Tim Burton Tea Party

So we finally had the Tim Burton Tea Party!

And it was great fun. Lots of work - a lot of it last minute, whoops - and I just today (one week later) discovered some bits and pieces I'd bought for decorating and completely forgotten.... but there was enough colour and spiders and swirls and fingers around the table to get the look I was going for.

I tried to incorporate as many of Tim Burtons films as possible - not all, unfortunately - and as many of his common themes, including big chocolate fish for Big Fish, giant peaches for James and the Giant Peach

Lots of beetles, bugs and spiders for Beetle Juice

Some very special "Mrs Lovetts meat pies" from Sweeney Todd

And of course lots of touches from Alice in Wonderland

Jack Skellington inspired vintage candy and chocolate hearts and Jack Skellington chocolate mud truffle pops

Pumpkin king cupcakes and a Corpse Bride/Nightmare Before Christmas inspired topsy turvy cake
(and moreish chocolate-dipped marshmallows with peanuts, multi-coloured sprinkles or red/pink/white hearts)

Mini-sized 100s and 1000s biscuits, wafers and slice, and lots of candy and Willy-Wonka style lollypops

Flowers, tea pots and toadstools

Nightmare Before Christmas candy canes

The white rabbit!

More details to come on the topsy turvy cake, cupcakes and "Jack" pops, but in the meantime here's a photo of my amazing friends and family who put so much effort into their costumes - couldn't have done it without them!

Back from left - Matt as Willy Wonka from Charlie & the Chocolate Factory, Steph as Katerina Van Tassel from Sleepy Hollow, Domi as the Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland, Trina and Andrew as Mrs Lovett and Sweeney Todd from Sweeney Todd, Simon as Edward Scissorhands from Edward Scissorhands, Jo as the White Queen from Alice in Wonderland

Front row from left - Jayne as Lydia from Beetle Juice, Me as Sally from Nightmare Before Christmas, and Mum and Dad as Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee from Alice in Wonderland

Special thanks to Domi and Jo for the extra sugary treats they brought, Matt for the extra candy, Simon, Jayne, Trina, Andrew & Mum and Dad for helping with colouring, baking and taste testing 'til the wee hours, and to Steph the Quiz Queen for keeping everyone guessing for a good half hour

And something new for this week - If you haven't been there yet, go and visit Meg over at Life of Meg for Mingle Mondays! Great way to see some new creative blogs.

- B xx

Glee bites, Butterflies and Tea Parties

For those of you who love Glee (and are in New Zealand!!) I strongly recommend you go and see the Gleevent!! I love the TV show - albeit mostly for the soundtrack - and when we saw the preview night of the stage show last week, it was fantastic. Visit the website for details, and/or my good friend Steph's blog for a more detailed review here.

For me though this was of course another excuse to bake, especially since I still had some left over mud cake (Yes, my household has really gotten to the point where there is EXCESS cake)

Chocolate mud-truffles dipped in milk chocolate with yellow fondant and red edible gel pen

Yum. Although not sure if I'm a fan of this edible writing gel business - the letters took forever to dry, and even then stayed sticky... questionable. Luckily we were more focussed on the chocolatey muddy goodness underneath.

From this same batch of chocolate-mud truffles, I made these cuties to send to my sister in the far off land of Hamilton

Also my first play with plunger cutters - which sound far more terrifying than they actually ARE - and more playing around with marbling fondant

FYI - when marbling fondant, WEAR GLOVES. Even if you feel a bit spastic - I'm still trying to get the purple colouring off my fingers. I look diseased.

So that's my week in pictures. Had a huge big shopping spree yesterday for the Tim Burton party which is now next Sunday (eek) and found lots of fun stuff. Was trying to represent all his movies, but a) I don't LIKE them all - I know, who would've thought - and b) there are too many. Put aside the fact that I'm now living in a room surrounded by severed fingers, tea cups, grass mats, tea pots and fake spiders, and I think it will be a success.

I couldn't wait any longer to open everything up when I got home, soooo.... HERE'S A SNEAK PEAK!!

Tonnes to do this week to prep for it, fingers crossed I don't have a fondant break down this time!! especially since a topsy turvy cake will be involved....

- B xx

Impromptu Tea Party practice

In case you haven't caught up from my previous ramblings, Miss S and I are having a Tim Burton Tea Party - we had so much fun planning the Murder Mystery night (some details are here but alas I am slack, and have not yet done a full post with all the details - promise promise promise it's coming!) and couldn't wait any longer :)

It's a Tea Party partially inspired by all the Alice in Wonderland tea parties popping up all over the place since the movie came out, but since Alice was by no stretch of the imagination my favourite Tim Burton movie, I decided to make it a blanket Tim Burton theme - makes for a far more interesting range of costumes :)

FYI I'm still a die hard fan of the 1950 Disney version of Alice in Wonderland, or the slightly creepier but still gold MUSICAL version from 1985 - if you haven't seen it/them you should. (Warning - the 1985 movie is seriously questionable, Martha Raye as the Duchess = CREEPY, and talking/singing chess pieces haunt me to this day... Ringo Starr as the Mock Turtle is somewhat hilarious though, do it)

Eek, look at them -

Shivers. Serious creepage.

Anyway, due to said planning I have been doing the mandatory op-shopping for tea cups and saucers and tea pots and other bits and pieces, and since they were all sitting out in our conservatory looking bored - my mum and I decided to have an impromptu practice tea party on Saturday afternoon.

We even got out the real silver spoon set - just because why the heck not. Although to be honest, we didn't actually USE them... they were a slightly questionable shade of old.

But I DID get to use the silicon teacupcakes I found all the way back here - they worked, but were slightly hilarious/flawed when we tried to pick them up by the handles, since they're ALSO silicon and don't really work as handles at all... they are for cupcakes, not tea... but still! I made my Nanas recipe for light buttercakes (which only sporadically works out succesfully - luckily this was one of those times!) with lemon curd in the middle and buttercream icing - Tea with lemon! Yes, I'm really that tragic.

They were just as cute as Lemon Meringue cupcakes too

We had homemade sausage rolls, mini wafers, toffee pops & squiggles (They're new, and DELICIOUS. Don't really taste a thing like their original normal size ancestors... but they're miniature, so it's ok) Chocolate teddy bears (thank you, Australia, just another one of the delicious original foods you've blessed me with) and mini pikelets with jam and cream - noticing a *cough*mini*cough* trend here?

Not to mention tea. Obviously. Lots of tea. But not out of those pretty little teacups I used for the photos, since they hold a pathetic amount of said tea.

But they were $4 for the whole set after all. Thank you Sallies Upper Hutt.

And thank you Wellington for the BEAUTIFUL view you provided for our tea party!

Sometimes I forget to look out at our beautiful view. Thank God it's spring and I won't have that excuse much longer! Especially since I need to get away from all these cupcakes and out into the sun...

2 weeks till my flea arrives!! (My big sister loves being called that, really) She'll make a stunning Mrs Lovett

B xxx