Showering a Bride

I have one sister.

I was the host for her bridal shower, and while it was fun there is only one other person on earth for who I would throw their bridal shower. I might even fight her sisters for the right to throw her shower. I fight dirty. Fair warning girls.

I had called my sister and asked if she had considered a Cupcake Wars themed shower and asked who was in charge of it. Her response? Sounds like a great theme that you are in charge of.
Off I went. I am a fiend with a theme.

The challenge was to made 12 cupcakes to share that incorporated her wedding colors in the taste or in the decorations. I blogged previously about my test recipes. Both my sister and I took the recipe testing very seriously. I have learned that my sister only uses cake flour for her cupcakes because she prefers a denser cupcake. Sheesh. A monster is born.

I had tested 6 batches which included:
Key Lime, Lavender Rose, Lemon Lavender, Lavender Rose Reboot, Orange, and Butternut Squash.

Frosting recipes tested:
Classic Cream Cheese Recipe, Lavender Infused Frosting, Marscopone

Butternut Squash Cupcakes with Marscopone frosting was my recipe choice.

Food table included: Quinoa salad, turkey rolls and mozzarella tomato basil appetizer. Lime slushie drink. I loved the mozzarella dish, but sadly many of the guests do not like fresh tomato. The ribbon light from a previous post made an appearance in the decoration of the room.

Side Note: Quinoa pronunciation verified below. I will do a victory lap later.

Gift table, framed art was one of the shower gifts.

Cupcake Table

Cupcake table included (from left to right):
Lemon Cupcakes with Marscopone frosting decorated with a bride and groom
Assorted Cupcake Tray that held Coconut, Raspberry Lemonade, and Cream Puff Cupcakes decorated with sprinkles.
Bowl of party favors that held cupcake key toppers and assorted hand towels that looked like pastries.
Orange Cupcakes decorated with homemade candied orange
White Chocolate Cherry decorated with Maraschino cherries

You might ask: what happened to the Butternut Squash. Tragedy struck the kitchen the night before the shower. Something went horribly awry with the Butternut Squash cakes. Still haven't figured it out, but it is our suspicion that my mom needs a new stove that maintains a constant temperature. Side note: mom you also need a new dryer. The heating element is shot on yours. 1 t-shirt should not take three cycles and not be fully dry.

We played 4 shower games.
1. Memory game with pictures drawn on an apron. (thanks to our cousin who added Stewie to the art, it wouldn't have been complete without him)
2. Pin the Candle on the Cupcake
3. Spice Game
4. Cupcake Tin Toss

Game #2
Pin the Candle on the Cupcake.
Yes, yes it says Happy Birthday. I thought about removing the word "Birthday" but eh.

Aunt J. won this game. It was hilarious.

Game #3
Spice Game

Aunt J (pictured above) is a spice hound and trounced the competition.

Game #4
Cupcake Tin Toss

Three varying sizes of cupcake tins were used.
Three bean bag (aka hacky sack) tosses.
Most points wins.
My sister won ... sorta', and is pictured above with her prize blanket.

The games were fun, the prizes amazing, and gifts exchanged. But the cupcakes were the stars. We spent a great deal of time talking about our recipes and the trial and errors of our baking.
The Cupcake War Prizes went to the following:
Best Tasting: Aunt J's store bought coconut cupcake (the vote was unanimous)
Best Decorated: My sister's White Chocolate Cherry cupcake
Fan Favorite: My sister's friend with the Orange cupcake

In packing up we chatted about a Cupcake War Tournament to be held with our friends in the different cities we all live in. Local brackets that lead up to a national tourney of recipe winners around Christmas time. It could work! But we need to find a bigger taster pool or my sister won't be able to fit into her wedding dress!

Rinse and Repeat

Again.

I have a long term memory problem with my hair. I like my hair short, but continually forget this and decide to let my hair grow out. Become frustrated with my hair mop and decided to chop it all off. Joy floods through my body at my new short hair cut. Then I rinse and repeat this cycle. I am at the joy part of the hair cycle right now having just cut it all off again. I also had feathers put in it this time. Love them. I do think they are more business appropriate than the business appropriate faux hawk haircut I tried to convince a stylist to give me a couple years back. (Though I hold out hope that there is such a thing).

Hard to tell from this picture but there are two feather extensions.

Inspiration

I saw the picture above on Pinterest. I thought it looked amazing, and decided to try making a version for my sister's bridal shower. The very detailed instructions on the picture said only "cut some ribbon and tie it on a string of lights".

As with many of the projects I start I quickly discovered I had underestimated the amount of supplies needed and the time needed to complete the project. With more than one trip back to the store for more ribbon, and three days of tying ribbons I completed the project below. I will do this again. Being more prepared I will be looking for bargain ribbon prices and may do some online searching for deals. I think it might also work with fabric strips as well. Lots of possibilities.

Supplies:
1 strand indoor clear lights (might be fun with colored lights)
Total length: 11.5 ft
between 8-12 spools of ribbon
(the spools differed in length, most were either 3 yards or 7 yards)

Steps:
Buy light and ribbon
Cut ribbon into 9 inch strips
Tie individual ribbon on the light strand
Hold up light and mutter at how you though you were over half way finished three hours ago (repeat until finished)

Lesson Learned:
Based on the amount of ribbon on certain spools I think that between 14-20 yards of ribbon per spool will get the best results. I had one spool of 20 yard ribbon that still has some ribbon left. All of the others required additional spools.

Fin.