Tuesday, January 20, 2015

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 container ready made 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!!




12 comments:

  1. Oh my, what a darling tea party! Everything looks amazing and delicious. I would love a cucumber sandwich and a mini cake. So many lovely ideas. Thank you for sharing with us and joining me for Tea Time this week. Have a beautiful day, Jina.

    Blessings,
    Sandi

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    1. Thanks so much Sandi!! I so appreciate your lovely blog! You're such an inspiration!!

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  2. Your sweet Abbie is blessed to have a Mama to make such a beautiful tea for her and her Barbie's!
    Lots of great ideas for a children's tea......or even a grown up girl's tea for that matter.

    Thank you for sharing it!
    Carolyn

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    1. Thanks so much for your kind words Carolyn!! The weather here had been so gloomy, and that was the first sunny day we had seen in ages so I took advantage of it! It was fun!

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  3. Cuter than CUTE!

    And you always take the most amazing pictures - you have the best blog! Love this, and what a sweet little girl you have there, what a little lady!

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    1. Aww!! Your comments always make me smile Michele!! I'm so glad you like the pictures! xo!!

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  4. What a fun, fun, fun party. The little tea treats look so good. And I loved what you did with the tapioca in the tea cup.

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    1. Thank you Beth!! It was fun and the recipes were easy to make! I'm so glad you like the Tapioca idea! Thanks for visiting!!

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  5. Very sweet tea party idea thank you. Very simple but pretty menu.

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  6. My first visit here. What a delightful party, sure to make any little girl -- or big girl! -- smile. Your little treats look delicious and so pretty!

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    1. I'm so glad that you stopped by Deborah!! It was fun to put together!!

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