks, sherbet balls, Giant Jaffa's, Rainbow Candy Dots, Jelly Beans, Liquorice Allsorts, Raspberries, Colored Candies. Home made crepe tassels were dangled as a backdrop banner and the birthday girls age featured on the flag banner across the table. Each Candy Jar was decorated and labelled in a matching design.

 

Desserts were a hit at the Craft Party. Featuring all home made desserts, there were Rice Crispy Ice Creams, in matching colors, Cupcakes, Rainbow Jelly Push-Up Pops, and cookies, displays as paint on a paint pallet in the center of the Candy Buffet. The kids had a second drink of cranberry lemonade, presented in glass bottles with chocolate and sprinkles on the lip.

 

 We supplied the kids gift bags that were handmade with matching patterns and Ric Rac on the paper bags. Inside was some water painting paper and instructions.
There was so much food, a separate table was needed. The craft party was really spectacular and designed and ready within a 10 day time frame! All of the kids loved the food and enjoyed their party. Chic 'n Sweet is happy to design and Candy and Dessert Buffet or event design for your function, give us a call so we can go through some ideas and costs with you.

$1200 Cash Giveaway

Chic 'n Sweet have partnered with some great businesses to offer you a fantastic prize! Getting together with other party planners, candy buffets and small businesses is a wonderful chance to pool our resources to give away so much more to you! Our favorite customer! We all work so hard in our area, us on Candy and Dessert Buffets, others on spectacular cakes, printables, party themes, invitations, just everything really that is gorgeous! So being able to get together and celebrate our unique work and support you by a huge $1200 Paypal prize is really a thank you for all your support from all of us!

$1200 Cash Prize

To achieve a giveaway this big, we had to pull together an even bigger list of awesome party planners and small businesses. They include: Spaceships and Laser Beams, This Little Mama, Mimi's Dollhouse, Samantha Walker Designs, Petite Bebe, Angelina's Dream Parties, Flaired Affairs, Vanessa Grant Events, Yumtastics, Ribbon Revelry, Cupcake Express, Cupcake With Character, Inkberry Cards + Design, One Swell Studio, Simply Sweet Parties, Unlimited Party Themes, One Inspired Party, Hello My Sweet, Miss Party Mom, Get Scrooged, Printable Parties to Go, Party Pants LLC, Katarina's Paperie, Dorothy Kurzydlowski Photography, Party Printables, Itsy Belle, We Heart Parties, I Will Invitations, Confetti & Crumbs, Karo's Fun Land, Chic n Sweet Candy Buffets, FLIPAWOO Designs, Just a little Sparkle, Giggles Galore, Nancy Veitenhans Jamberry Nails Independent Consultant, Party Dime Time, Paige Simple Studio, Fancy & Fold, Go Against the Grain, Gabrielle's Cottage, Design Dazzle, Myour Stories Designs, Bloom Designs Online, and Amy's Party Ideas.

And that's not even all of them! You can see the full list of everyone involved in the Rafflecopter form. Without everyone working together this would not be possible.

Prize: One winner will receive $1200 USD in funds via PayPal. Talk about summer fun!

Rules: Contest is open from June 20, 2013 at 11:59PM EST to July 11, 2013 at 11:59PM EST. The winner will be chosen randomly through the Rafflecopter form. The odds of winning depend on the number of people who enter. Giveaway is open worldwide to all participants 18 years of age and older. Void where prohibited by law. The winner will have 48 hours to claim their prize. Should they not claim their prize within this time, another winner will be selected. Please ensure that the email spaceshipsandlaserbeams [at] gmail [dot] com is on your "safe list" as we would hate for you not to get your prize!

Disclosure: This is an independent blogger giveaway. It is in no way associated with PayPal, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram or any other social media network. I did not receive money to be part of or promote this giveaway. Should you have any questions, please contact Stephanie at Spaceships and Laser Beams via email at spaceshipshipsandlaserbeams [at] gmail [dot] com.

USE THIS RAFFLECOPTER FORM TO ENTER TO WIN $1200 IN SUMMER SPLASH CASH!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

GOOD LUCK!

Carnival Kids Birthday Party

Ok lets get to some detail, no more teasing! We had a Carnival Birthday Party for Amelia. There were 12 guests and mum focused on the games and some hot food while I decorated and baked!

So a Carnival Theme has to be red and white stripes right? We centered the decorations around red and white stripes, with a hint of blue to break it up a little.

We focused on what you would expect from a kids carnival and tried to present it in a birthday edible fashion. I did warn Mum that we did not cover dentist bills! So lets think Carnival, what springs to mind first? It has to be Toffee Apples!



     I still feel like I am teasing, here is a picture of our overall design! There were two tables. One the main table with Candy and Desserts, the other a beverage table, that had more sweets and desserts! (Please excuse the brick wall, I have decided I need another a canopy now!) Fitting everything on one table doesn't really work unless you are feeding 6! I often look at other people's fabulous photos and then think, hold on there is not enough food and isn't this what it is all about, gorgeous eye dropping food for all!
Cake details are coming...

 The lollies were Giant Jaffas, Blue Fairy Floss, Gumballs, Raspberry White Chocolate Bullets, Swirl Lollipops, Ice Cream Lollipops, red, white and blue Jelly Beans and red and blue Sour Clouds. We had a fabulous Ferris Wheel cupcake stand with Berry Cupcakes and a swirl of cream for the adults.

The desserts were scrumptious, Vanilla 'A' shaped red and white striped cookies, layered Jelly Push-Up Pops and Cake Pops.

The cake was presented as a circus tent with a figurine of the birthday girl at the entrance. 

The Cake was  Rainbow Vanilla Cake.

 
Beneath the cake was a layer of Hamburger Cupcakes, Popcorn Cupcakes and Ice Cream Sundae Cupcakes. The Hamburger Cupcakes had a Chocolate cupcake patty in the middle. Popcorn cupcakes were made with mini marshmallows and the Sundae ones are a bit obvious!

 Little details are always what add that golden touch. The little food tents, glass bottle labels, ribbons. fantastic Beehive drink dispenser and beautiful glass apothecary lolly jars.  Whilst they take time to set up and decorate, they make such a  difference. The printable design was supplied by the Pinkadotshop on Etsy.

 The outside area was decorated with matching lanterns, a red table cover and blue and white striped table runner. Our kids table and chairs added extra color. All throughout the decorations was the letter A for Amelia, no one could forget whose party it was! 

                               We hope you enjoyed our Chic 'n Sweet Carnival Candy and Dessert Buffet Design! Don't forget our website link below and facebook!

Double Vision Dots!

I may need saving from multi colored dots! Please help me! No seriously, just piped 16 sheets of Homemade Candy Buttons. I so hope the kids like them at our next party on the weekend. There are dots, chevron stripes you name it at our craft party. Can't wait for the pictures!
Here is a link to the recipe I used for the Candy Buttons. I take no credit and just followed the lead of sandytoesandpopsicles!

http://www.sandytoesandpopsicles.com/oc-mom-blog/homemade-candy-buttons/

Cake expectations of the unrealistic kind...

This week I had a work function where we were all bringing in a plate of food to share. I thought I would try those cupcakes that I have been looking at for over 18months, in my over used Women's Weekly, Cupcakes Cheesecakes Cookies cookbook. I use this book all the time and have just admired these cupcakes but needed a bit more confidence, so trying them out on my work colleagues who are not as critical as me or a paying customer was worth a try!

So what are the long desires cupcakes? Toffee Tumble Cupcakes and Coconut Cupcake Kisses. Late on a weeknight I gathered my ingredients and followed the instructions to a t!

But

I was so disappointed! Here is why, on the left is the image from the cookbook, on the right is my paling into insignificance cupcake. I thought I was in love with them to be totally deflated when they didn't meet my huge expectations.

 Now lets talk about the Coconut Kisses (1st cupcake) It looks amazing in the photo, the cupcake and frosting is exceptional, just melts in your mouth. But it does not look like the picture! I was sitting in my kitchen in the early hours of the morning after working all day trying to figure out how they put that many Raffaello balls on one cupcake! Now the balls are about 3cms wide each, my cupcake was about 7cms (can you guess that I did not do the maths about the size of the Raffaello balls?) I could barely fit 4 balls on the bottom! Their cupcake fitted 6 and then a tier of 3! That cupcake had to be huge, at least 9-10cms. Now I love cupcakes but I don't like them the size of huge muffins. I don't think you enjoy them as much. So now I ponder how to make Raffaello balls in a smaller size or what I can substitute with! (slight tear in my eye with the sadness...)

Mmm Caramel kisses, they were the best tasting cupcakes I have had in a while, the vanilla custard in the middle, oh it is just heaven, they were gone in a flash! The little hint of toffee, divine. Sigh, they are deflated...... The instructions said to make 300 choux balls, that's a lot of balls! The extra special hint says, "Holding piping bag vertical to baking paper lined oven tray, quickly pivot wrist, piping tiny dollops (equal to1/4 teaspoon) of choux pastry" Now I am not sure what the pivot wrist is, but I am thinking I may need to stand on my head with a leg in the air and do a 360 pivot independent of my wrist! Seriously you just had to touch the baking paper and there was already 1/4 of a tsp and it didn't like to stop! So I think my choux pasty balls were slightly bigger than theirs, but I don't think it it was my bad acrobatic dancing that is the main culprit. Me thinks that the cupcakes were huge!

I am now on a mission. I feel betrayed and tricked. From now on all pictures of cupcakes should be taken with a photo of something familiar like a coin (mmm might not help if it is from another country though ;) ) or maybe a bic pen so that people like me who dream of making the perfect cupcake are not left in shreds on the kitchen floor weeping in the early hours of the morning.

Below is the picture of the cupcakes taken to my work function, they all tasted amazing and no one  but me thought that they looked premature to their cookbook counterparts.

Carnival Party Sneek Peak!

We had a fabulous Carnival Party for nine year old Amelia on the weekend. We are waiting for some wonderful photos to come through, but wanted to share a sneak peak beforehand!

How do you do it all?

"How do you do it all?" is the most common question I am asked when I create my Candy and Dessert Buffets. I have 11 year old twins and work full time as well!

I guess the first thing is I would rather an evening in the kitchen than sitting on the couch watching tv! I find it relaxing and I don't get hassled from the family while I am in the kitchen either!

Secondly I am very conscious of the time needed for my Candy and Dessert Buffets. I plan then specifically with items that can be make 3 days in advance. There might be some macaroons, yo yos, cookies, jellies or some other dessert that can be totally or partially made a few days earlier.

I like to leave my cakes and cupcakes to the night before so they are fresh and light and that gives me the morning to redo any disasters (yes we all have them!)

For the special occasion this weekend I have already made one layer of jelly in push up pop containers, created a figurine for the cake and baked the cookies that will be iced tomorrow.

So I guess it's all about planning for the time you have to do everything so it is all not in a rush and gives you some extra time in case something goes wrong!

You can do it!

Riding high from my successful try of a cake figurine last night, today I ventured into the year 8 woodwork lessons that were stored in my long term memory! (I am not mentioning how far that was! lol) I want a lovely canopy for our candy buffet table. We can then hire it out for DIY or include it in our wonderful candy and dessert buffets. But they are really hard to find, when I did, the price! My goodness maybe if I am good I should sell them. (Mmm how long ago did I learn those skills? lol)

So I measured and went to Bunnings, had all my pieces cut, even managed to find a friend who can router a nice edge for me! Wahoo! Then to put them all together......dowel joins, glue, more measuring, a friend to double check everything (Cause I stuffed up a few measurements!) and the frame is together in a day or so!

I have now sanded and will paint tomorrow. I so want to show you but can't until it is all ready. Next challenge, can I sew scalloped edging to my material? I have to admit that tshirt I made in year 10 my mother labelled the worst thing I had ever worn/made! My Nana said the most frustrating thing she ever did was try to teach me to sew! So I may need some of my readers to start praying! The material has come all the way from the US to Australia, so I can't stuff it up! Here is a peak...

Something new

Tonight I tried something new. I have admired people with the skill to model figures for cakes for so long but been afraid to give it a try. I have watched Cake Boss, Ace of Cakes who make it look like child's play! So tonight, I put on the apron after seeing a wonderful article from Rouvelee's Creations (www.facebook.com/RouveleesCreations) who made it look fool proof! So off I go, forgetting I have to let the glue set overnight, do I really need to do that, surely not!

My first ever head! When I finished I checked the little girls photo and I think she has blue eyes! So I will have to fix that tomorrow! (Note if you try this, make sure you check eye color!)

My body! I am not totally stable, but will be against the cake so I wont fall over! That is a lesson for next time! I also need to work on the hands and arms more!

All together now! I have some glue on the face and don't know how to get it off! (Another thing for tomorrow) The hair was a bit tricky, it dried out really easy and was getting fragile.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 I think I did pretty well for a first time. I didn't have all of the tools (I am not sure if you ever have all the tools!) but it came out well and with those little things fixed I am sure she will love it!

So give something new a try, it won't be a disaster, especially with Rouvelee by your side!

Junelle

Special thanks to Rouveles's instructions which can be found in the Australian Cake Decorating Network Magazine
www.austcakedecoratingnetwork.com/cake_autumn_2013

Welcome to Chic n Sweet's blog! We are excited to share with you our creative journey as we design customized candy and dessert bars across Melbourne! So where do we start? Well we have a function booked for 10 days time!! Wahoo! But where do we start?

Today I went to visit the customer and we spent some time discussing what their vision was, what was important to them and then how we would create that magical atmosphere come true.

We took a brief sketch out that looked similar to this. While the table wont be exactly like this it gives some idea. We also took images of the overall color scheme and finer design details.

Off course we discussed the finer details, like the number of people we were catering for, the other food available, the position of the buffet, and the lollies and desserts that were required.

This function needs a cake, numerous cupcakes, lollipops, rock candy, lollies, cake pops and much much more.

I have already ordered the candy and dessert buffet decorating items, I will have prep to do when they arrive, but now it's up to planning what timing is required for the food preparation.

We also have a buffet canopy to make! So much more to come your way!

Let us know if a sketch like above would be a helpful step in planning your candy and dessert bar.