The Birthday Dessert Bar!

I have been planning this for a long time now! I have developed 
an obsession with stalking dessert bar blogs and ogling at how 
amazingly talented the people are who create them! So I
decided I wanted to have a go at one myself.  I decided my colour theme would be brown and green and so to go along with that everything was chocolate or mint or both! I spent the whole of last week baking in preparation, so I baked one new thing each evening and then froze everything up until the big day!  My sister Mara baked the whoopies since she has been busy developing a whoopie pie range for her company so I figured I'd leave it to the pro! and I left the bunting to my scrapbooking pro sister Mel.  My Mom provided the yummy Root Beer, which our whole family is 
crazy about (and of course it fitted with the brown colour theme!) and everything else on the table was baked by me.
I'll give you a little break down of what we had.....

The Cupcake centre piece, these were my favourite mint oreo cupcakes with an oreo baked into the base of the cupcake.  You can also see one of my brand new cupcake stands that I got for my birthday here (I got a whole lot of cupcake goodies as presents that I will blog about in the next few days!)

These were little sweetie jars filled with coconut M&M's, green apple and juicy pear Jelly Belly's and maltesers.

Next we have the fabulous whoopies, they were chocolate flavoured with a cheesecake filling (tinted green).

After that, we have some brownie pops.  They weren't quite the shape I was hoping for, but it was my first time making them so I guess perfection comes with practice! These brownies were covered in melted mint aero and rolled in green sanding sugar.

These are some mini cupcakes that were made using the same mixture as the Oreo cupcakes you saw earlier, but instead of Oreo frosting I went with a basic vanilla buttercream (tinted green) and topped with a little wedge of peppermint crisp (a chocolate bar only available in South Africa...so thanks to my grandparents-in-law for bringing me some over!!)

Then we have the cake pops.  These were mint chocolate cupcakes that are then crumbled to pieces.   I mixed in some swiss meringue buttercream to the crumbled cake mess, rolled them into balls, after freezing they were dipped in green candy melts and finished off with a mini brown smartie.

And last, but definitely not least (I think these were the fave of the whole dessert bar), are the Oreo balls. These are crushed up Oreos mixed in with some cream cheese, and then after being frozen they are dipped in mint chocolate and finished off with a sprinkling of peppermint crisp.

And here we are, the two birthday girls, about to enjoy the feast before us!

I was pretty pleased with how it all turned out! The family were certainly impressed! I know it doesn't look as perfect or as polished as the ones you see on the dessert bar blogs but for my first time I felt it couldn't have gone better!  It did take a LOT of work though, so I think I'm going to try and enjoy a week free of baking...I feel I've earned it, starting tomorrow though because this evening I have been baking birthday cupcakes to take into work! 

Some mint-spiration!

One of my big loves is dessert bars! I have a few favourite websites that showcase professional dessert bars and also ones submitted by everyday bloggers.  My very favourite one is Half Baked, you definitely need to check it out! It is amazing how creative these people are who do this! If you want to look at an amazing professional dessert bar designer then head over to Amy Atlas.

For a while now I have been wanting to have a go at doing one myself! So for the past month I have been scouring the internet for inspiration and buying far too much in preparation for my birthday in a couple of weeks time when I will finally get to put all my blog surfing into action!  There has been many a fight in my household over whether I need to buy special plates when we have perfectly good ones already, or why I need to order special m&m's from America, or why I need to be buying more cake stands when I own a zillion already...but it all comes down to colour co-ordination! so yes I need new things to tie the whole table together!

I have settled for the combination of chocolate and mint, so the table will be decorated accordingly in the colours of green and brown.  I will be making mint chocolate oreo cupcakes, oreo truffles, mint brownie pops, my sister Mara will be providing the whoopie pies, my sister Mel is going to make the bunting and my mom is providing the Root Beer - accompanied with green straws of course!  I am so excited to see how it turns out!

So I thought I'd give you a little sneaky peek into my 'mint-spiration', I have stolen this phrase from Kate over at Grin and Bake It because it is genius! but all credit goes to her  for thinking up such a witty title!

The delicious looking whoopie pies and polka dot cookies featured above both come from her blog.

The five layered green mint cupcakes are baked by the very talented Liz at Hoosier Homemade.


The amazing brownie pops come from Jonna over at Get off your Butt and BAKE!


The brownie balls are a creation of mine I made a while ago, and the coconut m&m's were imported from the U.S by a seller on ebay who has a rather tasty selection of American delicacies on offer that we can't get over here.  If you fancy all things American like me you should definitely check it out, the prices aren't too bad...and if you love coconut you have simply got to try these m&m's - they are to die for! They will be featuring on the dessert table in some cute little jars I got at a farm shop near where I live, along with some green apple and root beer jelly belly's too!