Surprise Bridal Shower!

My youngest sister is getting married! And I was glad to be in town to attend her bridal shower. Actually, her wedding is not for another couple of months, so I'm pretty sure the fam arranged for her bridal shower to be held during the period when I was in town! Such love. So of course, I had to bake for the occasion! The working vacation continues!

Ombré teal buttercream floral wreath cake

So the plan was to have a surprise high tea party for the bridal shower, with all the food put together by my parents and my other sister. I got to make the sweet stuff, which included the cake, macarons, meringues and sugar cookie favours.

piña colada shells with rum dark chocolate ganache

I've always had an aversion to making white macarons, cuz they always end up getting a tan in the oven and come out looking a little brownish, instead of a nice bright white, not to mention that almonds are not exactly white to begin with. But after reading many tips online, the solution, simply, is to add white food colouring. And I don't mean a drop or two. It took like a good healthy couple of large squirts of Americolor Bright White to get these white macarons really white. Of course, adding so much liquid to macaron batter can make things a little tricky, and these babies had to rest for a good two hours to dry them out enough before baking (don't have the luxury of aircon at my parent's place). 

key lime-Godiva white chocolate ganache filling

Anyway, the macarons remained nice and white after baking. Hooray! They are Piña Colada macaron shells, filled with a Bacardi gold rum dark chocolate ganache that packs a healthy punch. In fact, my sis was around the night before, when I was making the ganache and I had her tasting it to her liking. (little did she know what it was gonna be used for!) The piña colada shells were flavoured using Sugar and Crumbs natural flavoured icing sugar from How Sweet is That. Makes adding flavour to macaron shells a breeze!

pretty feet!

I also made mint green-teal macarons (the bride's wedding colours!), with a decadent key lime-Godiva white chocolate liqueur filling. I didn't actually have a flavour plan when making these and I had to rummage through my dad's (pathetic) liquor stash to see what he had that would work! I found an unopened bottle of Godiva white chocolate liqueur that I had bought from way back when, and this was the perfect opportunity to finally use it. 

vanilla-chocolate chip surprise meringue roses

I actually decided the morning of the party to throw in some meringues to the table cuz I figured all I needed was ten minutes to whip them up and a couple hours to dry them out in the oven! I dyed the meringues this nice shade of mint green-teal and added a chocolate chip surprise underneath the vanilla meringue rosettes. 

bridal shower cookies

As for the cookies, these were definitely a labour of late night love, cuz hey, I was on vacation and out all day catching up with friends, with only the nights to bake! It was a good bonding session between my mom and I anyway, as we chatted while I iced these cookies and she played Bejewelled on her new iPad mini at 3 am. Haaa. 

lovin' that hint of glitter!

The heart shaped bridal cookies were decorated with royal icing and accented with a sprinkling of glittery disco dust. Too bad you can't really see the sparkle in the pics. 

bridal cookies, up close

I finally got to put my new engagement ring cookie cutter to good use and made these engagement ring cookies. I used the back of a large piping tip to cut the circle out of the middle. They are also decorated with white royal icing, which I was lazy to dye gold for the "metal" part of the ring. I painted gold on after the icing had dried, using Rolkem Super Gold mixed with a little dark rum (like I said, my dad has a pathetic liquor stash and there was no clear alcohol in the mix. Good thing the colour of the rum didn't matter in this case)

engagement ring cookies

Now, for the cake, I wanted to do something in the flavours of summer, so I went with a citrusy lemon cake with fresh blueberries folded into the batter, filled with luscious lemon curd & cream cheese Swiss meringue buttercream, and frosted with vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream.

luscious lemon curd filling

To decorate, the cake was frosted in ombré mint green-teal buttercream, and decorated with lots of buttercream flowers. Yes, I brought all of my piping tips and cake decorating tools with me!

working on that ombré teal buttercream coat

Arranged in Korean floral buttercream wreath style, the buttercream flowers on the cake included simple roses, english & open roses, ranunculus, closed and open peonies, chrysanthemums, babies breath and flower buds. I just played around with the different shades of buttercream to get a good mix on the cake. I piped the flowers on pieces of parchment paper, then chilled them before arranging them on the cake cuz I forgot to bring my flower lifting scissors. 

the finished buttercream wreath!

To add a touch of elegance (and hint to the cake flavour), the cake was accented with Rolkem Super Gold-dusted fresh blueberries. Love the way it came out!

high tea spread!

My sister was shocked to see our family. friends and even her soon-to-be inlaws greeting her with a loud SURPRISE! when we lead her into the room, after a blind-folded car-ride and well-fabricated, on-the-spot lies about being late for reservations at a fancy restaurant and having to walk really far to get free parking....

bridal shower cookie favours

And her eyes lit up even wider after she saw the high tea spread and all the decorations! She saw the cake and said, "ooooh I want my wedding cake to be just like that!!" (and yes, guess who is making her wedding cake.)

melt-in-your-mouth meringues

Oh I forgot to mention that I painted some of the white macaron shells gold and filled them with a dark chocolate chili ganache, to add more colours to the mix. I really should've dyed the shells with gold food gel too but I didn't want to go and buy another bottle of food colouring. 

fancy gold, teal & white macarons

The buttercream floral wreath cake looks really great in the natural lighting. I was able to achieve the white buttercream by using a whiter butter and adding white food colouring. I'm so glad that my sister and the other guests were very happy with the cake!

ombre teal buttercream floral wreath cake

view from the top!

And let's not forget to mention my signature spinach dip on the table, thanks to my many years working as a Deli clerk at Safeway! This is always a crowd pleaser at any party and is my favourite item to contribute at a potluck ;)

deee-lish spinach dip

The bridal shower went well! Lots of food, fun bridal shower games, like making toilet paper dresses and a "how well do you know the bride and groom" quiz, and watching the bride open up here presents! Oh she got plenty of new "pyjamas", which, I think, is more the for groom! Haaaaa!! Can't wait for the wedding, little sister! 

luscious lemon-blueberry layers

close up of this buttercream bloom

Congrats, bride to be!!