Cheese Wedding Cake

This weekend in the Toronto Star (newspaper) there was a great article in the Living section about alternatives to wedding cakes called “Let’s Hear Three Tiers for Cheese.”

While the macaron tower, croquembouche and bake sale smorgasbord were all contenders for cake alternatives, I thought the most interesting alternative was a wedding cake made entirely of cheese wheels.  The cheese cake featured in the article was by Afrim Pristine of the Cheese Boutique.  He has a blog dedicated to cheese and other gourmet delicacies that foodies would enjoy reading.  ( You can find Afrim’s blog here.)

picture from the article (photo via cheese boutique)

There is a nice explanation about why a couple would choose to have a cake made of cheese instead of choosing one of sugar on the Norbiton Cheese website.  From my perliminary research apparently cheese wedding cakes are quite popular in the UK seeing that most of the references I found are coming from across the Atlantic.

photo via norbiton cheese

Cupcake Crawl in Toronto July 4

FYI all you cupcake enthusiasts.

There is a cupcake crawl taking place tomorrow in Toronto starting in Leslieville at 12:30pm going until 5pm and then on to Sneeky Dee’s on College.

For more information, you can get details on Yelp.ca here or on Sweet Me Up here.

Office Party Anyone?

I was reading blog, Aphrochic today and found a post about a stunning office/loft in Manhattan that belongs to designer, Michelle Smith of the clothing line, Milly.

When I saw the space I immediately thought to myself of all the event space potential Michelle’s office has!  The white walls and conversation piece furniture make an excellent venue for a cocktail party.  I also like the fact that there are so many windows in the unit so the natural light just streams in to the space.

I hope Michelle has taken advantage of her space to celebrate her brand successes-

If you want to know more about designer, Michelle Smith, there is a good interview on blog, All the Best , that I would recommend taking a glance at.

Office Pics:

Michelle Smith Studio via Aphor Chic blog

Michelle Smith Studio photo via Aphrochic blog

A Colourful Tea Salon

I have so much to catch up on about events.  The past two weeks have been crazy on my end and I look forward to having some time this week to bang out a couple posts on ideas/experiences about which I have made mental notes to write about.

I will be in New York next month to visit a friend and to take another yoga teacher training course and I am already making a list (long) of all the places I want to visit.

I have a couple tea shops I regularly visit when I am in New York, Alice’s Tea Cup, being my number one favourite- especially their brunch, granola and scones.  However, a new stop on my list this trip will be the Tracy Stern Tea Salon .  I purchased her cookbook  titled “Tea Party” last year and have enjoyed some of the recipes but I would like the entire brand experience, so I will be popping in for some tea at the store. 

I found a couple photos of her tea store in New York and the colour, design, tea and candy displays already have giddy with excitement (ahh the simple pleasures in life).

(photo via Yelp.com- Cynthia T.)

Setting the Table Emily Post Style

Ever find yourself scratching your head when setting up for a dinner party which side the fork and the spoon go on?Well if you know as much that forks and spoons never go together on the same side of the plate- you are doing alright.   

However, from time to time it is nice to have a visual refresher to reference for those important entertaining moments we have in our lives.  So, for all your entertaining needs, I have found three diagrams that will take you from a casual dinner with friends, to dinner with the in-laws and royalty from the Emily Post Institute, aka the ultimate reference for anything to do with etiquette.

Pre-dating Kate Spade’s books on Manners came Emily Post’s 1922 book titled Etiquette in Society, Business, Politics and Home  which can be found on Amazon.com here.  Emily Post, originally from Baltimore, married and moved to New York in the early 1900s where she developed her voice and career writing about architecture, interior design, and etiquette.  Wildly popular, her book Etiquette became and authority on how to behave in society like a lady.  Ms. Post’s work continues today post mortem via the Emily Post Institute by her great grandson’s wife, Peggy Post.

Back to table setting-keep these handy and you’ll never go wrong:

(via emily post institute)

Informal Table Setting (via Emily Post Institute)

Formal Table Setting (for Royalty/In-laws) via Emily Post

myhkwedding.com

I lived in Hong Kong for a year and there is no shortage of parties and event resources in the city.

Should you ever have the opportunity to plan a wedding or party in the city that never sleeps, I would recommend checking out www.myhkwedding.com 

The site has tones of resources on flowers, venues, dresses, gifts and anything else you should need to pull off a successful party.

I would recommend looking at the florals from Kim Chan Flowers and Gary Kwok Flowers.