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| Smorgasbord of Treats |
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| Cake. Meringue. Whipped Cream. Berries. |
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| Other Specialties I made: Puff pastry with lentils, Boston cream cupcakes, Pork gyozas |
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| Channeling my inner Bardot |
Like any good birthday girl I decided to extend my ‘special’ day over two weekends instead of one (clearly so I could simply eat more cake).
The first in Munich with beers and pretzels larger than my head and the second with a Champagne/ cake/ nibbles party Chez Dana.
Planning for the party I relearned a few things about myself:
1. 1. I am a kitchen / dinner party control freak.
Except for a few select friends, when the offer to bring food was made I politely declined and asked that instead folks bring a bottle of their favourite bubbles / wine. One lovely friend, bless her beautiful little face, decided she might be hungry so ignored my direction and brought some Tesco cocktail sausages and placed them (still in the cold plastic container) on my dining room table alongside artisanal cheeses, home-made pork gyozas, potato and cilantro fritters with crème fraiche and smoked salmon, and spinach lentil yogurt cumin puff pastry bites. After waiting about 5 minutes I snuck around to the table and hid them behind a plant.
2. 2. I can’t stop with one dessert.
I couldn’t decide what type of birthday cake to make. I was torn between the infamous strawberry Blitz Torte, Boston cream pie cupcakes with homemade chocolate ganache and pastry cream, or a salted caramel and chocolate tart. Being Miss Indecisive I made all three (naturally). Oh yes, and a batch of trail mix bark (chocolate covered raisins, peanuts and pretzels) in case people got peckish for something sweet before the other desserts were served.
3. 3. I am happiest when people tell me I remind them of Brigit Bardot.
Ok, maybe it was just that fact that as an extra Birthday treat KC took me to get my hair coiffed before the party and it came out looking fabulously like Miss Bardot's in A Very Private Affair. I'd like to think it was more than just the hair - but let's be realistic. Regardless of why, it still had me positively glowing with Birthday excitedness!
Recipes available upon request. :-)
3 comments:
Alas! A post! I was so ridiculously busy I haven't checked your site for 2 whole weeks! So I was pleasently surprised with two luscious updates!!
I still haven't quite warmed up to beer driking...
And I may use some of your (inexcusable) reasons in the future.
Btw, some of those sausages were quite scary. Particularly the humongous white one... Oh, I can think of so many wrong things to say...
Sylvia
Oh, I messed up! I put the previous comment on the wrong post. Anyway, you probably got that the one before was for the Germany bday.
This is for the Chez Dana bday.
Firstly, can I just say HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH
I was in fact wondering what you would be thinking about the cocktail sausages...
And oh, where do I find recipes for that amazing chocolate/caramel tart and the strawberry marvel cake?
Sylvia
Well my darling. I used a recipe from the waitrose site for the choclate and caramel tart: http://www.waitrose.com/recipe/Salted_Caramel_and_Chocolate_Tart.aspx but I used my fool-proof pastry crust recipe (can be found in my entry for the scicilian lemon tarts I made this summer.
The Strawberry Deliciousness is an old family recipe. I need to dig up the paper copy and will email you directly.
Yours (covered in flour and sugar),
Dana x
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