An Autumn Engagement party - Purple and Green Theme

We recently had the pleasure of styling an engagement party dessert table for a gorgeous young couple. The brief included the use of the colours green and purple as well as a unique request for the cake. The location was an outdoor marquee in the country during Autumn, so I put together an inspiration board for them which helps to visualise their ideas and to make sure we are all in agreement on styling and colour choices. 

It was an evening event and the roof of the marquee was filled with little fairy lights. Purple lanterns in different shades hung above the dessert table. (unfortunately we were so busy putting together the finishing touches  that we didn't get any pics in time)

The bride-to-be wanted to have a cake in the form of a ring box on a pillow so Trudy started planning how it might come together.

The couple purchased their engagement ring from Gregory Jewellers and Trudy recreated a stylized version of the ring box nestled on a soft mauve pillow complete with tassels. They had requested a cherry ripe mud cake with dark chocolate ganache. Every part of the cake was edible other than the diamante jewels on the tassels. 

The dessert table featured a purple and green candy bar with bon-petit, jelly beans, rock candy and smarties.

Beautiful paper by Cristina Re (Indigo Tree) with it's autumn inspired colours was used throughout the table as lining for the platters, personalised chocolate bar wrappers and buffet/candy labels.

The personalised chocolate bars were a bit of a play on the whole sweet theme with the words "Amy & Justin, love is sweet" featuring on each chocolate. These were offered as a take home treat along with a lolly bag that the guests could fill from the candy bar.

The table also featured vanilla bean panna cotta with blueberry coulis served in a shot glass and blackberry macarons.

We had so much fun styling this table and creating all the different elements. A big thanks has to go to the lovely couple, Amy and Justin for choosing the Little Oak Tree to cater this special occasion. Congratulations on your engagement !

Marshmallow - soft, light and fluffy - what's not to love?

I have been playing around with a marshmallow recipe recently with the view of including it as a menu option on our dessert tables.

This one is classic vanilla with a touch of Wintons food colouring and it is finished off with edible rose petals scattered over the top. After cutting it up, I placed it on a white milk-glass cake stand and popped a glass bell dome over the top. I found that the bell dome trapped the scent of the rose petals inside and it actually infused the marshmallow with the soft flavour of rose....nice side effect? 

If you haven't tried making home made marshmallow before, why not give it a go? It is really quite easy and you don't even need to use a sugar thermometer. Once you have tasted it, you will never eat the store bought variety again.

Go easy on the food colouring, if you don't add enough, you can always add more gradually. But if you are to heavy handed to begin with, that soft pink colour you are hoping for will quickly become fuschia!

Vanilla Marshmallow

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups caster sugar
• 2 tablespoons gelatine
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
• Icing mixture to dust with 

Method

1. Grease and line a 26cm slice or lamington tin, allowing baking paper to hang over sides. (If you can't find a 26cm tin, one as close to this size as possible will also be fine)
2. Place the sugar in a saucepan, add 2/3 cup hot water and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until sugar dissolves and syrup is clear.
3. Place gelatine in a bowl, pour over 2/3 cup cold water and use a hand whisk to combine. Pour mixture into hot sugar syrup and cook, stirring constantly, until the gelatine has dissolved and the mixture is clear. Set aside to cool to room temperature.
4. Pour cooled mixture into an electric mixer and using the beater attachment, place the mixer on high and beat for 5-10 minutes or until the mixture is very thick. Add the vanilla and your food colour and beat to combine.
5. Pour into the prepared pan, smooth the top with a spatula or butter knife and leave in a cool place to set. Once set (about 1 hour) turn out of the pan and use a wet knife to cut into squares.
6. Dust the marshmallow with the icing sugar and place on a nice plate or cake stand.

Tip: A little trick is to get a plastic bag (a zip lock bag works brilliantly) put your icing mixture in and then pop a couple of pieces of the marshmallow in. Zip up the bag and very gently toss it around. This will thoroughly coat the marshmallow.

The marshmallow will keep for about a day, so it is best to try and make it on the day you want to serve it as it will slowly start to  turn gooey with the humidity in the air.

Now you just have to try and stop yourself from eating more than one piece. 

Enjoy !

Planting the seed of "The little oak tree"

Hello there, it is so lovely to see you, thanks for dropping by.

What are we doing here in blog-land you might ask? Well after much cajoling, gentle nudging and all round encouragement from our lovely friends and family, we have finally decided to jump in the deep end and start up a little event planning business, yikes!

We have named our little venture "The Little Oak Tree", and our belief is we can "grow your event with you".

The oak tree is a symbol of the Anderson clan (Kylie's family name) and we like the idea of our little oak tree beginning as something small before growing into a beautiful strong oak.

The Little Oak Tree will offer event planning and design as well as gorgeous dessert tables, cakes, cookies and lots more goodies.

This blog will be a space for us to post photos and details from some of our events, as well as thoughts about our life and loves and images and ideas that inspire us.

We hope you can join us on our journey, may this be the beginning of something wonderful. Oh, and if you are starting to think about your next big event, don't forget to contact us at thelittleoaktree@exemail.com.au