The Big 40

So this was it, the year of the big 40. That's my age now, and I'm fine with that. Hey with a number like that, a big party was in order, and a big party we had. And of course no party is complete without a dessert table right? I started making goodies for my table on Sunday, and finished Thursday night around 10:30. I was very busy last week with the making of treats and my oldest daughter's class field trip that we went on together. That would be why I didn't get a chance to post last week. That amd I cpmpletely forgot to. And of course I had something to show you all. Oh well, I'll have to hold that for another day. As for my dessert table, I got a little carried away, like always, and some things came out exactly how I wanted them, and others did not. But all in all, I loved how my table turned out and everyone enjoy the treats. Below you will find pictures of the table in all it's glory and individual shots of all the goodies my guests had to choose from. Enjoy, we sure did!

I used the colors of pink, green, brown and red (all colors on the invitation sent out) to create and decorate the treats and table. And before you think I did all of this on my own, I did not. I had help from my husband and two great friends.

Here is my birthday cake, and yes I did make my own birthday cake. Sounds crazy I know, but I like my cakes, so why should we pay someone else. Now I will admit, at first I hated my cake. You see it didn't look like this in the beginning. I redid two of the layers because I hated them so much. Also, I am my own worst critic. The problem is I get a vision of what I want in my head, and then when that vision doesn't come close (and in this case, anywhere close), I start to not like my work. After reworking the layers, I liked my cake and it got to show itself off on the table. There are still some things I would have done differently, but I was overall pretty happy with it. The K on the second layer is actually fondant that I shaped and then brushed with a red metallic dust. It was suppose to sit on the top of the cake, but ended up being to heavy to do so.

These are the famous cake pops. If you are friends with me on Facebook, you may have seen a lot of banter and posting over these guys. People just love when I make them. I wasn't sure how to put these on display until my friend and I went to JoAnn Fabrics to buy supplies for the table. What we came up with was cutting a big styrofoam ball in half, painting it with chocolate and then pressing some floral grass (I'm not really sure what it's called) on it to make a base to stick the cake pops into. I was really pleased how they turned out and saved the half balls to use again(since I'm sure friends will always be requesting cake pops).

These are my favorite. Chocolate dipped coconut macaroons. I have made these for years now, and I love them every time. In fact, it's probably a good thing that they are a bit of a pain to make, because if they were easy I would be eating them all then time. And then my waistline would disappear.

I thought it would be nice to have some chocolate dipped pretzels just to give the table some height and color. You can get much easier then these guys and I really liked how they turned out.

Good old brownie bites with buttercream icing.

These are my Mom's dainty almond tea cookies that we usually only have at Christmas time. I made them to give a non chocolate option to my guest, and to add a little red to the table.

Believe it or not, these guys were suppose to be fortune cookies. I had my batter all ready and the fortunes printed out ready to hide in the cookies. My friend Cecilia came over to help make them since we would only be able to make a few at a time and I wanted about 50 cookies. We did many attempts, probably about 5 times or roughly 15 cookies. They tasted great, but just weren't working. So plan B went into effect. I piped out the cookies, baked them off, dipped them in dark chocolate and Cecilia sprinkled them with the pink sugar I had gotten for the fortune cookies. For a failed cookie, these were definitely one of the favorites of the night. Basically the cookie batter is a chocolate tuile that I added a little almond extract and orange zest too. These are a keeper for sure.

Here is another dessert that didn't quite turned out the way I was hoping it would. My Father-in-law had brought over some cream cheese earlier in the week, and one of the containers was a mixed berry flavor. I figured with that. I could make little cheesecakes, but when I went shopping for last minute ingredients that I needed, I forget to get the Cool Whip (I was making a no bake recipe). I did have some Cool Whip, just not enough for what the recipe called for. I went ahead and made them anyway, because once again, I wanted to give a non chocolate option. I wasn't going to use them, but after my 2 taste testers (my husband Jeff and friend Cecilia) tried them and liked them, they were dressed up with some strawberries and made the table.

These chocolate truffles were my third and final dessert that didn't come out as I wanted, but tasted too, too good not to use. My ganache was just a little too soft and even though the truffles were rolled in cocoa twice, they came out with a marble look to them. Still tasty and still enjoyed by the party goers.

Me with my table. Looking forward to my next dessert table now. :)