17th Birthday Dessert Night

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For her 17th birthday my daughter requested a dessert night for herself and around ten of her best friends.

I have rarely enjoyed organising a party so much, largely due to the active involvement and assistance of my beautiful daughter.  Em had very clear ideas about the look of the party and the food to be served, and we worked together to bring her ideas to life.

Rather than a one or two-coloured palette Em wanted 'rainbow colours'.  After visiting several homewares stores for ideas we discovered the cloth napkins below at Bed, Bath N' Table, which Em immediately felt were perfect.  The bright pastel colour scheme was continued with colourful balloons and streamers and even multi-coloured cachous on the cupcakes. The table was set with a pale lemon tablecloth, white plates, dessert spoons, the pretty napkins and real glassware.  Colourful solar lights lined the garden beds and  a string of coloured light bulbs shone overhead.

The menu of dessert finger food we prepared included:

• white and dark chocolate-dipped strawberries
• vanilla cupcakes with piped pink buttercream icing (you can find the buttercream recipe here; we added a few drops of cochineal to the basic recipe) and a sprinkle of multi-coloured cachous
• little chocolate eclairs filled with chantilly cream and iced with dark chocolate
• little lemon meringue tarts filled with home-made lemon curd
• tiny melting moments
• chocolate brownies
• hot chocolate with marshmallows

We had a busy day cooking and getting the house ready, but the enjoyment of the girls who attended (and especially the birthday girl) made all the effort worthwhile.