An Impromptu Barbie Tea Party

My daughter Abbie has been asking to have a Barbie Tea Party 

since Christmas, when she acquired not one but SIX new Barbies!

So Friday night I decided at the last minute to have the party the

next afternoon.  That night we baked the mini meringues,  the

shortbread cookies and made the cucumber sandwiches. The 

next day we made the Pink Lemonade Mini Cakes! 

Phew!! Cooking Frenzy!! 

The menu consisted of mini meringues, cucumber sandwiches,

shortbread cookies, pink lemonade mini cakes and pink

lemonade to drink! Everything had to be tiny of course!

The meringues were really good - I piped the meringue

mixture over a mini chocolate chip for a little chocolate

bite!

Mini Meringues with a Chocolate Surprise

1 egg white

1/4 cup super fine sugar

(such as Domino Super fine sugar)

pinch of cream of tartar

food coloring

1/4 cup mini chocolate chips

colored sugar

Preheat oven to 200F.  Line a baking sheet with

parchment paper. Place a mini chocolate chip

every 2 inches on the baking sheet.

Beat egg white & cream of tartar until soft peaks form. 

Gradually add sugar and beat at medium high speed 

until you get stiff peaks and the sugar has dissolved.

Add food coloring and mix well.

Transfer mixture to a piping bag fitted with an

open star tip. Pipe tiny meringue shapes over each 

mini chocolate chip. Decorate with colored sugar. 

Bake for at least 1 hour or until crisp. Remove from 

oven, let cool and place.in an airtight container 

until ready to serve.

I kinda goofed when I topped the shortbread cookie flowers with

candy balls before baking! They melted....but the cookies were still

yummy! I just placed another candy ball over the melted area to

show how I wanted them to look. I think I could have pushed one

candy ball into the cookies just after baking - live & learn!

I thought the cookie shapes were pretty - I actually used a

fondant cutter that I had on hand!

Pink Piccadilly Shortbread

1 cup all purpose flour

1/4 cup rice flour (I use Bob's Red Mill)

1 stick salted butter (room temp)

1/4 cup extra fine granulated sugar - such as Dixie Crystals

Sprinkles or Nonpareils

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Sift the dry ingredients.

Into the bowl of a mixer with paddle attachment, 

add butter and sugar and mix until combined. 

Add flour mixture and mix until dough comes 

together. Add sprinkles or nonpareils if

desired.

Roll out dough to 1/4" thickness and

cut out cookies using desired cookie cutter.

Bake 14-15 minutes.

The pink lemonade mini cakes were super easy to make!

Using a store bought pound cake, just slice and cut out

pretty shapes using a cookie cutter, then pipe with a

store bought frosting! It really tasted much better than

I expected!

NO BAKE PINK LEMONADE MINI CAKES

1 Sarah Lee Poundcake

1 container ready made frosting 

(I used Pillsbury Pink Lemonade Frosting)

Slice poundcake into 1/2" slices. Using a

round or fluted cookie cutter, cut as many shapes

as you can from each slice. 

Fill a piping bag with the frosting and

pipe a pretty swirl on each cake round.

(I used my Wilton tip #30)

Put frosted cake rounds together by pairs

creating mini 2 tier cakes!

Instead of Tea, we opted for Pink Lemonade!

All the guests enjoying their sweets!

We used our sweet little mini tea set!

Abbie's favorite is always the meringues! 

Every tea party needs some tea sandwiches and

Abbie's favorite is Cucumber!  It's always better

to use seedless cucumbers if you can get them, but

I just used what I had in the fridge!

Lemon Cucumber Tea Sandwiches

*1 English cucumber, sliced 1/4" thick

 & drained on paper towels.

1 block cream cheese, softened

4 tbsp butter, softened

2 tbsp chives

1-2 tbsp lemon juice

zest of 1 lemons

Pepperidge Farm thinly sliced white bread

Combine all ingredients and spread some on slices of bread. 

Using a fluted cookie cutter, cut out as many shapes as you

can from each slice of bread. (I got 4)

Place a cucumber slice on top of half the bread shapes

and top with a second. Top your sandwich with an

Herb sprig if desired. 

*Tearoom Tip of the Day:  English Cucumbers

are the best for these tea sandwiches because

they are seedless. When you're cutting out

cucumber shapes with regular cucumbers,

your shapes may end up mostly seeds.

If you can't find English Cucumbers, just

use regular.

I hope we've inspired you with our little Barbie Tea! 

Today I'm joining Sandi over at Rose Chintz Cottage

for Tea Time Tuesday! 

Thanks so much for visiting!!