Soda Pop Festival

The Soda Pop Tasting Festival

was new to me.

A fun family-oriented afternoon

with music, food vendors, magic acts and

bouncy houses for the kids.

But of course the soda was the main attraction.

Volunteers stationed in 3 large tents

at the ready to pour

sodas for your tasting pleasure.

100 sodas to taste.

After sampling and giving the thumbs up,

or thumbs down, you could put together

your own 6 or 12 pack for purchase.

I gravitated to the fruity flavors,

limey Green River...

blueberry...pineapple...orange creme...

grapefruit.

Root Beer has always been one of my favorites

and there were several different brands

to taste and compare.

I also tried Chocolate Soda, yum :)

and my least favorite was

Bacon 

sorry,  for me bacon was a thumbs down.

I hope the Soda Pop Tasting Festival

makes its way to your town

sometime soon, maybe you'll find a 

new favorite.

Hugs,

My Cupcake Tower Tea Party

Welcome to another Tea Party.

Today we are celebrate Mom's 80th Birthday.
When I was growing up I remember her always playing
our living room piano, her accordian, later we aquired
and organ then a keyboard.  

She still occasionally plays for local special 
occasions and some Sundays at church.

So of course I had to make her a keyboard  cake.

 For the Open House Celebration,
I've prepared Cupcakes

I created a three tier stand 

using glass cake stands 

stacked on top of a

large spinning lazy susan style  

silver relish tray base.

I've baked up seven (7)

different flavors of cakes

for our guests enjoyment.

Set in pretty

shabby style cupcake liners.

Here are the strawberry cakes

with fresh strawberries whipped

into a buttercreme frosting

set in a Wilton pink tulip liner....

My chocolate Reeses peanut butter cakes

with chocolate fudge and

peanut butter frostings

garnished with a piece of a Reeses PB cup...

These are set in a black damask printed liner.

Carrot Cake with cream cheese frosting of course

and identified by

the little carrot I've piped on top...

The carrot cake cupcakes are set in

orange cupcake liners and then

a lace collar made from a

10 inch paper lace doily.

See how to make these lace collars

in a previous post here.

Betty Crocker makes the best

orange cake I've found

called Orangecicle.

I piped a flower on top of these

with an orange buttercreme

to which fresh orange zest was added

for a truly fresh flavor.

Then I added a little sparkle with

a sprinkle of yellow sugar.

The orange cakes are set in a 

pretty shabby green and polka dot

liner.

I decided to offer a little something

other than cake as well,

Cheesecake

the same recipe as a large cheesecake

but made into individual servings

with some graham cracker crust

spooned into the bottom of the cupcake cup

and topped with the cheesecake batter.

When cooled garnished with a spoonful of

canned cherry pie filling and a

dollop of creme cheese frosting piped along side.

Pineapple upside-down cupcakes...

turned out beautifully, 

much better than my last attempt here.

I wish I could find the post where I

learned how to cook the pineapple rings

in the brown sugar butter syrup and

then lay them on top of the cupcake

rather than bake them in the bottom

of the cupcake cup.  

Brilliant!!

This works a thousand times better.

If this was your post please contact

me so I can give you credit.

Lastly, the cake I am most proud of,

my Spumoni cakes

set in a purple tulip petal liner

and frosted with a pretty pistachio green

frosting to which a box of instant pistachio

pudding was added,

these cakes are made in three layers

bottom- milk chocolate cake with Nutella Hazelnut spread

center- cherry chip cake with chopped maraschino cherries

top- white cake tinted green, flavored with almond extract 

Garnished with a sprinkle of chopped salted pistachios.
See my Spumoni Layer Cake in another post here.

Which will you choose,

Oh, go ahead,

have another...

I'm so glad you could come today,
I do so enjoy your comments, and would
love to return the visit.

Please stop back soon.


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