Sweet Parties: Citrus Brunch Celebration

Good Morning Sunshines!

We are bringing you a heaping helping of bright, cheerful, and dare we say sunny, party ideas today!This celebration was designed with a sit-down brunch in mind and is perfect for a wedding, rehearsal, baby or bridal shower, or even a birthday celebration.

Our inspiration came to us from an unlikely source, a San Pellegrino Sparkling Fruit Beverage. I totally fell for their uber chic, drink me at once and feel special marketing ploy. I knew it was happening, and I didn’t even care. I found them in the refrigerated area of my local pharmacy one day when I was particularly parched and unable to go another minute without something to drink. (It has been hot down here in the south I tell ya, H-O-T!) Anywho, I spotted the Pellegrino and thought, that looks really refreshing, and when I got home I had another thought: We should do a citrus themed party based on the flavors that this drink comes in. And so it came to pass, we put together this little soiree, a Citrus Brunch Celebration. Side note: We have since seen these drinks at our grocery store as well, in a can version which are equally cute.

The first thing we decided for this party was the color scheme. In keeping with the citrus theme we wanted to go somewhat analogous, so we kept our palette to oranges, yellows and orange-reds. Since those colors are so vibrant and make a big splash, we decided to keep the rest of the elements very neutral. The serving pieces and table coverings were white and tan, and we added only a splash of metallic with the silverware and chargers, which we decided should be gold to keep with the warm color palette. We added our citrus colors in with not only the food, but the flower arrangement, some ribbons and of course the printable collection.

For this celebration we really wanted to demonstrate the scope of the party from the place settings to the buffet set up as well. We also wanted to make sure we kept everything within our allotted budget, while setting up two separate tables. Of course, we understand if you are putting together a large party and not just a photoshoot you will need more supplies than what we have shown. But hopefully you will be able to take away from this some valuable money saving options so that your own party can be kept within a  budget!

Here is a list of our costs and where we found most of the items that you see:

From Dollar Tree: (all items $1 each!)

  • White Melamine Plates & Bowls $6
  • Poppy Flowers $4
  • Ribbons $3
  • Silverware $3
  • Glassware $3
  • 2 Foamcore Boards (our chargers) $2


From Joann Fabrics:

  • Yellow Ric-rac trim $1.99
  • Chinese Lantern Flowers $4.99
  • White Flowers $3.99


From Wal-mart:

  • Gold spray paint $3.59


From IKEA:

  • White Photo Frame $1


Things we already owned:

  • Tables, Chairs, Side Table
  • Large Green Glass Bottle
  • Tall White Vase
  • Drop Cloths
  • White Wooden Crate


Things we made:

Now, if you are throwing a large party like a wedding reception, obviously all of your costs are going to be much greater. You may even choose to rent your glassware, dishes, silverware, etc. Our objective was to demonstrate a “look” that you could expand upon in your own way. 

Here are a few ways to jazz up this celebration and make your event super special!

  1. Buy fresh flowers. We recommend fresh poppies and ranunculus for this tablescape, in vibrant orange-reds, yellows and orange. A budget friendly cluster of carnations could also look really nice as well, jazzed up with some asparagus fern draping out of the vases.
  2. Rent your serving pieces. Use a bright white ceramic or clear glass sets, square dishes with square bowls, gold toned silverware and a tall fancy stemmed glasses. Shiny metallic gold chargers underneath, with a beaded edge would add just the right amount of bling!
  3. Add some metallic gold taper candles, lots of them!
  4. Rent your table linens. Use a textured linen or smooth cotton fabric in tan. Drape them to the floor.
  5. Rent your chairs. We’ve seen some at other events that have a nice tropical feel to them, and appear to be made out of bamboo (even though they aren’t) and painted gold. These would be perfect! Yellow or orange seat cushions for these would be great as well if it is an option. If you prefer a more minimalist look, the clear acrylic chairs that are so popular would work nicely too.

Ok, let’s talk food. We have fallen into a rut lately of buying pre-made food for our tables instead of making things ourselves. This time around we decided that some of the lovely inspirations we’ve seen on Pinterest lately needed to make their way into our kitchen and onto our buffet. First off, we used fresh lemons, oranges and grapefruit for our decor. Not only were they fairly inexpensive, but just a perfect way to incorporate the colors we wanted. Second, the recipes we used came from websites that inspired us, so we really want to give credit where it is due. Below is a list of what we served, and where we found the recipe. All of these were delicious, by the way, so please try them out!

  1. Citrus Cake with Lemon-Orange Buttercream and a Lemon Curd Filling
  2. Mini-German Puffed Pancakes (we substituted in a ricotta and orange marmalade mixture)
  3. Orange-Ginger Cookie Sandwiches
  4. Sunshine Bruschetta
  5. Spinach Salad with Mandarin Oranges
  6. Chocolate Covered Orange Sticks
  7. Izze Sodas in Grapefruit and Celmentine


“Oh-emm-gee, that Citrus Cake was so H-O-T.” (That’s a variation on a quote from the Marmaduke movie that got stuck in my head, it used to be on a daily viewing schedule, the toddler loves the talking animals.) The cake tasted great, but I loved it most of all for its beautiful facade. It was gorgeous and I could not stop taking photos of it. We chose to cover ours with oranges, lemons, clementines, grapefruit slices and some sprigs of mint scattered about and sage leaves for the border around the base (decorative purposes only, sage + buttercream don’t taste good together). The recipe calls for blood oranges, but they are very hard to find around these parts so the grapefruit was our substitute. Our German Puffed Pancakes, well they were tasty too, but they did not puff like the recipe shows. We ended up with pancake “muffins” instead. We took out a little dip at the top and filled them with our ricotta and orange marmalade mixture and topped them with a sweet clementine slice and a dusting of powdered sugar. Sunshine Bruschetta is an interesting twist on the traditional bruschetta recipe with the addition of a citrus fruit. We added both grapefruit and oranges to ours.

As for the printables, we were inspired to do a retro look with a modern twist, mimicking the new design of the GooGoo Clusters packaging. (If you haven’t seen it, take a peek, it really is quite nice.) We of course made our colors much more vibrant, carrying out the planned color palette we mentioned earlier. Since we wanted this party to be an option for large formal events and small informal events alike, we included the following items in our printable collection:

  • Buffet Menu Display
  • Individual Menus
  • Bar Menu
  • Escort Cards
  • Food Tags
  • Place Cards
  • Table Cards
  • Decorative Flags
  • Banner


We hope that this bright and vibrant celebration has put a smile on your face and some inspiration into your party planning.

If you have any questions, suggestions or comments we welcome your feedback!

 

Sweet Recipes: Citrus Cake, A Love Story

Last year I fell in love with a cake. June 14th, 2011.

There you are browsing Pinterest for the 3rd hour in a row when suddenly it smacks you in the face. Cake LOVE. A beautifully photographed and presented cake, for your viewing pleasure. The kind that makes you want to reach on in and grab a slice, if such thing were at all possible. Have you even had this happen to you? Well of course I pinned that sucker right then and there and have since been drooling over it.

Of course I never got around to making it. That is until we settled on a summer Citrus Brunch Celebration and started planning our menu. Then out came my “Cakes” board and the Citrus Cake was re-pinned to our “Citrus Brunch Ideas” board. It was finalized. This cake was going to happen. In my kitchen.

My cake love came at the hand of one Apollinas and her fashion inspired blog. About her cake inspiration she writes: “Those spring Stella McCartney prints we have all been seeing look delicious enough to eat.  So, now you can - in the form of cake…!”

Enough talk of my cake love though, here is the recipe we adapted from Apollinas.

Citrus Cake with Orange & Lemon

Ingredients

  • 2 sticksunsalted butter, at room temperature
  • 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • grated zest of 2 oranges
  • grated zest of 2 lemons
  • 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/4 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 3 eggs, room temperature
  • 1 cup milk
  • Non-stick baking spray
  • Parchment Paper, cut to fit the bottoms of your baking pans.
  • Assorted citrus fruits, sliced and drained to decorate with.
  • Fresh mint leaves, for decoration.

Directions

  1. Heat your oven to 350°F and prepare two 8″, 9″ or 10″ cake pans. I prefer to use Pam for baking, and spray the pans generously, then line the bottoms with parchment paper and spray again. I find it is easier than buttering and flouring. 
  2. Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a bowl, then set it aside.
  3. With an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar on medium-high until fluffy, 2 - 3 minutes.  
  4. Add the grated zest of the oranges and lemons.  
  5. Add the vanilla.
  6. Add the eggs one at a time, scraping down the sides if needed.
  7. Reduce speed to low, then add the dry mixture and the milk, alternating a little of each, and ending with the dry. Mix this until just until combined, and take care not to overmix.
  8. Divide the batter equally between the prepared cake pans, leveling the top of each with a large spoon or rubber spatula.  
  9. Bake until a toothpick from the center of the cake comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes for 8-inch pans, 22 to 25 minutes for 9-inch pans and 20 to 22 minutes for a 10 inch pan.  
  10. Cool the cakes in the pans for 15 minutes, then turn out onto racks to cool completely.

Citrus Curd Filling

Ingredients

  • 4 large eggs
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 tbsp grated lemon zest
  • 1 tbsp grated orange zest
  • 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
  • 1/4 cup fresh orange juice
  • 1 stick unsalted butter, sliced

Directions

  1. In a stainless or glass bowl, whisk together the eggs, sugar, zests and juices. 
  2. Add the butter, then set the bowl on top of a saucepan of simmering water.
  3. Cook the curd, whisking constantly, until the mixture has thickened, about 15 minutes. 
  4. Pour into a medium bowl.  
  5. Cover and refrigerate until completely cool, about 2 hours.

Fresh Orange Lemon Buttercream

Ingredients

  • 4 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • 2 tablespoons finely grated lemon zest
  • 2 tablespoons fresh orange juice
  • 4 cups of powdered sugar

Directions

  1. Beat the butter in your electric mixture until light and fluffy. 
  2. Reduce the speed to low and add the orange juice and zest.
  3. Add the sugar a cup at a time, waiting until one is fully in corporated before adding another.
  4. Resume a medium-high speed and beat the buttercream until it is smooth and fluffy.
  5. Store at room tempurature until you are ready to ice the cake. (Up to 2 days in an air-tight container.)

Assorted Citrus Fruits & Mint Leaves

Chose which citrus fruits you want to feature on top of the cake.

Slice them thinly and pat dry with a paper towel before laying them on top of your cake.

Pluck your mint off the sprigs and scatter about the cake between your citrus slices to add a bit of greenery. We also added in a bit of sage as well for color around the base of our cake.

Please try this recipe and come back and let us know your thoughts!

Or share with us a cake you fell in LOVE with!

Sweet DIY: Stretched Canvas Art

Today we want to show you how easy it can be (and inexpensive of course) to create your own Stretched Canvas Artwork. In our example you see that we used three of these pieces to create a modern and symmetrical backdrop for our Citrus Brunch buffet. However, you are not merely limited to backdrops, oh no, no. This technique could be used to beautify any space with stretched canvas art.

I personally was really excited with the results of this little experiment. So much so that we plan to use these in our kitchen now as wall art! I may even use one as a pin board as well for notes and reminders and such. Since the frame is backed with foamcore, it is perfect for push pins or straight pins.

We are going to demonstrate for you how to build a frame and stretch the fabric across it. Ours had specific dimensions due to the fabric we chose, which were actually a 3-pack of kitchen towels from Target. So they were already sized and we built our frame to accomodate that size. However you could pick any fabric you want and make your frame any size you want as well, using our technique as a guide. Take notice that NO NAILS or MITRE BOXES are required for this project. Super duper easy.

Step One: Lay your foam core down onto the fabric you chose. Adjust so that the foam core rests on top of the fabric with at least 1” of fabric extra on each side. Then cut the excess fabric away. You should now have a piece of fabric with 1” or more overhang all the way around each side of the foam core.

Step Two: Measure the width and height of your foam core. Mark your wood strips accordingly so that you have two pieces to cut as your width. Subtract two inches from your height measurement and mark two more pieces to cut at that final measurement as well. Cut your wood pieces. Our foam core is 16”w x 24”h, so we had two wood pieces at 16”w and two wood pieces at 22”h. (See photo for example.)

Step Three: Assemble your frame by laying our your wood pieces on top of the back side of the foam core. Lay your width pieces down first, they should stretch equally from edge to edge of the foam core at the top and the bottom. Then lay your height pieces down, they should meet up with the top and bottom pieces you already have and fill in the gap on the left and right sides of the foam core, completing the frame. Once you have everything as it should be, secure it in place with your loctite adhesive. (Photo example #1 below.)

Step Four: Place your fabric wrong side up and place your finished frame on top, wood side up, foam side down. Position it as you did when measuring in Step One. You should have your frame centered with at least 1” of extra fabric on all sides. (Photo example #2 above.)

Step Five: Using your staple gun to secure it, careful pull your fabric tight over the center of one side of your wood frame and staple it there. Do this for all four sides, stretching your fabric carefully and evenly and tightly across the frame, secure it with one staple. (Photo example #3 above.) You should now have your fabric secure to the frame. Proceed by stapling the sides the rest of the way, working from the stapled center point out toward the corners on all sides, leave the corners for last. When you are ready to finish the corners, tuck the excess fabric in on the sides, then pull the corner tightly toward the center of the foam core and staple to the wood frame. (Corner detail example below.)

Step Six: (Optional) You can add a picture hanger to the top of your frame to make hanging easier. 

Well there you have it! Stretched Canvas Art without a hammer, nails or mitre box. (Jason is pretty genius right?) Imagine the possibilities. I bet you’ll never overlook that awesome fabric pattern online or that cool vintage patterned table cloth you spotted again. Now you have a reason to take them home and make them into your own wall art!

The added bonus here, that I mentioned earlier already, is that you could use these as pin boards as well. In fact I have one above my desk that we made in similar fashion that I use as a french message board. We added two extra things for that, a layer of batting between the fabric and foam core, and ribbons interwoven on the front side.

Tell us what you think! What do have lying around just waiting to be made into canvas art?

Sneak Peek: Citrus Brunch Celebration

Good afternoon amazing people!

We are chomping at the bit to share with you our Citrus Bruch Celebration shoot from this past week. We have been so busy however we haven’t had time to write the full article to go with it. So for now, here are two tasty morsels to whet your dessert table appetite!

Doesn’t that cake look tasty? We thought so too. In fact, I just finished a piece of it for breakfast.

The recipe was superb and we will be sharing it with you next week as well. 

See you on the flip side!