{Cultural} Food Art

 Since I post about Japanese Bento earlier, I thought it's a good timing to introduce Indonesian Tumpeng, the upscale version of bento.

Tumpeng is originated from Indonesia. .  The typical 'Tumpeng' has a cone shaped rice, surrounded by dishes, such as fried chickens, potato balls and scrambled eggs. Tumpeng is like a birthday cake in the western culture.  It is served in any celebration, from a grand opening of a store, birthday, baby's birth or just appreciating of  God's blessings.

See how others make their Tumpeng.

Barbie Tumpeng from Sweet Brownie Kitchen

Colorful Tumpeng from Yoshiko.  She also makes amazing fondant cakes.

Mini tumpeng in a box.  Source, click here.

 After looking at these pictures, I am hungry now. Gotta go.

{Cultural} Bento Art

A friend of mine, Evelyn said that she is into cute bento lately and making it as side business for kids party.  She was the inspiration behind my post today.

A little introduction about Bento.  Bento is a home-packaged meal common in Japanese cuisine.  Japanese are so creative when it comes to packaging.  They serve food neatly and artistic-ly; sushi is one of the example.

My bento was my daughter's birthday.  I saw similar design on newspaper and thought it was a good idea for my daughter 1st birthday party.  We celebrated at the orphanage home and I thought they deserved a nice and cute meal.

Rice, eyes from raisins, eyebrows from dried pork meat, carrot nose, Japanese fishcake, fried chicken and 2 potato balls in a shape of chick.

Here are some pictures of Evelyn's bento creations.  Thanks for your inspiration Ev.

Aren't these cute?

Angry bird cupcake?  I mean cuprice? by mymealbox.comhttp://mymealbox.com/bento/angry-birds-bento

{Wedding}: What's HOT this FALL?

Some leaves have changed color last month, some started to turn yellow, orange, red and seldom brown, others have fallen.  We associate fall wedding with those color palettes. Those are the friendliest color to work with, not only a little fresh flower defect can't be seen, but you can use a little for bigger impact.  You can also slip in some artificial leaves here and there, no one would notice.

 Photo collage from Martha Stewart.  The bottom right is a picture of Mokara orchid boutonnieres for the guests.

 Source: left and right from the Knot, middle from diy.wed-central.com

Those centerpieces are very easy to assemble and can be prepared ahead of time.

As far as placement cards, you can use baby pumpkins or even oranges to hold the card, OR traditional card with 'fall' design.  My fave is the tree with fall color cards.

Source
left: http://lionscrestmanor.typepad.com/
The one on right is from my friend's wedding.  The leaves are velt sticker.  Simple enough to get people into fall state of mind.
bottom: Martha Stewart

I found one more picture that might be a great addition to the fall theme decor.  You can hang flowers or even leaves on fish strings.  Very in-expensive way for fall add-on.

{Thanksgiving}: Cakepops

Now you can make 12 of this cute turkey cakepops for Thanksgiving in less than 30 minutes ... How? scroll down

see my other Turkeys here

Say GOOD BYE to the conventional way of making cakepops.

and a warm WELCOME to Babycakes cakepop maker.

$ 25 from Amazon and free shipping too.

There are many other brands in the market but I personally like this one because it makes 12 instead of 6 cakepops at once.  It only takes 4-6 minutes for 12 cakepops to make.  Another 5 minutes or so for cooling down and another 5 minutes to decorate.  Babycakes brand also make one for mini cupcakes, mini donuts, pie on stick etc.  They are so cute and affordable, I am tempted to buy them all :)

By the way, Bed bath and Beyond sells this for for $ 16.99 or$ 15.99 I believed. I just checked their online store and they don't carry this anymore :( not sure just the online store or in store also.

{The City on MTV}: DIY Flower Power Headband

Knit headband with crochet flower

Love at the first sight... first time I saw this cute knit flower headband was worn by Whitney Port.  This one is a little snug on the head and will surely keep my ears warm while adding fashion to my hair this winter.

I made this for the newborn, circumference 13"

 If you are crafty, you can make it yourself.  I am no expert of knitting but I can show you how to crochet it.  After watching several tutorials and style of crochet headbands, I like the following tutorials the most.

To make the headband, follow the step to make the brown rim on this Cupcake Hat tutorial.

The flower is pretty easy to make.  I chose this tutorial because it shows you how to alternate color on each flower layer in case you desire to do so. 

Here is another style of flower that looks like rose and SUPER easy to make.  If you are a beginner, you might want to start with this one.

Happy crochet-ing

{Birthday}: Princess Birthday Cake

Last month, my sister and I made a birthday cake for our niece, Giselle.  Originally, her theme was Rapunzel but she changed her mind when she saw a Romantic Castle Cake in Youtube.   I was mis-informed and still thinking that her theme was still Rapunzel at the day we were making the cake.  Luckily her theme color was pink and purple so I can still use the inspirations I found online.

I tried to track the source of this picture but I couldn't.  I know she also sells the print-able on etsy.

I think this is from ucreateparties.com

another un-noted source

I really loved the tulle tent but we couldn't use it for outdoor, and I was glad we didn't use it due to wind.

Anyway, my sister in law bought a Romantic Cake Set from Wilton.  I thought we were gonna spend couple hours to assemble the cake.  Oh boy I was wrong.  I ended up using my power drill, glue gun etc.

We made the cake a bit festive...

I also made the banner using Autocad : Princess Giselle 5th Birthday.  

just the banner sample I made

the lanterns for decoration add-ons

To see details on the making of this cake, go to my Twist n Swirl blog.

{New}: PARTY in a box

After doing so many small and big parties, we decided to launch our new service: PARTY hire for children.
Yes, it is for children :) at least for now.

PARTY hire is like a package you'll get in the mail with party supplies and direction on how to put them together.  It is designed carefully for requested theme with budget-wise in mind.  For details, click on PARTY in a box tab.

If your party is withing metro Atlanta vicinity, you can hire our team at your party too.
We also have photographers at affordable rate.