Authentic Irish Desserts

The following dessert recipes will bring you back to your Irish roots. These recipes are based on traditional Irish desserts. Although not well known, many typical Irish dessert ingredients include either: fresh or dried fruit (especially apples), lemon curd, whiskey, or sweet potato. Enjoy your culinary trip to Ireland! 

Sources & Recipes (horizontally from top left to bottom right): 

1. Three-Layer Berry & Brown Sugar Pavlova

2. Bittersweet Chocolate Irish Whiskey Cake

3. Lemon Curd Layer Cake

4. Irish Apple Cake

5. Chocolate Guinness Cake

6. Chocolate Whiskey Bundt Cake

Sources & Recipes (from left to right):

1. Country Rhubarb Cake

2. Bakewell Tart

3. Sweet Potato Pie

Sources & Recipes (from left to right):

1. Mrs. O'Callaghan's Soda Bread

2. Irish Ginger Snaps

3. Irish Scones

Green Cocktails

It's most fun to celebrate St. Patrick's Day in a local Irish pub. However, while most are enjoying their beer (or green beer), I have never been much of a beer lover. Take a look at 6 exciting green cocktails that you can try with or without the alcohol. You are sure to find one that suits your tastes.

 

Sources & Recipes: 

1. Greentini

2. Kiwi Masquerade

3. The Clover 

4. Green Champagne 

5. Midori Lagoon

6. Green Dublin Apple Cocktail 

Free Starbucks Samples

This week Starbucks is celebrating their 40th Anniversary. If you visit on March 10-12 between 2 and 5 p.m. you will get a free Starbucks Petites when you order any handcrafted beverage (while supplies last). Petites are their new line of mini desserts (cake pops, mini cupcakes, whoopie pies, etc.) that are each under 200 calories. I look forward to sampling a petite soon. Let me know if you get to try one and what you think. 

St. Patrick's Day Free Printables

Having a St. Patty's Day party? Check out these free printables to help add that extra pizazz to your party.

This set of party printables includes: cupcake toppers, straw flags, water bottle labels, and tags. Get these printables HERE.

Here are some cute tags that can be used for cupcake toppers, or decorating gifts:

For these tags, you will need a 2 inch scallop circle punch. 
Download this set of printables HERE.

Here are some more cute cupcake toppers to choose from:

Check out the "lucky" cupcake toppers HERE and the rainbow toppers HERE.

Here's the last set:

Love the tag on the rock candy, cute idea! Download these printables HERE.

Happy Partying!

Going Green for St. Patrick's Day

Saint Patrick's Day is soon approaching (March 17th). This past weekend already saw a number of festivals and parades for those early celebrants. After this long winter, we all need something to celebrate... and who doesn't feel a little Irish on St. Patty's Day? How do you plan to express your Irish side? These green desserts will surely help you show off your love of the holiday.

Sources & Recipes:
1. Shamrock Milkshake Cupcakes
2. Kiwi Lime Pie
3. Clover Cookies
4. Green Pinwheels
5. Coconut Pistachio Pie
6. St. Patrick's Day Cupcakes

If you decide to make cupcakes, take a look at these decorating ideas for some inspiration:

Sources & How-To:
1. Leprechaun Hat Cupcake Wrappers
2. Shamrock Cupcake

White Wedding Cakes

There's nothing more glamorous than all-white wedding cakes. They are elegant and timeless. These cakes are somewhat reminiscent of the current trend in decor towards all white rooms. However, these rooms are never all white, but in fact use varying shades of white, e.g. cool white (grayish tone) and warm white (brownish tone) in addition to shades of beige. By using white tone on tone colors, these cakes are anything but boring. If you are determined to have some color in your cake but still want to take the traditional all-white route, you can add one large flower in the color of your choice (see 2nd picture). Take a look at these creative white cakes:

Sources: picture 1, picture 2, picture 3, picture 4, picture 5, picture 6

Sources: picture 7, picture 8, picture 9, picture 10, picture 11, picture 12

Black and White Wedding Cakes

Black and white wedding cakes have become very popular. They work for both formal and casual events and complement any color scheme. A black and white cake is very elegant and lends itself to be easily decorated with a splash of color.   

Sources: picture 1, picture 2, picture 3, picture 4, picture 5, picture 6

Green Wedding Cakes

Today my fiancé and I had the first meeting with the bakery to discuss our wedding cake. We are still working on nailing down the appearance of the cake. However, we did decide the cake flavor. We chose white cake with the two outer filling layers in bavarian cream with fresh strawberries and the middle layer in chocolate mousse. Sampling the many different cake flavors was definitely a fun experience. Below are some beautiful green wedding cakes for inspiration.      

Sources: 

1. Apple Cake 

2. Green Cake

3. Hydrangea Cake

4. Orchids on Buttercream

5. Green Flower Cake

6. Leaves Cake