Celebrating...Me!

I hope this post does not sound....full of myself.

It was my birthday and I decided to celebrate....Me!

I did the things that make me happy. I baked. I decorated. I entertained.

In the end, even though it was my birthday, I hope others got as much enjoyment out of it as I did.

There are a few desserts I have always wanted to make: Creme Brulee, Tres Leches cake, Pavlova, and Tiramisu. I made a quick decision while talking to my BFF on the phone, I was going to make my own desserts and invite friends over to share.

 For both desserts I found great recipes at Pioneer Woman Cooks. I recommend her site, she has lots of great photos with step-by-step instructions.  Her photos gave me some confidence when I found myself cooking things I had no history with.

If you would like to try this dessert, go here:  The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Tres Leches Cake
My reflections on making this cake: It was actually way easier than I thought. No box mix was used and making the batter was not hard. I used a small kitchen squirt bottle to pour the milk on with (think small ketchup bottle). It has a fine tip and allowed me more control to get the edges of the cake than if I was just pouring from a pitcher.  In hind-site, I would have still tried to pour more milk into it. The center was "juicier" than the edges.

The next dessert that I love is Tiramisu. I can't even tell you the first time I had this dessert and fell in love with it. I love the creamy layer covered in chocolate and then just a hint of coffee. I made this dessert once before but in retrospect it was a non-traditional version.

The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Tiramisu. Again, this was easy enough to prepare! Cooking the eggs and Marsala was a little nerve wracking but it turned out well. I kept sampling the parts. They tasted good but it was not until like step four that they came together and tasted like something familiar. In hind-site, I love that Pioneer Woman drizzled the coffee/marsala mixture over the ladyfingers. Dipping the ladyfingers in the mixture gets messy and they fall apart. Drizzling the mixture over them was way easier! I do think I put too much cocoa on the top. It was a little overpowering.

Next up, the decorations. They came together by accident, honestly! I had planned a pink table cloth and cups because my little girl loves the Toby Keith song, Red Solo Cup but she is insistent on changing the words to pink solo cup. Then my dear friend at work  gave me this lovely metal sign that said, "I can do ANYTHING with the right SHOES!" And it was kinda pink.

I thought, how cute would this be on my table. I have a collection of small shoes at my work. They make me smile. So, I thought I would bring them home and use them to make a centerpiece. A coworker suggested using flowers and that lead me to the grocery store after work to get flowers.

I went there after pink flowers and came out with both pink and these spectacular orange mini roses. They were on sale, for $10.00! Happy Birthday to ME!

I came home and used things I already had to whip out this tablescape. I even made my own flower frog out of scotch tape! Now I do sound kinda MacGyver'ish!

And the best part is spending time with my good friends. Thank you all to everyone who stopped by and shared a hour or so with me on my day!