Hawaiian Themed Party!

We've always wanted to do a themed party. And surprisingly, we already had a lot of Hawaiian-themed stuff. I made these simple and beautiful hanging decorations that I adapted from a Martha Stewart Halloween craft.

For dinner, we made coconut shrimp and chicken coated in panko breadcrumbs on skewers. Also, as an afternoon appetizer, we made crab rangoons. Aloha!

Birthday Cupcakes

It was just our mother's birthday, and this year we decided to make cupcakes instead of a traditional cake because a) over the summer we got a wonderful cupcake stand and b) we couldn't decide between 2 cake ideas--with cupcakes we could do both!

So, half of the cupcakes are plain chocolate cake and frosted with a chocolate-orange gnache. The other half are the same chocolate cake infused with cream of coconut (like a poke cake) and frosted with plain chocolate gnache, topped with shredded coconut. YUM!

We recently purchased Make 'n Mold decorating bottles and discovered how easy it is to make fun decorative chocolate shapes. We did a simple flower design here. (White chocolate probably would've looked better against the dark gnache.)

Here they are all lit up!

Home-made Marshmellows!

What's better on a cold, snowy day than a cup of hot cocoa with a nice BIG marshmallow floating on top?

Maybe a big peppermint marshmallow? Yum, right? Chocolate and peppermint is one of my absolute favorite flavor combinations! Since I don't know where to find a mint marshmallows in a store, I recently learned how to make them myself!

I've been wanting to try out this recipe ever since last year, when I saw it on an episode of the Martha Stewart Show. This year, I finally did it! And they were so much easier than I anticipated!

The video on MarthaStewart.com is so great that I wont bore you with my instructions. Instead, you can watch Martha's video and read their instructions here. I will say, however, that the instructions are a little confusing in places. For example, they say to spray the baking pan and then cover it with plastic wrap. Instead, don't spray the pan, spray the plastic wrap!

For my marshmallows, I added a tiny bit of green food coloring to the recipe to be extra festive! Tip: If you decide to add a hint of peppermint, keep in mind that peppermint oil is not the same as peppermint extract. I learned this the hard way. My marshmallows came out almost too minty, by using peppermint oil instead of peppermint extract, like the recipe calls for.



Before the confectionary sugar coating. Very sticky!

 

Enjoy in a nice cup of hot cocoa! Yum!

If you watch Martha's video, you'll see that she mentions that some trendy gourmet restaurants actually serve marshmallows as dessert! I was very intrigued by this and had to investigate for myself. These two bloggers write about their meals at Jean-Georges in NYC - here and here - they even include photos of their marshmallow desserts. I also found some companies that make and sell gourmet marshmallows - plush puffs and Manna Mallows - with wonderful selections! I'm sure there are many more too!

Well, this has been my marshmallow journey! Does anyone have any favorite marshmallow flavors or recipes? Besides cocoa, what do you like to eat with marshmallows?

PS- We hope your NEW YEAR is off to a great start!