Showing posts with label our birthday. Show all posts
Showing posts with label our birthday. Show all posts

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

{momofuku milk bar birthday cake}





I have never been to Momofuku Milk Bar in NYC, but I have certainly dreamt about it ever since I received this book for Christmas.  Somehow I have had this book in my possession for almost a year without trying a single recipe from it and with our birthdays around the corner I decided I simply had to try one of the cake recipes.  I decided to start out with the infamous birthday cake recipe and immediately got going about ordering or locating all the ingredients and tools it requires.  The recipe doesn't require anything too crazy, but it did need some ingredients we don't normally have like citric acid or glucose as well as some tools such a cake cutter and acetate sheets.

The recipe is pretty straight forward and the most time consuming part is simply measuring out all the ingredients!  While the assembly looks difficult using acetate sheets to "build" the layers in, it is actually super easy- especially after you watch this video!  The best part of this cake is that you can make it up to two weeks ahead of time and store it in the freezer.

Oh and we haven't talked about the taste....it's amazing. I wish I had a better word to describe it, but amazing is really the most perfect word for it.  The nostalgic funfetti taste is spot on, but with an added richness and salty crunch from the "crumbs" added in to each layer plus the "milk soak" you add to each cake layer during assembly makes the texture so moist and decadent!

You can see the whole recipe here, but you should really just buy the book!



{cake crumb ready to go in the oven}


{wondering about those awesome sparkler candles?  you can buy em right here}




Friday, September 20, 2013

{28}



This Friday I do not have the regular weekly cocktail and "what i loved" posts for you.  Instead, I have a little sneak peek at the birthday dinner we will be celebrating with tonight as today is my birthday and Chris' birthday is this coming Monday.  While we normally like to go out all out for our birthdays (like this party or this 15 person dinner), we decided to keep it low key this year with a simple dinner party for 6.  I baked a very special birthday cake for the occasion and I promise to share the results next week!

 Have a wonderful weekend and if you are in the Chicago area don't forget to RSVP to the little soiree with Nordstrom and me next week right here


Wednesday, September 26, 2012

{a birthday cocktail party}


Last night we hosted a little cocktail party get together to celebrate our birthdays.  This was the first large gathering we have had at our new place in Chicago and I decided to keep it simple rather than going all out with a theme.  Inspired by the fun mix of colors from this photo, I created some simple decorations using a mix of tissue paper I already had laying around.  A few strands of garland and some confetti was all this party needed to turn it from a regular get-together into a birthday celebration, along with a spread  of savory and sweet snacks.  And to top it all off (because its not a cocktail party without alcohol) we made big batch of whiskey punch and diy champagne cocktail set up!


 {our dining room set up moved around slightly, instructions for garland here}


 {a party staple- our party sized recipe version here. every time we make this punch I bet Chris that there is no way our guests will finish it and I am consistently proven wrong as this was drained clean by the end of the night even though it had 3 full handles of whiskey in it!}


{champagne cocktail set up}

 {my favorite champagne bottle bucket from here}



{recipe for this party favorite is right here

{I did not make these from scratch (no one has that kind of time)-
 they are available in the freezer aisle of target}


 {easiest recipe to make. ever. its only three ingredients and your friends will be so impressed- recipe here}


{funfetti-obviously. this is a birthday party after all.}

{mini red velvet}