HOLIDAYS
HOLIDAYS
Premiering on Sunday June 7th at 9 EST, Bridezillas promises to be packed full of even more over the top issues, arguments, schemes and craziness. After getting your fill of demanding bridal divas, keep the TV on WE and get ready to feast your eyes on the second season premiere of Amazing Wedding Cakes.
The show follows four bakeries known for crafting out of this world cakes through the trials, tribulations and success involved in creating an amazing wedding cake.
To prepare for this over the top evening of wedding related revelry, gather the girls together and host your own Wedding Sunday premiere party. With a wedding-inspired theme, delicious drinks and a cupcake decorating contest, your guests will enjoy catching up with each other just as much as catching up on their favorite shows.
A premiere party for two wedding-related shows just wouldn't be complete without a delicious dessert. Though elaborately frosted cake is the obvious choice, cupcakes are just as tasty and come in the perfect individual serving size. Create a fun activity out of dessert by having guests create their own Amazing Wedding (Cup)Cakes to honor the show‘s premiere. All you need to provide is the baked cupcake and white frosting - let your guests go wild with the rest.
Add an ounce of competition to the amazing cupcake decorating with a prize for the most outstanding cupcake. Give guests the tools (see supplies, below) to decorate their hearts out with self-dyed frosting, Ziploc bags to pipe frosting decorations, and of course a plethora of candy treats to add embellishment to their amazing cupcakes.
Supplies:
- Cupcake Baking Pan
- Scissors to cut a half inch off the botton of the bag to use for piping.
- 1 box of large plastic Ziploc bags (for piping bags)
- Different colors of food dye
- Many small bowls to mix the food dyes and frosting
- Small decorative candies such as M&Ms, thin rope red vines, candy hearts, gummi bears, silver and gold dragees, Red Hots, Mike & Ike's, etc.
Cupcake Ingredients (makes 48 mini cupcakes - 2.5 inch cupcake liners - or 24 regular sized cupcakes):
* 1 stick butter
* 1.5 cups sugar
* 2 cups all purpose flour
* 2 tsp. baking powder
* 1 Tbsp. fresh ginger zest
* 1 small shot bottle of Kahlua liqueur
* 1/2 tsp. salt
* 3/4 cup milk (regular or soy)
* 1 tsp. vanilla extract
* 4 large egg whites
Preparation
* Cut up the stick of butter into 1/2 inch slices, put in mixer and soften on high speed.
* Add the sugar in with the butter and beat for 2-3 minutes, until fully mixed.
* Sift the baking powder, salt and flour together in a separate bowl.
* Mix the milk, Kahlua and vanilla together in a small separate bowl; the ingredients should total 1 cup of fluid. To ensure this, add the Kahlua first into a measuring cup, then the vanilla, and top off with milk for 1 cup total.
* Preset oven to 350 degrees F.
* Alternately add the milk/vanilla mixture and the flour mixture into the mixing bowl with the sugar and butter. Add one third of each mixture at a time, allowing the ingredients you add to incorporate with the sugar and butter mix fully before adding a third of the other mixture.
* Add the Tablespoon of Ginger zest and turn mixer on medium to evenly mix in the zest.
* In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites together until peaks form.
* Fold egg whites into mixture until everything is fully incorporated.
* Using a mini cupcake / muffin pan, scoop one large spoonful of batter into each mini cupcake wrapper.
* Place mini cupcakes in the oven for 15 minutes. Allow to fully cool (at least 30 minutes, outside the baking tray) before attempting to frost.
Citrus Cream Cheese Frosting Recipe (will generously frost 48 mini cupcakes, or 24 regular sized cupcakes) :
Ingredients
* 4 oz. whipped cream cheese
* 4 oz. regular cream cheese (alternately, you can just use 8 oz. regular cream cheese for denser frosting)
* 4 oz. (1 stick) of butter
* 12 oz. powdered sugar
* 1/4 tsp. orange extract
* 1 tsp. vanilla extract
* zest from 1 medium - large lemon
Preparation
* Place butter and cream cheese in the mixer on high for 2 minutes to soften.
* Add vanilla and orange extracts to the mixture, allow to mix thoroughly until fully incorporated.
* Add powdered sugar in 4 stages, adding a quarter each time. Allow each quarter to become fully mixed with the rest of the frosting until adding more.
* Add the lemon zest and allow to fully incorporate.
* Refrigerate frosting for at least 1 hour, then allow to soften outside fridge for ten to fifteen minutes before frosting fully cooled cupcakes.
Get ready for your Bridezillas & Amazing Wedding Cakes premiere party with a little bit of party prep.
Viewing Area Setup
Since the entire party is based around the show premieres, a great viewing setup is a must.
With the help of a friend, rearrange the furniture in your home to create theatre style seating where everyone will have a great view of the TV. If possible, keep the seating all in one row so there isn't a bad seat in the house.
- The best way to create one row of ample seating is to arrange your chairs and couches in a semi-circle in front of the television.
- Make sure to leave gaps between the furniture for easy passing through, and set out coffee tables and side tables in front of the couches and chairs so guests have a place to put down their food and drinks.
- For added comfort, bring in pillows from other areas of the house so guests can put them behind their backs or under their arms to get comfy in front of the TV.
Before the show premieres, be a gracious hostess by providing plenty of delicious food and drink options for your guests.
Set out small bite party appetizers that are easy to eat with fingers to cut down on the amount of silverware (and dirty dishes).
Bruschetta, salad served in takeout containers, sweet potato fries in shot glasses or paper cones, hummus and pita, crudités, chips and salsa or guacamole, and chicken skewers are easy to make crowd pleasers.
You can also find more appetizer inspirations at WE tv's Tasty Dish blog. Serve the party food on long platters and stacked cake stands to create appetizers as visually pleasing as they are delicious.
Drinks
Provide one signature cocktail along with a few non-alcoholic options.
Vodka-based cocktails have the widest appeal to different palettes, though a champagne-based cocktail is a great on-theme choice.
Turn your drinks pink with a pink lemonade mixer, and drop in a few raspberries or cut strawberries to dress them up.
For non-alcoholic beverages, buy mini bottled sodas to line up in rows on the table and create a delicious non-alcoholic punch served from a large glass bowl. As with weddings, half the impact is in the presentation.
Decorations set the right atmosphere for your party and help guests get into the spirit of the evening. Add pizzazz to your premiere party with these simple decorating tips:Floral Arrangements
What would a night of wedding shows be without beautiful flowers? If the idea of making your own arrangements makes you cringe, know that anyone can create beautiful, cost effective floral arrangements. All it takes is a few vases with narrow (four inches or less) openings and at least 20 blooms of a single type of flower.
Choosing all white flowers goes well with the premiere party theme, but you go girly with all pink petals as well. Purchase blooms at a local wholesale flower mart, local farmer's market or at a discount grocer like Costco, Walmart or Sam's Club to keep costs down. Roses, hydrangeas, stock and baby's breath should be available year round at a reasonable price.
One tip to keep in mind when creating floral arrangements is to cut down the stems to only an inch or two longer than the actual vase height. This will keep the arrangement nice and tight instead of loose and floppy, and makes placing the flowers in the vase super easy.
White Tulle Decorations
White tulle is pretty much synonymous with weddings, whether it be swathed around the cake table or used for the bride's veil. Using masking tape, swath the outside perimeter of your television set in white tulle as a gauche homage to Bridezillas everywhere. Crafty hostesses can even fashion a makeshift veil for their television, affixed with a tiara on top to honor all the Bridezilla princesses.
Tulle can be used as sparingly or heavily as you'd like to decorate the rest of the party area. In an ode to over the top weddings, use it generously - as bows tied on the backs of dining room chairs, swathed around the food and drinks table, or as an overlay down the center of the coffee table. The Bridezillas will have nothing on you.
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