More Pink Party Dots - The Food!

Well, I hope you enjoyed the Neon Pink Party Table post here and picked up a few tricks and ideas. I also hope I didn't come across as being too mad for throwing the party just because. Although, thinking about it now, what better reason is there?!

So, let's keep the pink madness going and talk about the food. Pink polka dot food to be exact!

When I'm throwing a party just because, or have a limited budget or timeframe for so many other reasons, I like to follow what I call The Highlander Rule - There can be only one. One showstopper to spend my time and money on, that is. 

In this case, it was a real raspberry mud cake with coconut ganache and handmade giant chocolate buttons. Sound good? It was! And the recipe and instructions are below.

And since I never do anything by halves, and in the real world there might be someone who fancies something other than cake, I wanted two other quick sweets to finish off my table. Pink polka dot sweets to be exact.

The first were some vanilla iced brownie dots, made by simply  baking a tray of the best brownies ever, icing it with some ready made vanilla icing, cutting out circles with a round cookie cutter and covering them with pink and white sprinkles.

And even easier, I made some sprinkle tarts by buying ready made raspberry and lemon ones from the supermarket and covering them in pink sprinkles. You want budget? I've seen those tarts at Woolies for $3 for two packs of six. A box of sprinkles is $2. That's $5 for a quick sweet for my Party of 11. And I think they look great. If I do say so myself!

So I did it. Pink polka dot food for the neon pink polka dot party table. And all before I sent myself dotty as well!

Real Raspberry Mud Cake with Coconut Ganache

This recipe makes two shallow 20cm cakes for stacking, and enough ganache to cover the whole thing. The raspberry and coconut flavours are subtle, so if you want a bigger hit, spread the bottom cake with raspberry jam and dessicated coconut before adding the top cake.

Ingredients

Cake
230g unsalted butter
200g white eating chocolate
2 2/3 cups caster sugar
1 1/3 cup milk
2 cups plain flour, sifted
2/3 cup self raising flour, sifted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
2 cups raspberries, mashed (or use 1 cup raspberry puree if you have it, or prefer to remove the seeds)

Ganache
440g (2 blocks) white eating chocolate
3/4 cup coconut cream

Giant Chocolate Buttons for Decoration
150g white eating chocolate
food colouring
sprinkles

Instructions

Cake

1. Preheat the oven to 160 degrees Celsius and line two 20cm baking tins with greaseproof paper.
2. Place butter, white chocolate, sugar, and milk in a saucepan and stir to combine over low heat. Then remove from heat and allow to cool.
3. Mash raspberries until smooth (or push through a sieve if you want to remove the seeds). 
4. Once the chocolate mixture is cooled, whisk in flours, vanilla extract and eggs. Stir in raspberries.
5. Half mixture between the two tins and bake for 1 1/4 hours, or until a skewer comes out clean.
6. Once baked, remove and cool completely before spreading with ganache.

Ganache

1. Break chocolate into small pieces and place into a bowl.
2. Place coconut cream in a microwave safe jug or bowl, and microwave for approximately 2 1/2 minutes until it starts to boil.
3. Immediately pour boiling cream over the chocolate and leave for 1 minute. Then, stir mixture until combined. (If all of the chocolate fails to melt, place the whole mixture into the microwave for 30 seconds at a time. Check and stir until combined)
4. Once combined, place ganache into the fridge until it reaches a spreadable texture.
5. When the cakes are cooled, even the tops off them and place one on a cake stand or plate, upside down so that the smooth side faces up.
6. Spread with ganache over the top and place it into the fridge until ganache hardens slightly.
7. Then, remove from the fridge, place the second cake on top and spread the remaining ganache over the whole of the cake.

Decoration

1. Trace circles of the required size onto baking paper. Turn the paper over and lie it flat on a tray.
2. Melt the chocolate and place it into an icing bag with a small tip. (Alternatively, use a plastic squeezy sauce bottle with a small tip, or a sandwich bag with a small corner cut off)
3. Outline traced circles on the baking paper and fill in the centres. Then refrigerate until chocolate is hardened.
4. To make coloured buttons, add food colouring to the melted chocolate and stir well before piping circles.
5. To make sprinkle buttons, pipe the chocolate onto the paper and cover with sprinkles before placing them into the fridge.
6. Once the buttons are hardened, carefully remove them from the paper and place them onto the cake. If you would like them raised like the ones below, start at the back of the cake and place a few of the buttons on an angle. Hold them in place by putting a mini marshmallow or additional chocolate underneath them. Then rest the remaining buttons at the front at the same angle.  

Pretty in Neon Pink!

I'm so excited to share this party table with you today for so many reasons. Firstly because everything turned out exactly as I wanted it to, and secondly because I feel like this kind of table is exactly what I want P11 to be all about.

It all started innocently enough. I was walking through Sam's Warehouse minding my own business when this amazing neon pink vintage looking photo frame came into my life. Initially I walked away as I had no need for it, but I just had to have it. Especially for $20. You read right, $20. I don't know why I was fighting it!

She sat in my office for a week or two while I looked forward to having a special occasion to use her for a party. And eventually I decided I had waited long enough and I went ahead and put together this party table, just because.

So, essentially I threw a party because I bought a photo frame. Doesn't everyone?!

My first step was to decide what would go with my new neon pink friend. And you know what goes with neon pink? Neon Pink! But, while I may have thrown caution to the wind and put on the party table just because, I didn't have the luxury of throwing money to the wind as well. So, my mission emerged - a budget neon pink party table.

I knew exactly where I needed to go - Dollar King. For me, it's like returning to the mother ship! But for good reason because you can get really good party stuff for a fraction of the price of the fancier shops.

So, here's what I got. Firstly, 28 paper doilies for an easy table runner for $2. Neon pink and white dotty straws (both types in the same packet) for $2. Five metres of neon pink grosgrain ribbon for $2. The Pink vases were $6 - for two!

I really feel like I should be shouting all this like a rug salesman whose stop is closing down!



When it came to serving plates and things however, my mission threatened to derail, especially when I had my heart set on more neon pink dots. But inspiration struck and my rescue came in the form of Officeworks. I bet you can't tell, but those are pink sale stickers stuck on plain white platters and a square white vase. These ones - 500 dots for $6.54. For that price, I was tempted to stick them everywhere! And they come in so many other colours, including gold, which would look really fabulous.

 

 

 

If you've been playing along at home, you'll recognise the roses from here, where I got 10 amazing long stemmed pink roses for $15. Cheap at double the price. I also spotted a huge bunch of white blossom for $7 from the same markets and had to have it for this table. I'm so glad I didn't fight that purchase!

The last thing to do was to dress up my new purchase and I decided to use what I had - the doilies, the ribbon and more dots! If this was an occasion, I would have maybe put in some photos of the guest of honour, some stickers spelling out a name, or used it as a whiteboard and wrote some messages in the windows. The possibilities are endless. That's my girl!!

And don't worry, I'm not forgetting the food. You'll have noticed some pink sprinkle tarts there, some vanilla iced brownie dots and the piece de resistance, a real raspberry mud cake with coconut ganache and home made white chocolate freckles. The recipes are still to come on P11 - hopefully along with more easy, budget party tables like this one!