A few months back on Instagram, I shared my "secret" happy place during my trip to Portland. It's where I purchased the Ice Cream shaped measuring cups that are featured in my Best French Macaron Tutorial which many of you have wrote me about. On this particular visit to Home Goods, I found this adorable three tier trolley which I easily envisioned for an afternoon tea party at my home. I threw a tea party the year before but realized my 3-tier cake stand just wasn't cutting it anymore. There was so much food to be displayed that I thought there had to be a better way. This trolley definitely seemed like it was made just for me. After bringing this baby back home with us from Portland, I was able to fulfill my dream of hosting a tea party with a three tier tea trolley.
The week of the party was a busy one which included two Vancouver foodie events and my first visit with Deborah Moore on her radio show. I didn't have a lot of time to prepare a very epic tea party with my new trolley but I did make macarons (of course), chicken salad sandwiches and prepare melon and prosciutto. My girlfriend brought over smoked salmon and I picked up the rest of the delicious items from some of my favorite local vendors:
Beta5 Cream Puffs
They are most well known for their uniquely flavoured cream puffs and beautiful artisan chocolates. Even if you're not from Vancouver, you can purchase their chocolates online but you better fly here to taste a bit of heaven that is their cream puffs.
Pappa Roti
My girlfriends couldn't stop raving about the coffee buns from Pappa Roti. They are the most delicious buns with a crackle top. Every part of the bun is infused with a strong buttery flavour that is just ohhh so good! I purchased these buns the night before and placed them inside the oven for a few minutes before serving and they tasted just as good as they do at the store.
Gabi and Jules
I attended a beautiful pie picnic at Gabi and Jules in the summer and one of the items in our favours bag was Scone Mix. I had placed it aside but I was so happy to have it on hand for the party. On the morning of the party, all I had to do was place this mix in a large bowl, add buttermilk (I used milk and lemon juice) and mix. Scoop the mix out onto a tray lined with parchment paper and bake. That's it! They came out perfect - crumbly and buttery. Everyone loved them and I don't know if I ever need to make scones from scratch ever again. Here is the link to the scone mix if you're interested.
(Disclosure: This is NOT a sponsored post. I was invited to Pappa Roti and Gabe and Jules as a guest last year. All opinions are my own.)
As for the macarons, I created a new design which was intended to be "teddy bears hanging onto xmas trees" but someone remarked that the red version looked like bears holding onto magic mushrooms. Okay, so I guess a good thing about this design is that you can use it in the spring season as well? LOL. When I first unveiled this design, I did not bother to create a computer generated template for you all to download. I didn't think anyone cared but then a loyal reader asked for it and of course, I always love to provide info and resources where possible for my readers so here it is! Enjoy this "bear on tree" or "bear on magic mushroom" template! Don't forget to print out BOTH the front and the back template since this is an asymmetrical design.
Make sure you sign up for my newsletter if you'd like to be informed of new posts and free templates. I only do mailings for these types of posts and no spam ever 🙂
XOXO
Mimi
[srp post_limit='5' post_random='yes' category_include= 24 widget_title = 'Some more of my Macaron Art']
anastasia athanasiadou says
Your password doesn't seem to work. Any idea why?
Mimi says
Hi Anastasia,
I believe everything is okay. I tried it a few times. Would you mind trying again and let me know if there are any more problems? If you do, I will just send you the templates you need to your email 🙂
xoxo,
Mimi
Anastasia says
Dear Mimi,
Wow, I really didn't expect you would reply to my quest. I am sure you are so much occupied with your amazing work. You are so talented and so generous sharing all your secrets with us that is really toutching. Congratulations and keep on being an inspiration to all of us.
First time with macarons and your recipy worked like a charm. Nice feet, full body, melt in your mouth buttercream, I cried out of joy. Too pitty they were all devoured before managing to take some photos.
Unfortunately I had no luck with your templates. I would so much like to try my luck with some macaron art. If you could send them to my email I would be the happiest woman in the world. I know you have so much to do that it didn't I would totally understand.
Again thank you so much for your interest.
Mimi says
I'm so happy you had good results with my recipe. That is the best feeling of all!
I just sent the email to you. Please let me know if you have any more problems.
XOXO,
Mimi
Anastasia says
Thank you so much for the templates!!! You are awsome. It's too pitty I won't be able to have access to any new templates.
Thank you again for your time.
Mimi says
I changed some backend settings again. You can try the password again and see if it works. I hope it works for you since I just uploaded 2 new flower templates and there's also some others which I didn't send you.
XOXO,
Mimi