Milk and cookies is a classic theme for baby showers. Having a few cool props adds a special touch to the theme. Here are some items I found at Cox and Cox that will enable you to customize the party. I think the hands and feet cookies are adorable.

I suggest you bake flavored creme brulee to bring a grown up touch. Lavender creme brulee is divine and chic. I bought my brulee dishes at Linen Chest.

SOURCING:
+ Retro-style Milk Bottle on sale £5.40
+ Hands & Feet Metal Cookie Cutters on sale £12.75
+ Sophie Conran By Portmerion Brulee Dishes on sale £20.70 for pack of 4

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You can never go wrong if you serve a chocolate dessert. These chocolate bouchons is basically a dense chocolate cake. Their shapes make them special. Because of their festive elegant look, serving Chocolate Bouchons is ideal for a Christmas or New Year party. The bouchons are best eaten the day they are baked but since the recipe is simple to make, it is not a problem.

The key is to get 3-ounce timbale molds (also known as aspic or baba molds). The LA times published a recipe adapted from the cookbook Bouchon by Thomas Keller. Fell free to try your favorite dense chocolate cake recipe. Just remember that Thomas Keller’s chocolate bouchons have a texture somewhere between dense cake and denser brownies.

SOURCING:
+ Paderno World Cuisine Aluminum Dariole/Baba Molds 3-ounces $29.90 USD for set of 10
+ photo: Mel Melcon for LA Times

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I am looking for big single letter cake pans to write my husband’s name. I am looking for letters that would be more than 3-inch tall. I think the adjustable Alphabet/Number Cake Pan lacks refinement. I want my e and my o to have curves like this CAKE I spot on I love Dust. If you know a source, please share.

+ photo by I love Dust

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If you are looking for a twist of the typical muffin cups, look at these Tulip baking cups. They are designed to fit the standard 2-inch muffin pans.

These four-petal cups are made of Swedish greaseproof white or brown paper. They come in three sizes. Make sure you get the tallest model (2 3/4) since it is the only one that form a uniform tulip shape. The smallest sizes are randomly folded. Plus, taller muffins look more sophisticated.

You may want to revisit my tall muffin presentation where I discussed how to make your own tubular muffins. The raffia string creates a modern rustic look. For a more stylish look, replace the raffia by a beautiful paper band hold in place with an elegant ribbon and a decorative button.

SOURCING:
+ White Tulip Baking Cups $3.95 USD for pack of 24
+ Brown Tulip Baking Cups $3.95 USD for pack of 24

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These pancake molds should be a hit at your next family brunch or the morning after a sleepover birthday party. They may need a little practice so make sure to try them out a few times before you use them for a crowd.

Make sure to brush with oil or butter the griddle and molds. You could use a spray but I am not a fan of cooking spray. You can mix the two sets for more variety. Both cost $18 USD for a set of 3 assorted molds at Williams-Sonoma.

+ Make pancakes in the shape of a snail, a ladybug and a butterfly with Garden Creatures Pancake Molds
+ Get flapjacks shaped like monkey, lion and elephant faces with the Jungle Pancake Molds
+ Delight them with Caterpillar Cakelet Pan & Decorating Kit $36 for the cakelet pan, $16 for the decorating kit

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Casting moulds help you bake pretty impressive cakes. Store a few models for when you entertain.

Cakes baked inside a silicone mould are easier to remove but it seems the more detailed patterns are still made in metal. With proper preparation and careful handling, you will be able to create a crisp surface.

Honey-Glazed Beehive Birthday Cake

My friend Nat baked and decorated the honey-glazed beehive cake for her mother’s birthday. She also crafted the bees with almond paste. Look how gorgeous it is! Nat is very talented; she always surprised me with all her know-how.

Nat baked the Honey-Glazed Beehive Cake recipe that was on the cover of June 2008 Martha Stewart Living magazine. You will need the Beehive Cake Pan available at Williams-Sonoma. Canadians can order the pan by calling any of the 6 Canadians Williams-Sonoma stores.

Bundt Cake Design Ideas

The Beehive Cake Pan is produced by Nordic Ware, a brand renowned for the Bundt cakes. They made pretty cool patterned pans. A Bundt cake is my exception to the rule. I prefer a non stick pan because it is so important to get accurate lines defining the pattern.

Margo Murdock Murphy of Stockton, California for her Chocolate Cabernet Flavors di ‘vine’ Wine Cake at the 2006 Bundts Across America contest. Her cake looks so tasty. You can bake her non cake mix base recipe created especially for the Martha Stewart Show.

Carry around your cake in style with the Bundt Cake Keeper. Its cover twists and locks to a base plate. The clear dome means you can admire it without affecting its freshness.

I may have seen these bundt cake pans at Les Touilleurs last winter. Looking at the finished products, I feel I need to do some shopping.

If you are looking for more recipes, check out Bundt Cake Bliss, a bundt cake book that people seem to appreciate.

SOURCING:
+ Beehive Cake Pan at Williams-Sonoma – price: $36 USD
+ Bundt Cake Keeper at Williams-Sonoma – price; $22 USD
+ Nordic Ware Nonstick Cathedral Bundt Pan at Cooking.com – price: $31.99 USD
+ Chocolate Wine Cake Recipe by Margot Murdock Murphy
+ Nordic Ware Fleur-de-Lis Bundt Pan at Cooking.com – price; $39.99 USD
+ Bundt Cake Bliss: Delicious Desserts from Midwest Kitchens – price: $11.53 USD

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It is not because you are born in 1850 that you are not young at heart. Urban Colors shows a younger, hipper side of Emily Henry.

The Urban Colors collection injects a sense of fashion into the traditional ceramic cookware brand. And to stay current, Emile Henry adds two more colors and new shapes to the Urban Colors collection.

You now have a choice of five tasty colors, each named after a food: Muscade (nutmeg), Poivre (pepper), Figue (fig), Granny and Litchi.

Accessorize your kitchen

With the open shelving trend in the kitchen, you need remarkable vessel. We may admire the bold and lively kitchens that we see in the magazine but must people are not ready to commit. Kitchen cabinets are such a huge investment that we select materials that we can live with for a long time. This fact typically translates into neutrals.

The easiest way to update any neutral kitchen is by infusing a punch of colors through accessories. Why not do it through your everyday oven and tableware? When you get tired to see them, you simply hide them in your closed cabinets.

The quality

All Emile Henry cookware are made using Ceradon, an exclusive process which improves the qualities of traditional pottery. Three good reasons to buy Emily Henry:

1. A highly resistant glaze which does not scratch or craze
2. Highly resistant to chipping
3. Highly resistant to heat and cold

Sourcing:
Learn more: Emile Henry

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This week I added a challenge to my weekly column. I decided that the posts of the week must share a common theme. A little bit like a mini inspiration board for a party theme. I liked the experience so much that I will repeat the experience as long as I can.

My first mini board is for a retro chic baking party with your girlfriends. When you plan an event, why not integrate a few activities? For example, organize a baking class in a cooking studio followed by a cocktail party.

1 | Imedagoze for Tools you bake

Who could guess that these elegant cake shapes come from vintage tool molds? These aluminium baking tins are manufactured by German metal goods manufacturer Hugo Bra?uer. I dig Tools you bake on Imedagoze blog. Imedagoze is the playground of a mother of two from Singapore who has great admiration for the creators behind every beautiful and creative thing.

2 | Poppy Talk for Lucky

I spot these vintage kitchen canisters through the blog of a Canadian fellow. Poppy Talk is basically a craft and art blog promoting emerging design talent. Unfortunately, these canisters are a picture taken from a Flickr member. So you need to be Lucky if you want to bring them home.

3 | Toasts and Table for Kitchen Kouture: Aprons strings tie me to my past

You already know that I am an avid collector of aprons. Sarah from Toasts and Table compiled a list of old fashioned aprons in Kitchen Kouture: Aprons strings tie me to my past. I added my favorite looks to her list.

With all the rage surrounding this brand, it is fair to say that Jessie Steele is the source for retro-chic hostess aprons and feminine vintage aprons. This shot of the perfect cocktail hostess exhibits the key ingredients of the party theme I am suggesting here. On the other hand, many of your girlfriends will envy your Needle Art Apron from Anthropologie. With so much beautiful models, it is hard to choose just one.

Sourcing:
Learn more: Web site of Tools you bake
Buy online: Web site of Jessie Steele
Buy online: Needle Art Apron available at Anthropologie – starts at $24.00 USD

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This post is long overdue since I announced it last May. But I was unable to find in Montreal the right baking tools until now. I phoned and visited many specialty stores without success so far. I almost gave up but I wanted it so bad that I have all the facts.

What is so special about my way of serving muffins?

To be truthful, the design originated at MBCo. Montreal Bread Company is a hip little bakery franchise concept with three locations in Montreal. MBCo makes tall straight and narrow column muffins, reaching 3 inches in height.

You get a 2-inch diameter muffin with no angle and without its typical cap. A lot more stylish look especially if you take the time to tie raffia ribbon around the muffin. The parchment paper is put before you cook the muffins.

If you have several flavors, identify them with colored raffia instead of the natural one. Here, I use an orange raffia ribbon to identify a carrot muffin.

For a brunch, lay out the muffin on a cake pedestal. Yesterday, Toast and Tables posted a nice compilation of cake stands. Setting the cake stands in a tier way is more spectacular.

Tricks of the trade for baking these muffins

My mistake was to think that you need a round ring of at least 3 inch height to make this muffin. No, it works with a ring of about 2 inches in height and diameter. You use your usual muffin recipe that you prepare at night.

Butter the inside of the round rings, insert a 3 x 9 inches parchment paper sheet, place them in a sheet pan and fill up to 3/4 with the muffin batter. Let them rest for the night; cook your muffins in the morning. The muffins will extend more due to the resting period.

The guy at MCBO told me they used wax paper on my muffin yesterday. I prefer parchment paper because wax paper is flammable. I also think that parchment paper look nicer after the cooking. You can see the better results on the top right picture versus the bottom one. But if you stay close by the stove, you are probably fine with wax paper.

If you are looking for 2 inch diameter, 3 inch height round rings for cooking, I found the online store of Pastry Chef Central. Located in Florida, they deliver in the States and in Canada. They sell professional grade baker tools so they are more expensive ($56 USD for a set of 6 forms) but I think they worth it. The ones I found are made in France.

I still think that the round ring of 3 inch in height will make a more uniform straight muffin. But in the meantime, I will give the lower round rings available here a few trial runs.

Sourcing:
Buy online: Single serving tall round rings at Pastry Chef Central store
Learn more: Web site of Montreal Bread Company (MBCo)
Learn more: Cake stands are stacking up as a top registry item published on Toasts and Tables blog

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