Latest Inspiration (starts at home)

Well I think I've slowed down after Christmas. No Dessert tables in a hurry. I'm having a break whilst I work on my next big project.

In the meantime, I've decided to redecorate our home. Out with the old and in with the new I say. Theres no better therapy than redecorating.

I thought I'd share some of my latest inspirations in our home.

• Off course I had to get Angel- Rose some Easter Eggs (as promised from last Easter). She hadn't forgotten that last Easter I had a bowl full of Easter Eggs. Well actually it wasn't full for long and this year I think I'll need to buy the eggs by the truck load at the rate she is going.

• My new bookshelf. I found this bookshelf at no other than a Chemist in Riverwood. I instantly fell in love with it and had to have it for my cake stands.

• My beautiful flowers on the mushroom stools look absolutely devine.

• This next inspiration is not your average birdcage you see in the shops these days. Its tall and very vintage looking. Perfect match to my new bookshelf. I found it in one of the most amazing stores in Leura in the Blue Mountains... Love, love, love it.

•  Whilst in Leura I stumbled on the most important word in life "LOVE". Off course I had to buy it. Who better to stick this next to than Archangel Michael the protector of LOVE.

Hope you guys all enjoyed viewing my latest inspirations.

Natalie xx







My Pre-Christmas Party Dessert Table (18/12/2011)

As all our family and close friends were celebrating Christmas at different locations, I decided to have a pre-Christmas party for all our loved ones and friends.

So just two weeks prior to the party I started my planning. I had to come up with a dinner menu and off course a dessert table.

The colour palette I chose was red and white. I thought I had to stick to a traditional colour palette as I didn't have much time to source everything otherwise.

Not much time and twenty five guests arriving. Where do I start.

I had to be creative while at the same time use the resources available to me.

I started by designing my little white twig tree. This was to be a feature on the table in the middle of the cake pops. The cake pops were white chocolate mud with red candy canes on each of them.

The main feature off course was the snow flake meringue Christmas tree which I made. I used a foam tree sculpture as the base and then used royal icing to attach the meringues. I then added silver cauhous in the gaps. This was the biggest challenge for me as I’ve never attempted to make something like this. I displayed this on a red shiny box which I used as the stand.

The cupcakes were designed by me. I had Cupcake Dolly make the base of the cupcakes and the buttercream swirls. I then decided to add Persian fairy floss on top of the cupcakes in the shape of a white Christmas tree with red and white dusting.

The cookies were white snowflakes with red patterns on them. I displayed these on my beautiful diamante stand alongside some plain gingerbread and Christmas tree cookies.

The chocolate wrappers were designed by myself using the same paper as the front of the table. I included this in the centre of the table in front of ‘JOY’.  ‘JOY’ was my main statement for the night as one word summarises what Christmas is to me. It’s ‘JOY’ in having all my family and friends together.

I had to include Pannacotta. I needed to make sure they fit in the theme so I made white Pannacotta shots with a raspberry on each one. I displayed these on a three tired diamante cupcake stand.

In line with the theme I made Santa’s Jelly Belly Mascarpone. Off course we all know that Santa has a jelly belly but could it be because of all the delicious mascarpone Mrs Claus makes for him.

As I had a few children at my Christmas party I included a section of the table for the children and called it Santa’s Candy Buffett. This included four beautiful jars of Santa Pops, Christmas Tree Candy, White Chocolate Bark ( which I made with dried cranberries and pistachios and packaged) and Candy Canes.

Each family in attendance left with a jar of red, white and green jelly beans along with some white chocolate bark. The Printables on these favors were from The Candy Tree.

The Lanterns hanging near the merry Christmas sign in the background resembled Snow Balls falling from the sky.

I have included a night shot of the table with the red lanterns lit up. This looked absolutely amazing at night.

Overall, everyone had a great night.

I hope everybody had a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New year.

Thank you Amy Atlas for your feature on thes dessert table. I truly feel honoured to be on your blog.

It was really the best Christmas present I could have asked for.

Natalie Zakhem

Credits:

Styling, Meringue Tree, Cake Pops, White Chocolate Bark, Pannacotta, Santa's Jelly Belly Mascarpone, Chocolate Wrappers and Photography, - Natalie Zakhem

Printables- The Candy Tree for the favors and Pixels Boutique for the Dessert Labels

Cupcake Base and Cookies- Cupcake Dolly

Candy Jars- Sweet Style

Bunting, Lanterns and Twig Tree- Typo

Red and White Runner- Le Petite Party

Jacques' Archangel Michael Themed 30th Birthday Party (12/11/2011)

My husband was turning 30 and had one request 'no party... Can we just go away for the weekend, you me and Angel-Rose' our three year old daughter. I agreed as I need any excuse for a holiday. But what he didn't know was that I'd organized for twenty of our family and friends to come away with us also. And to top it off I organized for a surprise birthday party while we were away.

What a shame he did end up finding out about his surprise birthday party however, he loved every little detail that went into it.

The birthday party was held at The Wharf Seafood Restaurant Nelson Bays function room. My inspiration for the theme was my husbands true belief in Archangel Michael his protector. Archangel Michael is considered to be the protector of love. My husband keeps his statue on his bedside.

And what a theme to work with. Blissfully Sweet created most of the desserts for my dessert table. And as usual she did an amazing job.

The color choice for the dessert table was purple (Archangel Michael's color), white and black.

The cake was a 2D replica of my husbands Archangel Michael statue which he keeps on his bedside and which I ended up featuring on the table as it means the world to him. The cake was white chocolate and raspberry mud with white chocolate ganach.

The pannacottas were placed inside pillar candle holders. A small candle was placed inside each pannacotta to make them resemble real candles.

The cookies were white heart angel wings as Archangel Michael is the protector of love.

Cake pops were featured along with the Archangel Michael statue and had silver dusting on top.

Chocolates had Archangel Michael wrapping with diamonds along his chest to symbolize his love radiating towards us.

I also included Rock Candy as they looked like crystal rocks with protection power which were obtained from Sweet Style. They were displayed alongside his star sign (Scorpio) statue.

The bomboniere was designed and made by myself. The Archangel Michael mini statues were obtained from the Benedict shop. I made the thankyou tags and attached a purple flower to each box and two chocolate truffles.

All labels were created by myself.

What a beautiful event to celebrate my husbands 30th birthday. He loved everything about it.

Thank you archangel Michael for your continued protection and love.

This event was actually the hardest event for me to style as I had no idea what the restaurant looked like besides what I saw on the internet. Nor did I know that the amount of glare coming through the windows was going to be so stong.

Oh well, I did the best I could given the circumstances. I guess each event has its learning points. This event proved this.

I also really should have invested in a SLR camera at this point in time.

Leon's Vintage Inspired Circus Themed Christening

It all started the moment my sister asked me to be godmother to my beautiful nephew Leon. I had missed out being godmother to her first son Anthony as she had christened him overseas. I was so excited and couldn't help overtaking the organizing of the whole event.

My inspiration came when I was scrolling through Blissfully Sweet's website and I stumbled across her amazing circus themed cake which she had previously created for a christening. I informed my sister that she basically had no choice but to have a circus themed christening.

Numerous hours were spent researching and coming up with ideas and inspiration and this was my final result. It was my first attempt at a dessert table.

 As the function was held at the Doltone House Sylvania in Sydney Australia they provided dessert as part of the menu,as a result i didn't have to incorporate any desserts for the adults. Just plenty of yummy treats for the children.

To start of with the invites were ordered of zazzle.com. However, it was 11th of October and the invites were yet to arrive. As a result my sister came up with this invite based on the bomboniere thank you tags which were created by le petit party.

 The cake was a circus tent with two circus clowns and three circus animals. A flag at the centre of the circus tent displayed a cross to symbolise the christening. The cupcakes were circus animals and clown faces in 3D. There were also butter cream swirl cupcakes. All cakes were made by Blissfully Sweet (absolutely amazing work).

 The candy jars were obtained from Sweet Style and were filled with mixed candy, marshmallows and gumballs.

 The popcorn machine and the fairy floss machine had to be made features on this table. I found these at Kmart (little did I expect to find such amazing products there). I saw them and fell in love with their vintage style and thought they would go perfectly as a feature on the table.

I thought that the circus theme would be incomplete without sodas. Considering that  I didn't have to provide the children with drinks, I created a new non drinkable but eatable 'smartie soda'.

The labels were all obtained from The Candy Tree.

The entrance sign was designed and made by myself.

The bomboniere were gumball machines with a thank you tag designed and printed by le petit party. I placed a cross keyring inside each gumball machine to symbalise the christening.

I created the simple placecards for all guests and had the chair covers the same color as the table centerpiece balloons.

The children enjoyed two hours of entertainment from two clowns.

As it happened to be my daughters third birthday on the same day we cut a cake for her also and had Mickey and Minnie mouse both join us for the cutting of the cake. Her cake was a little 5 inch cake with Mickey and Minnie mouse on top (made by Blissfully Sweet).

The only set back on the day I have to say was my camera. I really should have invested in a SLR camera before the event. I guess you only learn the hard way. xx

The entire event was styled and organised by myself.