Gingerbread Decorating

I hosted a gingerbread decorating class yesterday at Zut! and it was such a blast. I purchased fabulous prebuilt houses from Spun Sugar in Berkeley and provided bowls and bowls of festive candy. Each group was given a tool set and bowls and bags of royal icing. To be honest, I didn't have to do much teaching. After a few quick instructions on how to hold a pastry bag, everyone dug in and started creating their candy masterpieces. I was so impressed with the creativity and passion of each group. To give the houses a finishing touch, we dusted them with disco dust that made everything super sparkly. I can hardly wait to do it again next year! Special thanks to the front of the house crew at Zut! for scraping all the royal icing off the tables and cleaning up the sticky mess after we were all done.

Graham's Pumpkin Patch Party, part II

As you can see by the wonderful photos by Sherry Heck, full was had by all at the pumkin patch. Special thanks to my partners in crime, Becca of Cake. and Sherry for all of help and support!

 

Graham's Pumpkin Patch Party - part 1

I know that Halloween is soooo 3 days ago, but I am finally getting around to posting all the pictures from Graham's party. When we visited G&M farms with his preschool class last year, I decided it would be the perfect spot for a party. Their party "rooms" are an amazing deal (only $20 for 2 hours) and hosting it away from home meant I didn't have to clean up or plan any activities. When the kids arrived, they immediately ran off to the straw bale maze, petal cars and giant corn box (like a sand box, but with corn kernels). After a bit, I rounded up the kids to dig in to their "wicked good" boxed lunches that included PB & J, Pirates Booty, apples and juice. It was definitely a little tricky getting kids (especially mine) to eat their lunch when they were surrounded by goodies! For the sweets, I made chocolate + orange cupcakes, baked pumpkin donuts, and Halloween sugar cookies (the bats were my favorite). The orange cotton candy had unfortunately melted before anyone got to taste it, but the swirly lollipops were a hit. With the added energy from the sugar rush, the kids headed out with wagon in tow to pick out to the vast patch to pick their pumpkins. In addition to their pumpkin, the kids took home a muslin favor bag an adorable hand knit finger puppet, a ghost cookie and a cd of Halloween music.  Stay tuned for more pictures of the fun!

Credits:

Cake.:invitations, cd labels, & "wicked good" boxed lunch labels (available for purchase), assisted with styling 

Sherry Heck: photography
Cakewalk Baking: baked goods, concept & event styling
WeeKnit: hand knit finger puppets
G & M Farms: location