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Monday, September 22, 2014

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,





Saturday, September 13, 2014

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


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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