One of my dearest friends is having a bridal shower on Saturday (hopefully she’s not reading this post before then!). I am among a few girls who are in the bridal party, and coordinating the shower. I’m excited and a little nervous, I hope it goes well! And most of all, I hope the bride has a wonderful time. Just the other day I was creating some flowers out of colored pipe cleaners and cut-out paper hearts for one of the games - guests will be writing marriage advice tidbits on each of the heart-flowers, and either I’ll put it in a vase for her as a keepsake, or wrap all the flowers together with a ribbon as a bouquet… haven’t decided yet. And perhaps the bride can share with the rest of us some of those marriage advice tidbits by reading a heart-flower in between opening shower gifts…

(Nevermind the messy room in the background, I’ve got a sewing project in the works right now)

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I’m also test-trying out some new things for the shower. I’ve never been a big fan of lemon bars, but this shower theme will be an afternoon tea, and I figured it would be a nice addition to the menu. However, I’ve never been a huge fan of lemon bars. The ones I’ve ever eaten were always way too tart for me. If I have to wrinkle my face as I eat the bar, I’m not liking it. I don’t like my food to “bite” back at me.

Then came along a high school friend (hi Karen!) who promised a really good lemon bar recipe… from her older sister. I figured I’d test it out ahead of time, and if it turned out to be a yummy success, I’d make it for the shower. Turns out, my friend was 110% correct. I LOVE these lemon bars! Sweet, but not too sweet, and not too tart at all. Perfect, just the way I like them!

It was really simple to make. Ingredients below:

Making the crust first (after spreading it evenly -shown below- I baked it briefly, before pouring and baking the lemon mixture on top):

All done, with a little dusting of powdered sugar on top:

My very own yummy piece:

This one is a keeper. And it’s definately making an appearance at the shower.

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*Edited to add: Recipe can be found here, with the following changes:
Crust ingredients - use 1/2 cup powdered sugar instead of 1 cup confectioner’s sugar; take out the pinch of salt
Filling ingredients - use 1/3 cup flour instead of 6 Tbsp; add 1 tsp of lemon peel/zest; add 1 tsp baking powder.

Don’t you just love friends? Especially when they come bearing gifts.

Thanks to the lovely and generous Rain… THANK YOU! I have projects in queue with those yarns in mind, and I especially love the food items! I’ve already used one packet already. And the mango gummies…. I think I found my favorite gummy candy now. If only I can find this in the States…

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And of course, beyond receiving gifts, it’s always nice to give as well. I was recently in a secret pal exchange with my local SnB group, and boy was that fun! I got so many great goodies (thanks Marin!)! Sorry to say, I don’t have pictures of my received gifts and alot of my own gifting, but the only thing I have was something I whipped up super fast last week. May I present, Amy Butler’s Swing Bag! With zippered pockets!! (The zippered pockets on a reversible bag was a big deal for me, being a newbie with my zipper foot)

The recipient, a good friend (hi Lacy!), is a collector of all things parrots:

A zipper pocket (yea!):

The interior (see the other zipper pocket in there?):

This pattern was by far the easiest bag I’ve ever done (did I mention that this was a reversible bag??). =) I’m in the midst of making one for myself - I couldn’t resist. I’m usually a small bag kinda gal, but this bag is sturdy, roomy, practical, and I just love it. Next week, watch out the completion of another one! Yippee! =)

Lately I’ve been facinated with little petit fours. I know they are labor-intensive, but who can resist something so small and cute?? So I decided to experiment a little bit. Of course I was lazy and didn’t make the cake from scratch, nor did I make the poured icing and fillings from scratch, but hey, this was just a tiny test run.

Cutting out the little cake layers:

Filling them with jam (they spread better if thinned out with a little water, and heated):

Glazing - I took ready-made icing, thinned it out with a little nonfat milk, warmed it up, and added a tiny bit of food coloring. I did this in original white, pink, and light green (shown below):

And then laying them out for the icing to dry and harden:

The insides of a little white cake:

Insides of the little pink and light green cakes:

I have to say, these little cakes were a tad too sweet. Part of it was that I was too lazy to thin out the jams, but mostly due to my choice of icing for the glaze. Next time, I will not be using Wilton’s ready-made icing, despite what their recipes say. Even though I thinned it out, it was still way too sweet for me. Despite what the Wilton website says, I would not microwave the icing just to thin it out - as it gets way too hot and the icing actually separates (yes, very nasty). Any sort of thinning out is safer on a double-broiler, with cream or milk. And if you do get lazy and need a little nudge with the icing, microwaving it no more than 10 seconds is enough. No more than that.

Next time, I’m going to make my own icing from scratch, and or make marshmallow fondant (which doesn’t give the “glazed” look, but I’ve heard that marshmallow fondant doesn’t taste awful like rolled fondant does). And maybe, just maybe, I might practice on my piping techniques. Maybe.

Having said that, other than the sickening sweetness factor, they did achieve their cuteness expectations, and were quite yummy!