How Sweet it is! { Cake Pops }

We are proud to introduce to the Lexington area our sweetest favor yet: Cake Pops! We fell in love last year with Bakerella's amazing cake pops and wanted to bring these delightful treats to the Bluegrass. We are hoping you will fall in love too! What's not to love? Decadent cake, mixed with lip-smacking frosting, dipped in chocolate, decorated with love and placed on a stick. You will be as over the moon as I was when I first laid lips on one of these confectionery wonders!

The Blu Sash has teamed up with Martine's Pastries to offer these custom ordered treats for your special event. Please give us a call! We can design the perfect cake pop for your themed party or that special day. We hope to win your heart with these sweet treats!

Call 859.271.6934 or e-mail: donia@theblusash.com.

Two If By Sea "The Favors" — Cupcake Dreams and Candle Wishes: Part III

HAVING A BALL!

Two If By Sea: The Favors
My favorite part of planning a party are the favors you hand out! I love giving gifts and I want that gift be memorable useful and fun. That's why most of my favors are handmade, edible delights or at least useful. I prefer not sending mothers home with tiny plastic toys that will easily break or clutter up the toy box. So I try to think of things that children will use over and over again or things will delight the taste buds and the eyes. Mom's go away happy and so do the kids!

To hold West's party favors, I purchased small galvanized pails from Oriental Trading. I had planned on painting them red and then stenciling the sailboat from the invitations on each one. Unfortunately, I ran out of time, but I would love a chance to make these for your party or nautical themed event! If you want to purchase larger buckets that are already painted, try Main St. Supply — very cute!

The various stations throughout the party had little treasures these tiny party goers could put in their buckets:

Sea-fairing Favor Buckets:

• Tiny beach balls (these red,white & blue ones matched perfectly)

• Sea Shells (these can be purchased or gathered yourself)

• Fish, Crab, Shell or Lobster Cookie from the "Go Fish" game (see how-to below)

• Chocolate coins from the pirate treasure chest

• Life preserver donut pops (see how-to below)

GO FISH!

THE COOKIES: First thing you will need is sugar cookie dough. I used my favorite sugar cookie recipe to make these cookies, but any sugar cookie recipe will do. You can use store-bought dough, but my experience is that they won't hold their shape as well as the homemade dough.

INGREDIENTS/SUPPLIES:

• Sugar cookie dough (homemade holds it's shape better than store bought)

• Nautical cookie cutters

• Red candy melts

• Royal icing (I use the version that calls for meringue powder rather than egg whites)

• Blue food coloring

• Cooling Rack

• Wax paper

• Deep ceramic bowl with wide opening

• Large clear treat bags

• Small white cotton twine (found at a hardware store or the hardware section of Wal-Mart)

A "CRABBY" COOKIE

COOKIE DIRECTIONS:
1) Take the dough and roll it out to between 1/8"-1/4" on a clean, floured surface.

2) Cut out the shapes and bake them until they are just barely beginning to brown. I find that keeps the cookie softer.
3) Carefully remove the cookies and place them on a cooling rack until completely cool.

4) While the cookies are baking and cooling prepare the royal icing. Once the icing is made, immediately divide it in to two airtight containers as it will dry out quickly.

5) Keep one container of the royal icing white and dye the other container a light blue.
6) Once all cookies are baked and cooled you can begin piping the white royal icing onto 1/2 of the fish and clam shell cookies. Pipe around the edges first with a smooth line and then flood the center of the cookie till until the surface is covered. (If your icing is running down the sides it may need to stiffen up a bit or you may be over-flooding). Set these aside to dry completely.

7) Take the other 1/2 of the fish and clam shell cookies and flood them with the light blue royal icing and set them aside to dry.
8) While the cookies are drying take your bag of red candy melts and pour 1/2 of the bag into a deep ceramic bowl with a wide mouth. Then microwave them on the defrost setting, stopping to stir them about every 30 seconds until completely melted. Using the defrost setting is very important as the regular setting can and will burn the melts.

9) Take the crab and/or lobster cookies and hold them upside-down between your thumb and your pointer finger and dip the top of the cookie into the candy melts, so that the top and most of the side is covered.

10) Turn the cookie over, holding it sideways above the bowl and shake any excess off in to the bowl (4-5 good taps of your hand against the bowl should do the trick). Now hold the cookie candy melt side up and shake gently back and forth to smooth out ridges. Carefully place cookie on a sheet of wax paper to dry. Repeat this until all the crab and lobster cookies are covered.
11) Once the royal icing is dry, you can go back and decorate the white cookies with light blue dots or outlines and the light blue cookies with white dots or outlines.

12) The final step is bagging the cookies. My advice is to let the cookies dry for a day before bagging them as any moisture in the bag will cause the frosting colors to bleed. Once the cookies are dry place them in the cellophane bags and tie up with knotted cotton twine for a nautical look. Leave some line on the end of the knot where you can clip the fish to the "fishing pole" in the "Go Fish" game.

A PARTY SAVER

THE LIFE PRESERVER POPS: From the start of planning this party, these life-preserver pops were running through my head and I just had to bring them to life. They were surprisingly harder to make than I thought they would be, but the end result was so cute. I displayed them in a large glass votive and a square glass vase filled with sand. The bagged pops were then stuck down in the sand and handed out to guests as they left the party.

INGREDIENTS/SUPPLIES:

• Small powdered sugar donuts

• Red candy melts

• White candy melts

• Sucker sticks

• Styrofoam block

• Small clear treat bags

• Small white cotton twine (found at a hardware store or the hardware section of Wal-Mart)

LIFE PRESERVER DONUT POPS

LIFE PRESERVER DIRECTIONS:
1) Take an 1/8th of a bag of white candy melts and pour them into a small ceramic bowl. Microwave them on the defrost setting, stopping to stir them about every 30 seconds until completely melted. Using the defrost setting is very important as the regular setting can and will burn the melts.

2) Take a sucker stick and dip it about 1/2" down into the white candy melts. Then take a donut and place the candy melt end of the stick up through the bottom ring of the donut all the way up into the bottom of the top ring and stop. Do not push the stick all the way through the donut or it will not stay on the stick.
3) Place the donut pop down into the styrofoam and allow the candy melts to dry, thus securing the donut.

4) While the pops are drying, take your bag of red candy melts and pour 1/2 of the bag into a ceramic bowl. Microwave them on the defrost setting, stopping to stir them about every 30 seconds until completely melted. Using the defrost setting is very important as the regular setting can and will burn the melts.

5) Spoon the red candy melts into a decorator bag with a small round tip.
6) Carefully pipe the red bands onto the life preservers. This will take a steady hand and a little while to get the technique down. If the melts in the bag begin to harden, unscrew your metal tip, place decorating bag on a plate and microwave on the defrost setting for 10-30 seconds until warmed again. Continue piping.

7) Place pops back down into the styrofoam until completely dried.
6) Carefully place each pop into a treat bag and then tie with cotton twine. Knot each end of the twine for a nautical look.

THE LIFE POP DISPLAY

Give The Blu Sash a call if you would like to order these favors for your nautical themed birthday party or wedding. We would love to make your guests feel special! 859.271.6934 or donia@theblusash.com

Two If By Sea "Party Signs, Banners & Activities" — Cupcake Dreams and Candle Wishes: Part III

NAUTICAL BIRTHDAY BANNER

Two If By Sea: Signs and Banners
This was the first time for one of my parties that I created signs for everything. I mean literally everything! I had signs for the food table, signs for each activity and of course a custom "Happy Birthday" banner for West. I was really pleased with how they turned out and plan on offering all of them on my Etsy shop when it opens this March. I will be offering generic pdf's of all the signs, with the option to customize them. I will also be offering the custom "Two if by Sea" birthday banner not only in paper, but also in vinyl for later use as a decoration for your child's room or play room. I will post links to my Etsy shop as soon as it is open, so please check back!

A CUTE WAY TO DIRECT PARTY GOERS

THE PARTY SIGNS: Each of these signs were printed at a local copy shop and tacked down to 8.5 x 11 tag board for weight. The signs were then taped with clear packing tape to large paint stirring sticks that can be bought at your local hardware store. I used an assortment of stainless steel buckets and navy blue buckets, filled with sand and rocks to place the signs down in. The rocks did a good job of providing the weight needed to hold the buckets down and the sand kept the signs upright.

THE ACTIVITIES: Each sign created corresponded with an outdoor activity or station. All of the activities planned for this party were free play as two year olds are hard to organize for a game. We did plan one game and the kids loved it! We had a "Go Fish" station where the kids could throw their line over and "catch" a cookie fish favor. They had such a good time and lined up quite nicely to catch their fish! Below you will find each of the signs and their corresponding activity:

{ Place this sign out front to greet visitors and provide directions to the party in back }



{ Place this sign on the cake table in a tall,
bucket shaped red vase filled with sand and shells }

{ Decorate a wagon with a sail, some cardboard boat sides, and some waves
for giving rides to those sea-faring 2-year olds. }

{ Load a shelf ( I used a cute boat bookshelf ), with beach towels,
sunscreen and bug spray for guests use. }

{ Fill your sandbox with shells bought at a local craft store or
those you brought back with you from your last beach vacation.
Let the kids dig them up as party favors with their favor buckets and shovels. }

{ Set up some outdoor tents and/or tunnels.
Place a treasure chest inside filled with gold chocolate coins as party favors. }

{ A large tub filled with beach balls for the taking adds fun to pool time play. }

{ Set this sign up by the wading pools for a cute touch. }





{ Purchase a large canvas tarp at your local hardware store
and cover it with bags of play sand for you own personal beach.
The kids will love digging and playing in it.
Afterward you have new sand for your sand box and easy clean up. }

{ For a game of "Go Fish", cover a large chair with a blue sheet or fabric
and drape some fish netting over the front of it
filled with shells and plastic or gummy fish.
Make a fishing pole out of a dowel rod and some cotton twine
tied on to it on one end and a clothes pin on the other end.
Make some adorable fish, lobster and crab cookies
and attach those for your "catch of the day".
The kids LOVED this game! }

CUSTOM BIRTHDAY SIGN: A simple 8.5 x 11 color print out can look adorable placed in a nice frame and can be kept as a decoration for a room or used in a child's scrapbook commemorating the event.

SAILING, SAILING — A CUSTOM BIRTHDAY SIGN KEEPSAKE!

Two If By Sea "The Cupcakes" — Cupcake Dreams and Candle Wishes: Part III

CUPCAKE "CUTTERS"

Two If By Sea: The Cupcakes
As if a cake wasn't enough, I felt compelled to make cupcakes. Cute sailboat and whale cupcakes. I had to make them!

What you will need:

• White box cake mix (and required ingredients)

• 2-3 cans of butter cream frosting

• Blue food coloring

• Cupcake decorating set or decorating bag and large round tip

• Red gumdrop wedges for the sailboats
• Orange or blue gumdrop wedges for the whales
• Miniature orange or blue gumdrop wedges for the whale tails

• Colored toothpicks

• White fondant or white paper

• Blue star sprinkles or white round sprinkles for whale eyes

The Sailboat Cupcakes: I used a simple white box cake mix and white cupcake liners, (Silver cupcake liners would be really cute though), to make these cupcakes. Here's how to decorate them:

1) Take a can of butter cream frosting, or if you have the energy and time to make the frosting from scratch, by all means dive in! Die the frosting a pale blue.
2) Then using a large round tip, spiral the frosting in to the center from the outer edges of the cupcake.
3) To make the sails you can either roll out white fondant to 1/8 of an inch and cut with a small triangle cookie cutter or you can cut small triangles out of paper. You then take a blue toothpick and stab the toothpick through the bottom of the triangle sail and then back through the sail near the point at the top.
4) Take the sail, which is now on the toothpick, and put it through the center of the gumdrop wedge.

Anchors away! You're now sailing over the cupcake blue!

THE FLEET

The Whale Cupcakes: Repeat steps 1 and 2 above to make the cupcakes and frost accordingly. Here's how to decorate them:

1) Take a large orange wedge, or preferably blue if you can find them, and place the flat side down on the center of the cupcake, leaving a little room to the right of it for the tail.
2) Then take the miniature gumdrop wedge in a matching color and place it at an angle at the edge of the large wedge, so it looks like a tail.
3) To make the eye, take blue star sprinkles or white dot sprinkles and glue them to the front of the large wedge on either side with a tiny bit of frosting.

Here's to a whale of a cupcake — Enjoy!