Showered with Pink and Gold and A Giveaway

When my niece sent a picture of her inspiration

colors for her wedding,

which were gold mercury glass and

blush pink, I knew I wanted to do her shower

as a sit down event.  I have never done a sit down

wedding shower before, but the guest list wasn't

huge and I knew we could fit them at my

extra long table; moving the living room furniture

aside and setting up tables in that space.

Fortunately, her style was girly elegance, so I had

so much fun creating this table for her.

The table was set in pinks and golds and sparkle.

Some fresh spring tulips in a gold crystal

vase were a beautiful centerpiece.

The plate stack consisted of gold glittered chargers,

pink plates, and gold rimmed irridescent white plates.

Since we had these spectacular dessert macarons, which I had

made, we decided to have dessert first (only if you wanted to!)

The Fresh Raspberry Dessert Macarons

were also touched with some gold, even

some real edible gold.

The desserts matched the plate stack color scheme.

Who wouldn't swoon when they came in and

were surprised by this table?

The table was laden with lots of other desserts too,

all part of the decor, of course!

Hubby was all dressed in black and served the ladies

from the kitchen.  Even the chips got dressed up in 

pretty pink polka dots for the party.

We served

Ham and Swiss Sliders

Raspberry Poppy Seed Mixed Green Salad with Strawberry Hearts

Sea Salt Potato Chips

along with

A Dessert Laden Table

After being seated, guests were given the option

of eating their main dessert first or not.

Almost everyone had no problem with diving

right into dessert!!  Loved it!!!

But the additional cookies, candies and 

chocolate covered strawberries disappeared

quickly after they lunched on their

main dish.

Here I am on the left with the bride-to-be and

her Aunt Vicki, who flew in and surprised her.

Her Grandmother made them matching aprons,

complete with names.  I always like the groom-to-be

to come at the end of the shower, so everyone can get

to meet him.

In honor of having all of the guests

eat their dessert first,

I am having a giveaway of my 

cookbook

drum roll...........

Eat Dessert First

A Purple Chocolat Home Cookbook

The cookbook contains over 280 pages, with full color

photos and recipes.

The recipes are a lifetime collection of our

family favorites, and many that I have blogged.

Anyone can enter!  

It is easy to ship a book anywhere

in the world!!

You just need to be a follower on my blog

and leave a comment telling me you would

love a copy of the cookbook.

You can leave a second comment if you

follow me on Pinterest,

And a third comment, if you follow

me on Facebook!

Wait - a fourth comment if you

follow me on Instagram -

jacquelinekayes

Just let me know, so that your comments

will count!

I just love giveaways and this

one is extra fun since it is

my very own cookbook.

The winner will be chosen randomly, with

the contest ending at midnight on Wednesday

March 9, 2016.  

You don't have to be a blogger to win, just

leave me your email address in your comment 

so that I can contact you.

I will be posting this with

Share Your Cup Thursday

Tablescapes Thursday

Feathered Nest Friday

Foodie Friday

Pink Saturday

The Scoop

Pink and Gold Blinged Strawberries

Blush pink and gold are hot, hot, hot 

for weddings this year.  Isn't it fun to 

see gold come back in fashion, design and

even food?

I gave a shower for my niece who is

getting married in March.  Her colors

are blush pink and gold so I had a lot

of fun with the table and the food.  I

will show you the table in my next post,

but I wanted to start with these gorgeous

strawberries.

Pink and Gold Blinged Stawberries

1 1/2 C. white chocolate discs (or use all pink discs)

3-4 red chocolate discs

1 quart strawberries, wiped clean with damp cloth, then dried

Gold dust, decorating sugar, dragees and edible gold spray

Place the discs in a microwave safe bowl.

Heat on high for 30 seconds and stir, whether

it looks like it needs it or not.  You don't want the

chocolate to scorch.  Stir and melt again for 30 seconds.

Continue to do this until there are just a few lumps, then

stir until the lumps are gone

Place a piece of parchment paper on a pan.  Dip the dried

strawberries one at a time into the chocolate, letting them

drip a little.  Carefully place on the parchment pan so that

you don't have a lot of excess chocolate under the berry - a

skirt.  Continue until you have coated about 30 berries.

They should be dry by now.

Place some of the remaining chocolate in a pastry

bag and just barely snip the end off.  Drizzle some

pink chocolate back and forth across the berry, one

at a time.  Then sprinkle the desired decoration on

the berry.  I do this over a plate for each different

sprinkle so that I can save any excess and place

it back in the container.  

Let cool and set up in the fridge, at least

15 minutes.  Serve the same day you make them.

and 

They were perfect for our table.

Here is a sneak peak, but you are going to have to wait

to see the rest of it.   I think she was blown away!

Hugs and Kisses until then!

Thanks for stopping by, hope you return often to

Purple Chocolat Home!

Summer Weddings

Summer is always busy with

weddings and showers and

fun celebrations.

I made these cookies for

a wedding shower for 

my dear friend Rylie.  I have

known her since she was two.  What

a lovely and loving person she is

so I wanted to make something special

for her wedding shower which was

held at my house.

When I had gone to Cookie Con this

spring I thought of buying cookie

cutters in collections, like

a wedding collection, a baby shower collection, etc.

So this collection has a wedding show, a diamond

ring, a couple of wedding dresses, and a temple.

I topped the cookie tier with a wedding

cake topped with a heart and a larger wedding

dress that my DIL Audra had given me.

These were take home gifts for the bride.

All of the cookies were covered in white

homemade fondant

flavored with almond

and then covered with pearlescent spray.

Little rose hearts adorned the dresses and pearls

adorned the shoes.

Then this week I was asked to make a couple

of wedding bouquets.

My niece had asked me to do it for her 

roommate.

I had only done my daughter's 

bridals photo bouquet 

so I was a little

nervous, but we bought a selection 

of flowers in the bride's colors and just

started playing with them.

I thought they turned out beautifully.

This was the bridal bouquet.

This was the toss bouquet.

They were finished off with a wide

wire ribbon and then smaller organza

ribbons with pearlized pins.

So Purple Chocolat Home

has been enjoying weddings!

Tool Shower - Wedding Fun for a Man

Have you ever heard of a tool shower for the

prospective groom?

My friends Ann and Sue Ellen have given 

 the men in our family a tool shower when

they have gotten married.

(From left to right Mike and Ann and Sue Ellen and Steve - 

ours hosts.)

I think this was a tradition in Ann's neighborhood

growing up and she has brought it to our neighborhood.

It is such a fun idea because the wedding focus always

tends to be on the bride - and a man does need some tools!

The theme was men's tools.  I just loved this little twig

tree decorated with tools.  Notice the runner on the counter?  Doesn't it look like peg board?

No, this wasn't dessert, this was a darling centerpiece for 

the table.

Magleby's sheet cake was for dessert.  Sue Ellen's 

family owns Magleby's restaurants - yes I have

very influential friends (if you are from around here

you know how wonderful Magleby's is, especially

their chocolate cake.)

There was also pasta with blackened chicken and

a choice of red or white sauce and these wonderful

cheesy rolls that Ann made.

They not only got spoiled with good food, 

but he got spoiled with fun tools. 

Why shouldn't the man have some fun 

with wedding preparations too.

                           The guy gets to invite his family and friends

to shower him with tools that he might need

-----

everything from hammers, to rakes, to screwdrivers

and more!

We chose to give him BBQ tools to go along

with his new gas grill that he got for his birthday.

Really a fun idea for your next wedding.  I bet nobody

will have been invited to a tool shower before.

Thank you to such wonderful friends

who would spoil us like this.

A little after that we just had our final shower

 for family

and as the Bride's Dress made of

cupcakes was such a hit at the neighborhood

shower, I thought

I would try to make one this time.

I made the cupcakes the day before

and covered them with plastic wrap to keep

them moist.

Then looking at a picture of the 

number of cupcakes for each row I

laid them out on a tray.  Then I frosted each

one using a 1M tip.

So easy to make!  I made the frosting and frosted them

in about half an hour.

Almond Frosting Recipe

1/2 C. softened butter (no substitute)

4 C. powdered sugar

pinch salt

1 1/2 tsp. almond flavoring

3-4 T. water

Place the butter, sugar, salt and flavoring in a mixing 

bowl with the whip attachment.  Add 3 T. water and

begin to beat the frosting.  Add more water if needed.

The amount of water differs greatly depending on the

humidity in your air.  Let the frosting beat about  5 min.

The frosting should be fluffy and creamy.  

Place it in a large pastry bag with the 1 M tip.  Begin

at the center and pipe a little mound then circle 

around and out until the whole cupcake is frosted.

Frost all the cupcakes and pipe in stars or an

extra row around the cupcake to fill in any gaps.

Use jewelry to decorate dress.  This was a

bejeweled ribbon I had and a brooch.

I will be posting with

Seasonal Sunday