Retro 20's Style Golden Glam Peacock Dessert Table

I feel the need to share this little tidbit of (mostly) useless information.  When I first discussed the idea of basing one of our Birds of a Feather themed holiday tables on the Peacock, I thought I was talking about the entire species of avian that is most associated with its bright colorful plumage…and NBC.  But low and behold, every time we say the word “Peacock” we are actually only talking about the male of the species. According to our go-to tool and bastion of truth (yes I’m talking about the interwebs) you would actually be referring to Peafowl.  I submit proof to you that the saying, “You learn something new every day.” is still pertinent.
These curtain panels, which are in our living room as I type this are the main reason why I wanted to do a Peaco…Peafowl themed dessert table.  When we first saw them on the Pier 1 website, we loved the look of them.  Most notably the royal blue hue, and the simple but elegant pattern of Peafowl feathers. When we arrived to purchase said curtain panels, we were surprised to see that they were actually a deep almost iridescent teal color. Surprised…yes, but still very happy, we purchased them anyway.  I kid you not, while researching links and pictures for content for this post, I re-read the description for the curtains…“shimmering blue-green base with peacock feather prints.” Blue-Green. Must have missed that part the first time around…funny how things turn out, huh?

A year later when we moved to our current location, we decided to put up the panels in our new living room. They were previously pulling duty as our master bathroom shower curtains.  We had an oil-rubbed bronze thing going on in there, and we really wanted something with a punch of color. These things practically assault your eyeballs, but in a good way. You’ll see.  I personally had ambitions of doing some DIY projects to help co-ordinate and tie-in some of our other décor in the living room with our “new” curtains.  That is when I went to our Lowes store in search of swatches to color match some paint.  I had 2 of our 3 children with me, who are infinitely experienced in distracting you from what you originally went to the store for in the first place. A skill a child comes pre-programmed with. Regardless, I believe I left with perfect matches. From the Valspar line of paint; 2009-2 Caramel Cream, and from the American Tradition by Valspar line; 5011-8 Classic Teal and 3010-3 Heraldic Gold.

 
2009-2 Caramel Cream5011-8 Classic Teal3010-3 Heraldic Gold

  Ok here it is, the low down on the deals we found! For the rest of the props, of what would become our interpretation of a Retro 20’s Golden Glam Peacock Dessert Table, I did the usual searching and scrounging at our regular haunts.  From Kroger, gold and teal jewel toned chargers ($1 each) that would serve as platters for some tasty treats.  At our local Wal-Mart Supercenter, I was able to score the 2nd (of 2 great fabric finds) bolt of fabric ($5) that was like a bazillion yards long.  I also found the purple and teal sheer and gold/white grosgrain ribbon from the crafts section at ($1 each).  Jo-Ann Fabrics yielded a styrofoam cone ($7) for the awesome Rolo centerpiece, small golden holiday bells ($1), and gold beaded garland ($1).  At Target’s dollar section I was able to find, almost hidden from me on the very bottom-most shelf, two golden colored metal buckets.  Great as is, but even better after just tweaking them a bit with some turqouise spray paint.

In what seems to be the case as of late, the majority of our props have come from an unusual location. At the start of the holiday season, Dollar Tree’s trim-a-tree décor was a literal treasure trove for our gold, teal and orange color scheme.  It was there we found our champagne flutes, artificial fruit (spray painted gold and teal), 2 styles of gold gift wrapping, clear fluted edge votive candle bowls, bronze candle holders (turned into stands) and shiny gold gift boxes.  Everything obviously only a dollar each there. For the wrapped Christmas gifts behind the center piece, we just used some empty cereal and fruit snack boxes.  I was also able to utilize some of our old stand-bys like my custom made DIY cake stands underneath the charges to give them some height and our white IKEA tray.  Even after all the crazy good finds I just mentioned, I think the best of the best (of the best) came from a wee tiny yard sale that we just happened upon, as most yard sale finds do.  As we sped by it, I spied with my little eye a small brass birdcage.  Price… $1 American.  You damn right…

For the star of the table, I had envisioned buying this Peacock from www.save-on-crafts.com. But after accompanying Heather to Charlotte, NC to deliver a cupcake order, she asked if I had ever been to a Garden Ridge store. I think my response was something like this…“A what?”  She “claimed” that I would love it, and mind you she claims a lot of things.  Refreshingly for a change, she was right. (Heather here, this make me LOL. I am right about these things most of the time, but I will leave this bit in here for the entertainment of you ladies out there who know how men can be…) We ended up browsing for almost two hours and purchasing ornaments, sprays, and birds for both Heather’s Cardinal & Birch table, as well as the bird for my Gold & Teal Peacock table.

For the printables, I had discussed a certain type of look I was going for with Heather.  Specifically I had wanted to incorporate the silhouette of a Peacock’s head and accompanying plumes on top, and stick it inside the general shape of a gilded birdcage. After doing some rough sketches on my idea pad, I sat down with Heather to bang something out in Adobe’s Illustrator program.  As you can see, we make a great team, as she was able to take my idea and translate it into a great set of party printables. (Our printables are available in our Etsy shop here.) When we had most of the major design elements finished we set out to find a font suitable for even the most discerning Peafowl.  I had suggested to use Riesling, since I took one look at it and thought it was very Gatsby-esque, and would just totally jive with my look.  We think our glitzy and glamorous take on the whole Peacock theme turned out stunning, and if you agree please let us know by leaving a comment, or even just saying so on our Facebook page!

Come back for Part Two of this post later in the week, where Ms. Heather will dish on the delish!  (HA! See what I did there?)

Holiday Baking Recipes & Our Cardinal and Birch Dessert Party Table

Good morning holiday bakers! As promised we are posting the three recipes from our Cardinal Red & Birch Bark Holiday Dessert Table this morning for you all bake to your hearts content. Today is Saturday and there is no time like the present to whip up a few tasty treats!

Each of these recipes are simple to do and would make a wonderful gift for someone on your holiday shopping list! The Hot Chocolate Sticks in particular keep for quite a while and would be perfect for your co-workers, neighbors and friends!

Hot Chocolate on a Stick

recipe via Whipperberry Blog

Chocolate Ganache Squares

• 1/2 cup of heavy cream
• 14 oz. can of sweetened condensed milk
• 3 cups of semisweet chocolate chips
• 1 teaspoon vanilla {or any other flavoring that you would like}

Directions:

1. Using a double boiler, (use a heat-safe bowl on top of a sauce pan) place 2-3 inches of water in the sauce pan.  Bring to a low boil and then turn down to low. Place bowl on top of sauce pan.
2. Heat the cream and the sweetened condensed milk in the bowl of the double boiler. Once warm add the chocolate and gently melt.
3. After about 10 minutes, whisk mixture until thick and smooth.  
4. Add vanilla or the flavoring of your choice. Whisk in the flavoring and pour into a parchment or foil lined 8x8 in. dish. Let sit overnight to slowly set up.  
5. Once set, turn out onto a clean surface and cut into 1 inch cubes or use a small circle cookie cutter to cut into rounds. {Note: it’s best to heat knife in hot water and wipe clean with each cut.} This is wonderful as is, but pair it will a fluffy homemade marshmallow and melt it into 4-8 ounces of warm milk…it’s divine!!

Handcrafted Marshmallows

• 3 packages of unflavored gelatin
• 1 cup of ice cold water (divided)
• 1 1/2 cups of granulated sugar
• 1 cup of light corn syrup
• 1/4 teaspoon of salt
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
• 1 cup of powdered sugar
• 1 cup of cornstarch
• non-stick spray

Directions:

1. Place gelatin into the bowl of a stand mixer along with 1/2 cup of the water. Have the whisk attachment close by.
2. In a small saucepan combine the remaining 1/2 cup water, granulated sugar, corn syrup and salt. Place over medium high heat, cover, and allow to cook for 3 to 4 minutes.
3. Uncover, clip a candy thermometer onto the side of the pan, and continue to cook until the mixture reaches 240 degrees F, approximately 7 to 8 minutes.
4. Once the mixture reaches temperature, immediately remove from heat.
5. Turn the mixer on low speed and, while running, slowly pour the sugar syrup down the side of the bowl into the gelatin mixture. Once you have added all of the syrup, increase the speed to high.
6. Continue to whip until the mixture becomes very thick and is lukewarm, approximately 12 to 15 minutes.
7. Add the vanilla (or other flavoring or coloring) during the last minute of whipping.

While the mixture is whipping prepare the pan as follows:

1. Combine the confectioners’ sugar and cornstarch in a small bowl. Lightly spray a 13 by 9-inch metal baking pan with nonstick cooking spray. Add the sugar and cornstarch mixture and move around to completely coat the bottom and sides of the pan.
2. Return the remaining mixture to the bowl for later use.
3. When ready, pour the mixture into the prepared pan, using a lightly oiled spatula for spreading evenly.
4. Dust the top with enough of the remaining sugar and cornstarch mixture to lightly cover. Reserve the rest for later.
5. Allow the marshmallows to sit uncovered for at least 4 hours and up to overnight.
6. Turn the marshmallows out onto a cutting board and cut into 1-inch squares using a pizza wheel dusted with the confectioners’ sugar mixture.

Assembly:

1. Once your ganache and marshmallows are set and cut into squares, place a ganache block on the bottom, a marshmallow on top, then skewer with a stick.
2. Wrap the sticks up with cellophane and store them in an air-tight container until ready to use.
3. If you plan to give them as gifts, you can use cellophane treat bags to wrap, then secure them with a ribbon or bakers twine and a festive holiday gift tag.
4. Our sticks lasted almost two weeks sealed in a container.

Usage:

To make your hot chocolate, heat your milk in a mug until it reaches a steaming temperature. Place a stick into the milk and let it sit for approx. 5 minutes. Stir with the stick until the marshmallow is frothy and the chocolate is completely mixed. Drink and enjoy :)

Raspberry Linzer Cookies

You will need:

1. One recipe Sugar Cookies, baked.
2. One jar Raspberry Preserves
3. Sifting Sugar
4. Round biscuit/cookie cutter and a smaller shaped cookie cutter for the hole in the center.

Sugar Cookies

recipe via Martha Stewart

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten
• 2 tablespoons brandy, or milk
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Whisk together flour, salt, and baking powder in a medium bowl; set aside.
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter and sugar; mix until light and fluffy.
3. With mixer running, add egg, brandy, and vanilla; mix until well combined.
4. With the mixer on low, slowly add reserved flour mixture. Mix until just combined.
5. Transfer dough to a work surface. Shape into 2 discs, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
6. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheets with nonstick baking mats or parchment paper; set aside.
7. On a lightly floured work surface, roll out dough to 1/8-inch thickness.Cut into desired shapes.
8. For the linzer cookies you will need both top and bottom cookies to sandwich together, your top cookie should also have a small shape cut out of the center. It is easier to do this step once you have transferred your cookies to the baking sheet.
9. Transfer to prepared baking sheets, leaving an inch in between. Leftover dough can be rolled and cut once more. Bake until lightly golden, about 10 minutes; do not allow to brown. Transfer to wire racks to cool.

Cookie Assembly:

1. Once the cookies are cool, take a bottom cookie and flip it so that the rough side is facing upwards. Spread the raspberry jam onto this side of the cookie and set aside. Do this for all the bottom halves.
2. Place all of the top cookie halves onto a baking sheet by themselves. Dust with powdered sugar until the tops are lightly coated and white.
3. Carefully place a top half cookie onto a bottom half cookie, being careful not to smudge your sugar dusting, and twist slightly to secure them together.
4. Due to the moist jam inside the cookie, these should be eaten within two days. Otherwise they may become a bit soft and fall apart.

Snowflake (Coconut) Cake

You will need:

Duncan Hines Butter Recipe Cake Mix, baked.
Duncan Hines Homestyle Vanilla Frosting (x2)
Coconut Cream Filling, prepared.
Angel Flake Sweetened Coconut

Recipe for Coconut Cream Filling

recipe via Martha Stewart

• 6 large egg yolks
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 6 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 3 cups milk
• 4 ounces (1 1/2 cups) sweetened angel-flake coconut
• 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• Unsalted butter, for wrap

Directions for Coconut Cream Filling:

1. Place egg yolks in a large bowl; whisk to combine; set bowl aside.
2. Combine sugar, cornstarch, and salt in a saucepan. Gradually whisk in milk. Cook, stirring, over medium heat until mixture thickens and comes to a boil, 10 to 12 minutes. Remove from heat.
3. Whisk 1/2 cup hot milk mixture into the reserved egg yolks to temper. Slowly pour warm yolks into the saucepan, stirring constantly. Cook slowly, stirring, over medium-low heat, until mixture begins to bubble, 5 to 6 minutes. Remove from heat. Stir in coconut and vanilla.
4. Transfer filling to a medium mixing bowl. Lightly butter a piece of plastic wrap, and lay it directly on top of filling to prevent a skin from forming. Chill until firm, at least 1 hour.

Recipe for Cake & Assembly

1. Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Arrange two racks in the center of the oven. Line the bottom of three 6-by-2-inch buttered round cake pans with parchment paper. Dust the bottom and the sides of the cake pans with flour, and tap out any excess.
2. Prepare Duncan Hines Butter Recipe cake mix as directed.
3. Divide the batter between the prepared cake pans. Bake until a cake tester inserted into the center of each cake comes out clean, rotating the pans in the oven, if needed, for even browning. Transfer cake pans to wire racks to cool, about 15 minutes. Remove cakes from pans, and let cool completely on racks, tops up.
4. To assemble, remove parchment paper from the bottoms of cakes. Split each layer in half horizontally with a serrated knife. Set aside the prettiest dome; it will be used for the final layer. Place another domed layer, dome side down, on the serving platter. Sprinkle 2 to 3 tablespoons of flaked coconut over the cake. Spread a generous 1/2 cup coconut-cream filling over coconut flakes. Repeat sprinkling and spreading process on the remaining layers until all but the reserved domed layer are used. Top cake with the reserved domed layer. Transfer cake to the refrigerator to firm for 1 hour.
5. Remove from the refrigerator, and frost the outside of cake with frosting. Sprinkle remaining coconut flakes all over cake while frosting is soft; do not refrigerate. Cake can be left out at room temperature for several days.

Sweet Parties: Holiday Cardinal Red & Birch Bark Dessert Table

It’s the most wonderful time of the year!  I think that song needs updating for what the holidays mean for most nowadays.  We need verses about stress, family, and holiday entertaining.  All joking aside, we have just hosted Thanksgiving again for the 3rd time in a row, and we absolutely loved it.  Yes, it might does stress us out, but we wouldn’t have it any other way.  We’re well on our way to starting a great family tradition.  Did you all have a nice time with family too? And while our new place is a tad on the smallish side (think Bilbo Baggins’ house in the Shire) and we didn’t have ample room to properly entertain, we’re going to show you the first of three ways you can do it up right for you and yours this holiday season, even in the tiniest of spaces!

Heather has been talking about ideas for our Christmas table design for quite some time, since before Halloween actually.  And once we got through a really busy 3 week time-period in October, we were left with some free time to brainstorm.  We knew that other designers had gotten the leg up on us and posted their tables on Amy Atlas’ blog as well as Hostess With The Mostess, and while they were all great tables, we wanted to take ours a different direction. And what better way to be different than having not one, but two, oh wait…this just in:  we are now adding a third table design!  Yeah that last one was pretty much my fault. (You make one off-handed comment and suddenly you’re committed!)  

Heather had a vision in her brain of what she wanted to base her design off of, and in that vision was a single scarlet tinged male cardinal.  The bird, not the Catholic senior ecclesiastical official.  We’ll have to save that inspiration for another article.  She also wanted to make sure that any other colors on the table were a bit more subdued, so as to give the cardinal center stage.  Birch also needed to be thrown in the mix somewhere.  And with those design elements known, it was then up to me to put it all together.  

It’s really interesting when you have no idea where to start on a project, that inspiration and actual items sometimes fall right into your lap.  Case in point, we were on our family vacation in Myrtle Beach when we happened upon a quaint Christmas store in Calabash, NC.  And this was no ordinary ornament store.  We had no idea what to expect going in.  I’d love to tell you about it, but sadly, St. Nick Nacks is an experience that Microsoft Word is unable to convey.  About the only thing that I can say is either click the link or go there for yourself, it is amazing.  We found an absolutely awesome deal on some Mercury glass hurricane holders. ($15 for the pair) As you can see here, when paired with the silver and scarlet red chargers we already had, they provided me with a most excellent foundation.  With the holders in hand, they gave us our initial score in the prop department for our first “Birds of a Feather” themed table: Cardinal Red & Birch Bark.

I happened to be in one of our favorite dollar stores, Dollar Tree, picking up some trash bags I believe, when I rounded the corner and found that they had started to put out their trim-a-tree merchandise.  It was almost as if the retail gods had read my mind and knew what I had needed for this table.  I found mini cardinals, faux snow and snowball ornaments, wrapping paper that was an exact what I was looking for, and inexpensive wide satin ribbon.  Oh my!  After purchasing all that, I still managed to forget to buy the trash bags.  Two words…true story.

Target is another place we love to look and as such, is a no brainer.  But it’s where in Target we like to look.  Located conveniently at the front of the store is Target’s version of a dollar store.  There are usually about 2 to 3 aisles that feature mostly standard dollar fare, but once in a while you’ll hit pay dirt.  There we found a galvanized tin star and container which I ended up painting a gloss white.  We also picked up some peppermint candy balls, and a spot on scarlet matched Pashmina shawl which I planned to use as a runner instead.

Now we didn’t do all this shopping for props on the same day, Heather would’ve objected to all that.  I know, it’s weird right, most ladies love to shop!?  Whatever we couldn’t find retail, we just plucked from Mother Nature.  In the midst of several days of bad weather, we lucked out one day with sunshine so Heather headed to her mother’s property to see if she could snag some birch branches.  The “good stuff” she said was a bit too far into the forest and hanging overtop a very large creek, so she had to settle for what was generally near the side of the road.  With her younger brother’s assistance she brought home some choice branches for us to create our backdrop, which she had envisioned as being in the middle of a birch forest after a fresh snow had fallen.  She was also able to bring home a branch thick enough that I was able to cut, with a mitre saw, cross section pieces to be used as our place card holders for food tags.  While also at her mother’s, we snagged a beautiful antique white hobnail milk glass compote dish, a family heirloom. With her permission of course, thanks Nana!  

One of our best finds had to be the curled bark Christmas tree which we found already covered in “ice and snow” at our favorite little decor store on the Outer Banks of NC. We were there for a breif 24 hours delivering cupcakes for a wedding and had just enough time to visit our favorite store The French Door and eat a delicious dinner at Kill Devil Grill. (If you haven’t been to either, you must on your next visit!) It was at the French Door that we found the tree, on clearance and marked down a whopping 75% from it’s original price. All in all it was around $7.50 with tax. Don’t you just love a good find? It made us giddy.

In addition to the fake snow we had picked up from Dollar Tree, we also made some of our own out of Epsom salt and baby powder.  The homemade snow is used on several (free!) pine cones which I had spray-painted the same glossy white.  I then let them dry for about an hour before I glazed them with spray adhesive and finished by coating them with the Epsom salt/baby power mix to give them that frosted look.

All of these disparate elements, along with a $5.00 five yard bolt of crushed silver fabric from Wal-Mart (clearance bin), a large rectangular white serving platter from Crate & Barrel (already owned), some awesome looking and tasting sweets (follow up post with recipes coming soon for those), and an equally impressive backdrop of birch branches covered generously with spray snow, combined to form a cozy and inviting dessert table experience.

Heather chiming in here! We wanted to come up with a few new ideas that were simple to make for our holiday tables. This time of year is so super busy for most of us, we want to make a nice presentation for our guests but we do not want any added stress with complex recipes! Being huge fans and users of the Pinterest platform we had been browsing and pin-ing dessert ideas for quite some time that not only looked great but were sure to taste great as well. We settled on several homemade items and a couple of ready made candies as well. We featured Raspberry Linzer Cookies, Snowflake (coconut) Cake, Hot Chocolate Sticks with Steamed Milk, Peppermints, Peppermint Tootsie Roll Pops and Handcrafted Marshmallows. While we really wanted to showcase some beautiful Hammond’s Ribbon Candy as well, we found that they would really stretch the budget for this table and ultimately decided against them, using the tootsie roll pops instead.

The Hot Chocolate Sticks were our favorite item on the table. They looked great and they were super functional for a party atmosphere. Placing one into a mug of hot milk, letting it melt for about 5 minutes, then stirring well with the stick, resulted in a perfect cup of hot chocolate with just the right amount of gooey marshmallow melted on top. None of the tiny marshmallow slipping down the hatch during a sip nonsense we’ve come to expect. This is a real hot chocolate experience, the kind you might imagine yourself enjoying on a moonlit sleigh ride, or a midnight train ride on the Polar Express! Is that stretching it a bit? Nah, we dream about these things this time of year right?

We will be following this post up with another very soon that features all of our recipes and information on how to make all of the homemade edibles on our table. You will be amazed at how simple it is to create delicious hand crafted marshmallows and rich chocolate ganache squares. Make sure to check back with us or go ahead an add us to your rss feed to be automatically updated when that post happens.

OMG, just realized Jason forgot to write about his birdhouse! He also found a cute little birdhouse in the craft section of our local Wal-Mart and brought it home for the table. It didn’t take long to decide that it was pretty plain-jane and needed a bit of sprucing up. He took it from drab to fab by first spray painting it with the same gloss white paint he used on everything else. Then he meticulously, in only the way that Jason can, cut and glued on each and every little shingle on the roof, using wide wood craft sticks, some hot glue and a utility knife. He also decided that birdhouses really should have a perch on the front and drilled a hole and added one in with a small wooden dowel cut to size.

Our last design element was our Cardinal Red & Birch Bark printable set. We came up with a simple and slightly contemporary look for them that features a tiny little cardinal, a hint of red border and lots of neutral gray and white. For a table where the cardinal red is prominent you really want everything else to blend without competing and that was the ultimate goal for this set. As always you can find it in our Etsy shop where we offer customization of your holiday party details!

We hope you have enjoyed this theme and feel inspired for the holidays just as much as we do! Come back again for the next installment of this party, recipes galore, and for our 2nd holiday table! You won’t want to miss all the glam, glitz and feathers of our teal and gold peacock spread!