Our first Mother Daughter Tea

Yesterday I got to do something really special with my daughter. We attended a special event high tea at the Sisters Tea Parlor in Buckner, KY.  This event was called the Scrumdiddlyumptious Tea Party. It was themed after the Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.
The best part about this tea, I think was getting ready for it. My daughter wore one of her fancy church dresses. I wore a very nice pair of white capris, a black top, with a pair of dressy white open toe, full back out, little heeled shoes. I also broke out my expensive derby / church hats. We had fun picking out which one we wanted wear. I picked out a solid white hat and my daughter chose a pink and black hat. After the hats were picked out, we had to finish up our outfits with jewelry. I never let my daughter near my jewelry box, but today we both went thru it looking for necklaces. I picked out a black, gray stone, chain design and she went for a little necklace that had different stones in a tear shape. (I think I am brave letting her wear that necklace).

The tea party was so beautiful. The servers were dressed as Pink Loompas. The decor pertaining to scenes in the movie. Below is just some that I thought were cool.

The Great Glass Elevator

The bad  egg

The Boat

The food was so delicious. Especially the two bottomless pots of tea we had. The three courses consisted of

First Course:
The Candy man's Fruit Salad

Second and Third Course was the three tier tea tray it included:

Savories:
Chicken Pecan Log Roll
Sweet Potato Empanada
Caramelized Onion Cheesecdake
Chocolate Crostini with Sea Salt

Scones:
Candied Bacon Maple Scone
Apple Pie Scone

Sweets:
Violet, you're Violet Blueberry Tart
Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream Cone
Lollipop Sugar Cookie
Golden Egg Truffle

Our tea selection for the two bottomless pots of tea:
I've Got the Golden Ticket Black Tea
Jelly Bean Fruit Tea

Out of the two teas our favorite tea was the I've Got the Golden Ticket Black Tea. My favorite off the three tiered tray was the Sweet Potato Empanada. My daughters favorite came from the sweet section and it was the Lollipop Sugar Cookie. Below is some pictures from our table.

The Candy Man's Fruit Salad

The I've Got the Golden Ticket Black Ticket Tea, that was filled with sugar and milk.

The two tea pots

The Three Tiered Tea Tray

We had a wonderful Mother Daughter Outing. I can say our first tea experience went very well. We will definitely be doing this again.

Please note I was not paid anything or did not receive anything for writing this post. Everything in this post was my honest thoughts.

How to make a Tea Pot Birthday Cake

I consider myself a novice when it comes to making cakes. I usually only bake cakes once a year and that is  for my daughters birthday. I refuse to buy store bought or from another person. It has to be made from my hands. I guess I am weird like that.
When my daughter told me she wanted to have a tea party birthday, I thought to myself what kind of cake can I make for her? I searched and searched for the right cake. When I thought I found the right one, I would show her and ask her what she thought about it. We went thru many designs, but we finally agreed on a 3D tea pot and cup cakes.

To make a tea pot cake you will need the following:
Gum paste
Toothpicks
Wilton's Sports Ball Pan Set
Icing
Fondant
Cake Batter

Several days before you need to make the handle, top of the pot and spout for the tea pot using the gum paste. I used the store bought gum paste and I had to color the paste. Coloring gum paste was not nice to my hands. If anyone knows any tips please let me know. I did learn a little trick. Place toothpicks at the ends of the spout and at both ends of the handle.This helps hold the heavy spout and handle to the cake. To make the top, I took a tea cup and placed gum paste inside. I smoothed it out all around the teapot and then I trimmed the excess off around the top of the cup. I gently removed the gum paste out and set it to the side to dry. I did not use toothpicks in the top. As for the spout and handle I shaped them by hand.

To start the cake I used the Wilton's sports ball pan set.
 
This pan was very simple to use. Unlike some pans that require one and half boxes of cake batter, this only required one. You could also do one half one type of batter and the other half a different kind of batter. When the cake is done baking I would recommend the moment you take the pans out of the oven, use a damp towel and push down on the cakes. This will get the air out of the cakes. Don't worry the cake will spring back up if its done. I would immediately remove the cakes from the pans and let cool.

While the cake is baking you need to make some icing. I use the Wilton's butter cream icing recipe.
When you have your icing ready place the two halves together. First check to see if the halves fit evenly together. You might have to cut some from one of the halves. Once they are even, place a layer of icing between the halves. This will act as glue and keep the pieces together. Continue using the icing by icing the entire cake. When the icing is all over the cake place in fridge until the icing is hard. Try to make the icing as smooth as you can.
I used fondant to place over the ball of the cake. I am still learning how to apply fondant to a cake. I think I did a okay of a job. I made marshmallow fondant that I colored pink and rolled it out to the size I wanted. Once the fondant was rolled out. All I did was lift the fondant up and place it over the ball shaped cake. I trimmed the excess off at the bottom and tried to smooth out the fondant.

I then placed the tea pot handle and the spout on the round ball. To place the handle and the spout, I added some butter cream icing at the ends that touch the cake. The icing acted like glue.

Next I piped purple butter cream icing around the bottom. I did this because the base of my fondant was not the neatest.

I did not plan to add flowers all around the cake. But I had some bad spots in my fondant and I had all this extra gum paste. I just started making petals and a small ball for the middle. I mashed the petals together in the middle and added the ball. In the back I placed a toothpick to hold them in the cake. I think the flowers really made the cake.

I almost forgot the ball at the top of the tea pot was made with gum paste.

I was very pleased with how the cake turned out. All the kids and parents was amazed with it.

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(Sammy ate violets investing newbie game)  

To check out more about my daughters tea / birthday party check out the following links:

The Big Tea Party Birthday 

Thrift store tea cups and tea pots 

Finding the perfect invitation 

Finding the right place to hold a tea party 

Chicken Salad served at the Party

I have linked this to the following blog hop's:
 nifty-thrifty-tuesday-no149

The big tea party birthday

 Yesterday was the big birthday party. It was very exciting to see all the little princess's and princes all dressed up. We had Rapunzel, Belle, Snow White, a Barbie Princess, a Ballerina Princess, a Shiny Knight, and two other princes dressed in their finest wardrobe. I enjoyed having this party at my house. The children all played together and enjoyed being there for over 2 hours.
Remember what my basement looked like before? If you don't remember click here to see the pictures of it. I chose one side of my basement to place the tables for the children to eat at. I picked the side that did not have any carpet.

Every chair had a tea cup placed in front it at the table.

I love this table from Pottery Barn for kids.

 We used plastic tablecloths to hide the ugly gray concrete walls. To hide the beams above our heads we also took the plastic tablecloths and swagged them toward the light with tissue balls hanging from the ceiling.

On the other side of the stairs, I placed my old kitchen table on that side. I figured some of the adults could sit and enjoy this table. We bought my daughter the tulips for her birthday. This was also the side where the children played. I am thankful I placed the the children on the carpet. It was a soft cozy place for them to play at.

Again on this side of the basement we swagged the plastic tablecloths from the ceiling and we hung them around the concrete walls.

We played pin the tea bag on the tea pot and musical chairs to I am a little tea pot.

We played tea bag tic tac toe

The kids played with this tea cart that had Mrs Potts and Chip on it.

But most of all the children enjoyed playing with Thomas the train and the tracks.

Here is the cake that I made for my little one. I only make cakes for my little one once a year.

Here was the display of the cake and cupcakes. I tried to layer  the table with different heights. Each cupcake had either a pink, white or brown chocolate princess crown on it

.

Here is my daughter blowing out her candles. 

The children enjoyed drinking the apple juice tea in the fancy china tea cups. They were so well behaved that there was no cups broken. 

Well that is it.

If you missed any post about getting ready for my daughters tea party click on the links below. Stay tuned to learn how we made the paper balls that hung from the ceiling, some of the food that was served and more.

Thrift store tea cups and tea pots

Finding the perfect birthday invitation

 Finding the right place to hold a tea party

I have added this to the following blog parties:
http://www.savvysouthernstyle.net/2013/01/wow-us-wednesdays-102.html

Thrift store tea cups and tea pots

I am just having to much fun planning my daughters Tea Party Birthday. The other day we had a mommy daughter day and we went out thrift store shopping for tea cups and tea pots. I think we did pretty good. At our first stop we found several cups and saucers for 50 cents a cup and 75 cents per saucer. We picked up 10 cups and saucers.

After that we went to two other Goodwill's and we had no luck at any tea cup or tea pots. My daughter wanted dainty tea cups and as a mother, I wanted to find them for her. The one cups were okay and would do, but we still had hope. Our last stop we walked in and there was a tea pot.

 Score $7. In the same store we found what we were looking for.... the DAINTY TEA CUPS and a small tea pot. I knew they were the perfect ones when I glanced at my daughter and she was sitting in the floor playing tea party with them. The tea cups were 50 cents each and the saucers were 75 cents each. We bought 6 tea cups and saucers. I thought the tea pot was more but it turned out to be $1.00.

I just love the dainty tea cups and small tea pot. For the price that I payed for all this, if they get broke they get broke. Buying real tea cups is still much cheaper than having my daughters birthday party at a tea parlor. As you can see it pays to hit the thrift stores.

Stay tuned for more about the Tea Party Birthday Party. If you missed anything about the party planning check the links below.
Find the perfect tea party invitation
Finding the perfect place to host a tea party

Finding the perfect birthday invitation

When looking for the right invitation, you need to choose one that goes with the theme of the party. The invitation sets the tone for the party. Think about it, if you received an invitation that was all hand written on a plain piece of paper, would you be excited about going? But if you received an invitation that had been well thought out, maybe designed with the theme on it, would your interest be peaked more? The presentation of the invitation will not only show the person being invited the time, date and location, it will set the expectation for the party.
When choosing my daughters birthday party invitations, I tried to pick an invitation that went with our tea party theme. I am not a big fan about store bought invitations. I try to make all of her invitations by hand with my good old Cricket machine or Hot shot machine. This time around I could not find any scrapbooking die cuts that had a tea pot or tea cup design. I thought I was going to have to free hand a template of a tea cup, but when I was at the party store picking up some supplies, I noticed these adorable invitations.

 Yes, I actually fell in love with store bought invitations. I was not happy with the price $8.99 for 8 invites. But I saw potential in these invitations.
Once I got the invitations home and started fiddling with them, I wondered how I was going to make the invitations pop. I also needed room to let everyone know that this was for a birthday party and that it was a dress up party. So just messing around with one of the invitations, with a black sharpie marker, I started writing on it. I fell in love more with the invitations, as I wrote everything I needed on them.

Doesn't the invitation look like I purchased them with the writing on them? I think I did good this year on her invitations. What do you think?

Stay tuned I will be writing about the decorations, the cake, food and the games soon. If you missed the first entry about the daughters tea party you can find the link below.
Finding the right place to hold a tea party
The Big Tea Party Birthday

Finding the right place to hold a tea party

January is a busy month for me. My daughter turns five this month and she is wanting to have a princess tea party. If you follow me on Pinterest I bet you have noticed all the pins about tea parties the last several weeks. I have less than two weeks to hammer out all of the details.
The biggest challenge was finding a place, that was cheap and would host a tea party for four and five year old's. I was unable to find a place that would hold a tea party that was not very expensive. I looked online at one of the tea parlors in our city and their price for a birthday party was $25 per child than $12.50 per adult. That was way out of my budget.
So Mr. Hubby took me to the coffee shop that he frequents often (I mean almost everyday) and shows me their party room. The room was kinda neat. All they wanted was $10 to rent the room for 2 hrs. It was just a room with a big old cherry table in it. They said they would provide their tea at cost and all the mugs needed for the party. In my head I was thinking these are 4 / 5 year olds what happens if they break their mugs? The final question that I asked and it was the deciding factor, could I bring in sandwiches and cookies to make it a real tea party? The manager told me no. So in return I said no to the room.
After searching and searching my husband and I decided to have our daughters party at our house, in our semi finished basement. When I say semi, I mean there is dry wall up seperating the basement in two halfs. One half for storage and the other half to be finished. The rest of the walls are concrete. I do have a really big piece of carpet on one side of the basement. Basically I am working with a blank canvas. Yes I am brave to show you pics of my basement, especially when it is so messy and unfinished.

The pictures make the basement look much smaller than it really is. As you can see I been playing with some decorations all ready. I am thinking about feeding the kiddo's on the side where the carpet is not, just because I don't want stains in the carpet area. I plan on playing the games on the carpet side. I have my work cut out for me. If you could only go inside my head and see what I am envisioning for this party. Oh I pray it turns out like I envision.
Stay tuned within the next several weeks, I will be posting the invitations, decorations used and more about the party. I am so excited and then nervous too! Wish me luck.