An elephant sized celebration - Our wee boy turns 2

This past weekend we celebrated our wee man's second birthday......I can't believe he is two already, where has the time gone? I guess it is true what they say though, that "time flies when you are having fun", and we have had trunk loads....

So many ideas were buzzing in my head when it came to planning a theme for his party, but when it came down to it there was really no debate. Our little man's favourite toy is his constant companion Ellie........a very unusual looking stuffed elephant. So an elephant theme it was to be.

First step was designing the invitation. I had settled on a soft colour palette of grey and lemon with a chevron pattern and balloons as added details. It is a double sided invitation with "Callum is 2" on the reverse. This was used as a poster backdrop for the dessert table as well.

Grey & Lemon - Elephant themed birthday invitation

I sent the invitation through to my super talented mum (Trudy) and she matched the dessert table elements to the invitation perfectly.

Some of the yummy desserts Trudy created for the day:

• Vanilla Elephant cupcakes - with vanilla butter cream and a fondant elephant topper.
• Absolutely GORGEOUS gingerbread elephant cookies (also as individual take home favours)
• Bite sized lemon curd tartlets
• A beautiful Lemon and Poppyseed birthday cake covered in lemon fondant with a cute elephant topper
• Passionfruit macarons

 ooops, macarons are not added to the table yet in this image.

 Elephant cupcakes, Gingerbread cookies, Lemon curd tartlets

 Lemon & poppyseed cake, Passionfruit Macarons, Vanilla cupcakes

 We also had a couple of take home party favours:

• Test Tube Pina-Colada jelly beans with custom labels
• Mini Lindt chocolate bars with custom wrapper
• Take home gingerbread cookies with custom bag topper that read "pack one in your trunk for the trundle home".

 Pina-colada jelly beans - take home favours with custom labelling

 Take home gingerbread cookies with custom bag topper

 Lindt chocolate bars with customised chevron wrapper

It was such a fun and beautiful day, Callum had a fabulous time and was spoilt rotten with very generous gifts from his doting Aunt's and Uncle's, family and friends.

Our wee boy enjoying his chocolate milk.

All of the printables from Callum's party are now available for purchase. Prices start from as little as $15 for the invitation. We can also provide a quote for a tailored cake and desserts. Our details are available on the contacts page.

All artwork and printables - Kylie, The Little Oak Tree

Styling and Photography - Kylie, The Little Oak Tree

Catering, Cake and Desserts - Trudy, The Little Oak Tree

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A Rustic Country Birthday Celebration

Last Saturday was the weekend of the big 30th country birthday party that we were styling. I had already created the invitations weeks earlier (you can read about that post here,) Trudy had completed the birthday cake which was designed as a cowboy hat, and everything was falling into place for the big day.

Sydney had been experiencing some gorgeous weather leading up to the day so I was relatively confident that the outdoor event we had planned would go off without a hitch......Hmm can you sense my overconfidence!!!! Even with all of our planning and detailing we couldn't control the weather, cue freezing temperatures, black clouds and howling wind ! Thankfully it didn't rain though.

Picture a huge bonfire with bales of hay for seating, roasting marshmallows, sun setting and people relaxing on the lawn, drink in hand.....NOT ! The wind was so fierce, if we attempted to light the fire I think we would have burnt down half the countryside.

The marquee where the dessert table was supposed to be nearly blew away ! We had designed the dessert table to sit beneath the white marquee with a sheer white cotton curtain backdrop, bare tree branches with glass ball votive candles were to be suspended above the table and tree logs were to be used as risers for the desserts. Given the horrible weather, this gorgeous design flew out the window, along with every other outdoor activity. Trudy and I quickly turned to plan B, the bonfire was canned, the dessert table was set up indoors, and the drink station was moved under the verandah of the house, but most disappointingly for us, we didn't get to see the full design come to life. Oh mother nature certainly is a cruel mistress.

So, the big lesson for us was to never take the weather for granted and to always have a rock solid plan B, for when everything turns pear shaped.

Here are a few shots of the day courtesy of my gorgeous photographer husband. Thanks babe x

We tied a manila tag with brown string to each of the bottles, the idea being that the guests wrote their name on the tag to "keep their glass for the night". If you have a large party of guests that don't know each other, the tags on the glass make it an easy reminder if a name slips their mind.

Some of the props we placed around the property to help enhance the "country" feel. Used wine barrels old steel wheels and the owners driza-bone and Akubra hat. The birthday boy is affectionately referred to as "tractor boy" this was captured in the invitations with the silhouette of the tractor removing trees from the property. The party wouldn't have been complete without the tractor, so we drove it on to the lawn and it worked well as a cheeky reference.

The drink station under the verandah.

The dessert table was moved inside due to the horrible weather. The cowboy hat cake was designed and created by Trudy, and was nearly picked up accidentally by an unsuspecting guest. The cake was a caramel mud cake with white chocolate ganache covered in fondant.

The Little Oak Tree designed and catered the dessert menu. The key ingredient was caramel, which we were told was a favourite of the birthday boy.

Featured on the table:

~ Lamingtons

~ Rocky Road

~ Chocolate Brownies

~ Caramel Slice

~ Anzac Biscuits

~ Fleur de sel Caramel Macarons

~ Fleur de sel Caramels

~ Belgian Chocolate Mousse w' whipped cream and caramel sauce

As I mentioned in a previous post we trialled a new recipe from the Miette cook book for the Fleur de Sel Caramels. These were such a success, we should have made two batches.

Vendor Credits

Glass beverage dispenser - The Little Big Company

Paper Straws - The Little Big Company

Mosser milk glass cake stand - Sweet Style

Invitations, printables and styling - The Little Oak Tree

Spring has sprung - Afternoon Tea Lemon Syrup Cake

Spring has well and truly sprung here in Oz, with the cherry blossom trees in our yard in full bloom, the scent of jasmine in the air and to top it off it was 27 degrees the other day, magic !

I was given a bag of lemons recently by my kind neighbour and my thoughts instantly turned to our family's favourite cake recipe, Lemon Syrup Cake. It is an old recipe from my grandmother and I have made it so many times now I think I could bake it in my sleep.

 Lemon Syrup Cake

This recipe is my 'go to' if I have to whip up a quick afternoon tea for unexpected guests, but 9 times out of 10 I bake it for the hubby and Callum who are both big fans.

You only need a couple of ingredients and most will be staples in your pantry or fridge.

Place the sugar, lemon rind and butter in your mixer

Cream the butter, sugar and lemon rind until light and fluffy

 

After beating your eggs into the butter mixture, fold in the milk and flour

 Our little man is always on hand to lick the spoon

Serve it hot out of the oven with a cup of tea and I promise you won't be disappointed ! My grandmother's recipe for Lemon Syrup Cake is posted below for you and your family to enjoy.

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Recipe - Lemon Syrup Cake

Ingredients:

125g butter, softened

1 1/2 cups of self raising flour sifted

1 cup caster sugar

Rind of one lemon finely grated

2 eggs

1/2 cup milk

Lemon Syrup

2 lemons juiced (approximately 1/3 cup)

1/2 cup caster sugar

Method

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees celsius. Grease and line a 7 inch springform cake tin or loaf pan.

Using your electric mixer, cream butter, 1 cup caster sugar and rind until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.

Add half the flour and half the milk to egg mixture and gently stir to combine, then fold in the remaining flour and milk. Spoon the mixture into your cake tin. Bake for around 45 to 50 minutes (depends if your oven is fan forced or not). Insert a skewer into the centre of the cake and make sure it comes out clean.

For the syrup, combine 1/2 cup caster sugar and juice of two lemons, use a fork to mix well. Pour the lemon syrup over the cake whilst it is still hot. I like to skewer the cake a couple of times to allow the syrup to really sink into the cake. Stand in the tin until cooled (I can't bear to wait this long and usually start cutting up the cake when it is still warm from the oven. Yum !)

all images - the little oak tree

Miette Cookbook

I have been coveting Miette's new cookbook ever since I heard about it over at Eat Drink Chic and more recently Bakerella posted the recipe for the Tomboy cake which is the cover image on the book.

The demand for the book has been so great that I was on a wait list with the Book Depository, but when they finally had it back in stock I quickly ordered my copy. I have been waiting with bated breath for my little package to arrive in the letterbox and today it finally came! yay, I love getting something special in the mail other than the dreaded bills.

Miette is a gorgeous little bakery in San Francisco and this is their first cookbook filled with their signature sweets. One of the things Miette is known for is their sweets of a smaller scale with a lot of their cakes only 6 inches.

Don't you just love how a new cookbook inspires you to rush back into the kitchen and start baking. Look how delightfully sweet this book is with it's scalloped edges.

Such big, beautiful, full colour images, certainly have me inspired. I love a cookbook that provides an image for every recipe, I like to know what the finished product is supposed to look like!

Check out the mouth watering Fleur de Sel Caramels. Yum yum, these will definitely be featuring on the dessert table of our upcoming 30th Country birthday party.

 Delicate pale pink meringues

Who could resist this raspberry tart?

I have been searching for a good lemon curd recipe, so this is on my to-do list.

But, first and foremost I am going to have a crack at the Tomboy cake. It just looks so cute and yummy, and at only 6 inches I won't feel half as guilty if I end up eating half the cake!

I am off to the kitchen to rattle some pots and pans, if you would like the recipe for the Tomboy cake you can find it here on Bakerella's site.

Have a lovely day.

Inspiration - Rustic Country 30th Birthday Party

Starting to pull together some ideas for an upcoming 30th birthday party to be held in the country. Loving some of these inspiring images.

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Love the rustic bunting and hay bales as chairs used in this party.

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Cute vintage packing boxes can have many uses.

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Casual drinks served in tubs and a cute and effective way to have flowers featured on each table. Thinking about using re-cycled tin cans as well tied with twine.

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Honey party favours. Straight from my brother-in-law's bee farm. Sweeeeeet!

A little polkadot

Definitely got to do some toffee apples - Haven't had one of these since I was really little, (for the big kid in us all?)

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Thinking about using the muslin bags as late night snack bags for when the party-goers get the munchies.

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When it comes to a party, you can never have enough bunting in my opinion.

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When the sun goes down, time to start toasting marshmallows.

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Love the idea of the hanging jars. This will look great hanging above the dessert table with bush flowers and tea light candles.

Can't wait to see how it will all come together.

Our little boy is just plane sweet - Up in the air party

We are super excited today as we have just realised that Callum's first birthday party has been chosen to be featured on Babyology, only the BEST website for all things hip and happening in the baby world.   

We have been so overwhelmed by the response to our wee man's first birthday party, thank you all for your lovely comments and feedback. We would love to say a big thank you to Nikki Tandy for featuring us on such a hip website, we really are chuffed !

Callum has been rather obsessed lately with pointing his finger and loves nothing more than pointing to the sky with an excited Oooh Oooh as he watches the planes flying high. Given that he is the first grandchild in the family and that we were also having a naming ceremony for him we wanted it to be a fun celebration for all.

When it came to a theme the idea was 'plane' simple (okay I promise that is the one and only pun). Pale blue, red, white and grey are a favourite colour combination of mine and once I had settled on the little plane the invitations came together really quickly.

The invites were printed on heavy white stock and the edges trimmed with a corner punch. The red envelopes carried through the flying plane motif with the plane stamp found at Kikki-K this was stamped with white ink and then the trailing dashes were individually hand drawn with a white paint pen.

The bamboo cake forks were stamped using a red ink pad and the words "here comes the aeroplane" were hand written on each fork using a light blue paint pen.

Trudy did a fantastic job on the cake. We only had about 30 people attend but we wanted to create height with the two tier cake to enable the silhouette design to really work. The bottom tier is a classic chocolate mud cake and the top tier is a Styrofoam cake dummy. Great idea if you want to save money on cake but still make it look good. 

I discussed with Trudy the idea of having a cake with a silhouette of Callum and myself with him pointing to the plane in the sky. Trudy ran with the idea and after taking a photo and modifying it to a silhouette she hand painted the image onto the cake. The little red plane was hand made out of fondant. I think the whole cake tied in nicely with the invitations and theme I had created.

The dessert table featured a lolly bar with take home lolly bags. The cute muslin drawstring bags were the perfect size for a scoop or two of the lollies and these were personalised with the little plane motif which was printed onto iron-on paper, individually cut out and ironed on. Blue, red and white lollies followed the theme.

Some of the yummy items we created were Vanilla Bean Panna Cotta with Raspberry Coulis. These were served in shot glasses and proved to be a big hit.

A little tip is to tie the spoons to the shot glasses before pouring in the panna cotta and coulis as it is quite a fiddly task and will send you bonkers. Keeping the spoons all to the same side and the ribbon tied at the same height creates a nice uniform effect when lined up together on the platter. The spoons can remain tied to the glasses and refrigerated until you want to serve.

We also wrapped mini Lindt chocolate bars with our own wrappers featuring the words "Our little boy is just plane sweet". These were also the perfect size to fit into the lolly bags.

Trudy made some moreish aeroplane gingerbread cookies covered in red fondant. These were sealed in zip lock bags with a thank-you tag that read "thanks for flying by".

Strawberry and Vanilla macarons were so popular they were snuffled up by the end of the day and the baby blue vanilla marshmallow was also a winner.

No party would be complete without a toast to the birthday boy with these cute little chocolate milk bottles.

Customised bunting printed on 200gsm card stock and then cut out and strung with twine.

The birthday boy cutting his cake and blowing out the candle.

Credits and suppliers:

Cotton muslin bags -Sharnel Dollar Designs

Bamboo cake forks - Donna Hay General Store

Milkglass Cake Stands - Sweet Style

Straws and Mini glass milk bottles - The Little Big Company

Lollies - Goody Goody Gumdrops

Printable Invitations, dessert table signage, lolly bags, thank you tags and bunting - The Little Oak Tree

Cake, cookies and catering - The Little Oak Tree

Photography - The Little Oak Tree

Please drop us an email at thelittleoaktree@exemail.com.au or leave us a comment if you would like any more info on any of the items featured in the party.