A Red Velvet Birthday

Do you do the black Friday shopping madness?

I normally don't but sometimes I go out at dinner time. I have found at this time there is lull in the stores and it's not life threatening.

I don't get the "deal of the day" but I don't get trampled either.

It is just safer that way.



Have you noticed that December came early this year?

Or either Thanksgiving was late.

I was one of those who put up my Christmas tree the week before Thanksgiving.  I know like, this is totally taboo, but hey people, you gotta do what you gotta do.

Right?

It was either put it up then or wait a few weekends and then it would be too late to thoroughly enjoy it.

Because Christmas is early this year or was Thanksgiving was late.

Either way, my Christmas tree is up and kickin!

I am kicking off the Christmas season with a Red Velvet birthday party.

Red velvet is all the rage at Christmas time and this year is no exemption.

I sorta have a love/hate relationship with red velvet cake. I love it but I don't love all the food coloring.

I keep eating it so apparently, the food coloring isn't really an issue. I guess when you spread the food coloring out into individual slices, it isn't really too bad.

I will buy that for now.

I made this simple red velvet dessert table for a birthday party.

Dessert tables don't have to be complicated. A few simple, out of this world good items is all it takes.

This table was a quickie.

Mini bunt cakes, cookies, cake pops and a few marshmallows tossed in a matching jar and, wa-la, it is red velvet mania.

The birthday boy was 27 years old and he has a "thing" about red velvet.

I decided to do an old Hollywood theme.

I baked the bunt cakes in the Nordic Ware mini bunt pan.

One of the small cakes were more than enough for one person.

For the cake pops, I took the left over cake batter, baked it up, squished it up and added some cream cheese buttercream. I find that cake pops take very little buttercream so if you make these, tread lightly. You don't want them too wet or they will fall apart.

After I formed them into balls with a small scooper, I froze them for about 30 minutes. Once I took them out of the freezer, I allowed them to rest about 5 minutes before dipping them in melted candy.

If you dip them too soon after removing them from the freezer, the candy coating will crack because the cake pops are too cold

Once they were dipped, I melted some white chocolate and piped on a traditional design.

Piping with chocolate can be a challenge. For me anyway.

For the cookies, I dropped them onto the pan using the same scoop that I used for the cake pops.

I used a bit of water to slightly press them down. Slightly dampening the tops of cookies will give you that subtle cracked look - which is way cool.

Once I ate about half of the cream cheese butter cream and made a new batch, I piped it on a cookie and topped it with another to make cookie sandwiches.

I made the tiny bunting flag using a computer program older than I am. This was a bit time consuming adding one letter on each tiny flag.

I made a border on each of the triangles so I had a straight line for hand cutting each flag.

I then used black & white baker's twine and wrapped each individual flag in half with a dot of glue to create the bunting.

Once I was finished with all the lettering, I tied each end to a skewer and placed them on the mini cakes.

A dessert table can be semi-simple after all. 

What was the "deal of the day" that you scored on Black Friday?

I admit, the bit of Black Friday shopping that I did was …..ahem ….all about me.  I scored a few great deals for myself but no one else.

Don't judge.

You know you do it too - but I won't tell.

There is just too many new and exciting things popping up this time of year, especially when you live in a small town. You gotta get it while you can or it will get gone - for sure.

Since I wasted black Friday on myself, it is now Christmas shopping crunch time so I had better get moving.

It's also time for Christmas cookies. I can't wait to get started on them!

What is your favorite cookie flavor? Mine? ALL. OF. THEM!

Thanks for stopping by - enjoy your December!

Donna
xoxo

Other parties you may like….

Cute as a Button Party

Girly Football 1st Birthday Party