little pots

I keep seeing this idea surface in a couple mediums.  Most recently I saw it in the Martha Stewart Weddings magazine for spring where they turned little potted plants into a dessert and on Jesi Haak Weddings used as table place cards.  A totally fresh idea for a wedding, regardless of season, little pots are a nice way to gift your guests and save on decor.

via jesi haak weddings

via charming weddings

easter cupcake ideas

In the spirit of the long weekend and the Easter holiday, here are some cupcake ideas that your friends and family will surely love!  Enjoy.

via recipes$us

via flickr

via mccormick

via utahlovescupcakes

via lynelles cakes

paper garlands

How cute are these paper garlands for your next house party or backyard event?  I saw the idea posted on blog, Creature Comforts, which originated from website, Project Wedding.  Any colour pallet would do, and the garland can be easily customized in length and texture for your entertaining needs.  For more info on how to do this project yourself, click here.

via creature comforts blog

via project wedding

cherry blossoms

Today is the first day of spring.  Happy spring.  I am spending the weekend out east in Cobourg (about an hour drive east of Toronto) relaxing with family, good food and lots of magazines! 

To celebrate the first day of spring, I wanted to write a post about one of my favourite flowers that put on a big show in spring, cherry blossoms.  Blooming anywhere from January in certain areas in Japan to May depending on climate, these delicate pink flowers are not to be missed.  I plan to coordinate one of my Asia trips to coincide with the cherry tree blossoms one of these years. 

In Toronto’s High Park, there is an annual cherry blossom walk late April- early May if you want to check out the spectacular colours and fragrances.  Vancouver also has a cherry blossom festival, with all the event information and activities here.  One last festival to check out is the National Cherry Blossom festival in Washington that starts the end of next week info here. 

black and white

If you are ever in a bind and don’t know which colours to pair together when hosting an event, you can never go wrong with a black and white colour theme.  Black and white are two shades that are so versatile, they can make an atmosphere have ten different feelings depending on how they are used.  For example, you could use black and white together to give a classic feel, something more elegant, or a modern feel.  Black and white especially look good if you are serving dessert and can incorporate the colours into the fare on the table.   Here are some interesting applications of black and white used in events/event tables.

via elizabeth ann designs

via camille styles

via camille styles

via polka dot bride

via bella cupcake couture

individual cheese boards

If an event budget is on your side, I think serving guests an individual cheese board along with dessert is a beautiful touch to an intimate, decadent event.  Just take a look at what was cooking over at Sunday Suppers.  They even had someone illustrate a cheese board card to let people know what they were eating.

via sunday suppers

A couple tidbits of info to remember when preparing a cheese board keeping in mind functionality and ease of use at a dinner party/wedding/event.  To prepare a cheese board, serving the cheese on a wooden board is best because metal, glass or ceramic surfaces can blunt your cheese knives.  If you don’t care about how sharp your cheese knives are, then let creativity reign and ignore recommendation #1.   There are a lot of great cheese boards on the market and I have even seen some home-made versions where people have cut their own boards out of logs. 

Here is an example of a slate board:

slate cheese board

 Here is a cool looking wooden board:

fruitwood cheese board via multi chic

Another thing to note is that the cheeses should be placed well apart, each with its own knife, slicer or spoon, to prevent cross flavouring.  That is the worst when cheese flavours mix.  The beautiful thing about serving cheese is dazzling the taste buds of your guests with different flavours/textures of cheese.  Think of the cheese board as a mini adventure!  Let the cheeses breathe with distance between each other.

For hard and semi hard cheeses, cheese knives with pronged ends for picking up the portions are useful (see examples of a pronged knife below). 

via fromaggio kitchen

Semisoft cheese can be cut in slivers with a continental cheese slicer (see examples below). 

via hive modern

via uffda shop

via william sonoma

Regardless of which knives you use and how you plate it, don’t forget to label your cheeses.  Thanks to international trade and a growing interest in gastronomy, there are probably hundreds of different types of cheeses at your disposal.  Be kind to your guests and take the guessing game out of eating cheese.  A simple tag with the name of the cheese will do or you can go for something more elaborate and include the country of origin, a bit about the cheese and likely pairings.