Nothing Bakes Like a Parrott

Autumn Inspired Wedding Dessert Table

The 2011 wedding season came to a close for Nothing Bakes Like a Parrott this past sunday at Grace in Portland.  We ended on a great note with this fall inspired cupcake table.

The wedding colors were beautiful fall tones of browns, golds, purples, and pewter.  I have been dying to use kale in a dessert table this season and was so excited to finally get to showcase it!  Along with sweet mini pumpkins!

The cupcake flavors were also inspired by the seasons.  We made a tasty pumpkin cupcake with maple buttercream, a vanilla spice cupcake with a fresh apple chutney filling and a delicious chocolate cupcake with chocolate ganache.  Yum!

We also had a first in our kitchen by making non-pareils!  This nostaligic tasty treat was such a great addition and surprisingly not as difficult as I initially thought to make!  Along with the non-pareils we also had fall-inspired M&M's.

The rooms was beautiful (as always with Grace!)

Probably one of my most favorite details was the lace around the vase - fanastic!

Nostalgic Candy Buffet

...or what I like to call - HEAVEN!  I have a serious weakness for candy, especially candy that I loved eatting when I was younger.  This candy buffet had everything from candy necklaces to candy buttons, nerds to necco wafers, peach rints to rock candy.  Mini to-go boxes are lined up on the back of the table, allowing guests to mix and match their favorites, making the perfect favor for guests to take home!

Holiday Etsy Sweets!

This week I have been working on expanding the sweets in my Etsy shop!  I have added a few different sweets and will be adding more by next week (so check back often!)

The Holidays is a great time for sweets!  In the shop we have added Homemade Hot Chocolate (seriously.. delicious!), chocolate dipped homemade marshmallows, cookies, and brownie pops! 

If you need a gift we offer a gift that keeps on giving - The Whoopie Pie of the Month Club!  Every month receive either a 1/2 dozen or a dozen freshly baked whoopie pies in the flavor of the month.  We offer different memberships from 3 to 12 months.  It is a great gift that anyone will surely love!

Please check out our Etsy Shop (and again check back often!)

 

A Sugary Sweet Wedding

This past weekend I had the pleasure of created two fantastic tables for a lovely bride Julie.  I was absolutely thrilled to have be able to do both a dessert table and a candy buffet because they are two of my most favorite things to do!  Julie worked extremely hard finding and ordering all the candy for the table (she is my type of woman... lots and LOTS of candy!!) and I designed the set up for it.  The candy included everything from sour balls, to gum balls, lollipops, rock candy, and Hershey's chocolate bars.  For the dessert table Julie decided to stick to four different types of desserts - including hand dipped and painted Brides and Grooms chocolate strawberries, chocolate dipped brownie pops, Red Sox sugar cookies and cheesecake bites with blueberry sauce, chocolate sauce, or strawberry sauce.

Everything came out fantastic!!  A thank you to my lovely husband and mother who sacrificed their Thursday, Friday, and Saturday to help me! :)

{seriously! so adorable... but when you are painting bow ties at 4:30 in the morning.. the adorable-ness goes away!}

Fire and Water Dessert Buffet

Meet my friend Sarai (and myself):

Sarai have been friends since high school, she is a fire fighter in Saco, Maine, allergic to food colorings, and she just celebrated her 26th birthday.  For her birthday my husband and myself had a gathering for her at our house.  Like most gatherings I have, I find a great excuse to create lovely desserts!  I wanted to do something for her that involved her love of fire fighting but obviously not the easiest of things to do considering she is allergic to food colorings.

I decided to do a Fire and Ice themed dessert buffet - which would include fire colored desserts and white "water" desserts that Sarai could actually eat.  I even flexed my artistic charm by painting two posters to look like fire and water.

The desserts included chocolate covered pretzels in red, orange, and yellow, chocolate cupcakes with buttercream, vanilla cupcakes with buttercream, white chocolate covered toasted coconut balls, and cinnamon and mint candy.

My favorite part of this table was the chocolate cupcakes.  I did a simple buttercream trick that made the frosting look like flames!

Sea Glass Candy

Growing up in Maine, collecting sea glass was a summer past time.  As a child, my sister and I would walk the beaches in Cape Elizabeth and Scarborough looking for any shard of sea glass we could find.  I always loved the beautiful hues of blue, green, and brown all the different sea glass we found came in. 

I was excited when a potential client asked me if I had ever made edible sea class.  I have had a recipe for a while but had not got the chance to use it yet, so I figured this would be the perfect time!  I made three different types of sea glass candy to emulate the glass I found as a child, except these are super tasty (and edible!)  The brown sea glass is root beer flavored (yummy!), the blue is mint, and the green is just good old sugar! 

Sea glass candy is perfect for a Maine summer wedding on the beach to accent all your dessert needs. Sea glass candy would also be a perfect favor for all your guests.  Placing the candy in a small box or tin would be a great send off and thank you to everyone who shared in your special day.

Sea glass candy is also a great addition to any dessert or candy buffet.  Placed in a nice glass candy jar or bowl, it will look beautiful on your table.

Cupcakes and Cakes can also benefit from the sea glass candy!  Sea glass can be topped on frosted cupcakes and miniature cupcakes as a fantastic accent.  It also can be placed on the base of a wedding cake or even on the wedding cake to add different texture and color.

Contact [email protected] to find out how you can add edible sea glass to your wedding or party day!

Candy and Sweet Treat Buffet

A candy and sweet treat buffet is a sweet way to make a lasting impression that your guests will remember forever. The ultimate favor or additional dessert is becoming a hot new trend for weddings or special events.

Let Nothing Bakes like a Parrott create a custom candy and sweet treat buffet that will fix any sweet tooth. Candies and desserts vary from your favorite nostalgic penny candy, cupcakes, hand dipped pretzel rods, and sugar cookies. All ideas and sweet creations are welcome and can be customized to fit any occasion from a classy wedding to a funky Sweet 16th Birthday.

I have finally compiled a list of different sweets Nothing Bakes Like a Parrott offers!  But just remember you are not limited to the list, if you have more ideas of something you enjoy but you do not see it on my list, let us know and we would be more than happy to create it for you! Click here to get the list!

To see more fantastic examples of different Candy and Sweet Treat Buffet please visit this gallery!

What a Spook-tacular sweet Halloween!

I love Halloween!  It has become such an important part of my life growing up and it continues to play such a happy and exciting part in my life today.  Last week I spent a large amount of my time preparing my house for the Robitaille's Halloween Spook-tacular.  This being my husband and I's first Halloween Party and having the innate ability to go slightly overboard for holidays I knew this was going to be great!

Our living room turned into a blood splatter, coffin chamber while our dinning room turned into a witch's cabin.  I decided I wanted to create a dessert buffet and drink table for all of my guests along with my fantastic decorations!

My dessert buffet included:

• Creepy Cupcakes
• Popcorn balls
• Carmel apples
• Ghost and pumpkin brownie pops
• Sugar grave and pumpkin cookies
• Witches fingers
• Donut hole eyeballs (these were my favorite!)

 

My drink table included:

• Witch's Brew Sangria (straight from the witches who inhabit the Keys!)
• Spiced Rum Cider (including pumpkin brains)
• A mixture of Zombie and dead man beer
• Lemon Jell-o shots in Urine specimen containers (ewww! but they were sterile...phew!)

Cooking for a Cure

Last week I had the honor and privilege to take part in the Noyes Brain Tumor Foundation's 6th Annual Cooking for a Cure to help raise money for the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. The Cooking for a Cure event consisted of many local Maine restaurants donating their delicious food for guests to indulge in. Being my first year I was very excited to be involved and created a magnificent dessert buffet for all to enjoy.  I baked many delicious treats including chocolate fleur del sel, coconut cream, strawberry dream, and mocha buttercream cupcakes, chocolate chip and macadamia nut cookies, toffee, brownie pops drizzled with white chocolate, hand made swirled orange lollipops, orange spiced carrot cake, and many more treats.  I added a personalized touch with the colors from the Foundations logo. 

The Noyes Brain Tumor Foundation started in 2002 when Matthew Noyes, son of William and Nancy Noyes, was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor.  Matt was my husband Jason's friend growing up and they had played on their first hockey team together.  I had always head amazing childhood stories of Matt and stories as he fought a brave battle with cancer.  I had met him once a year before he died at his wedding in June of 2007 and he seemed like such an amazing and carefree person - it was an absolute inspiration.  After Matt had lost his battle with cancer in April of 2008 I went to his funeral with my husband and sister-in-law, I listen to Matt's parents, friends, and family talk about Matt's life and he seemed like such an unbelievable person and I was heavyhearted that I never was able to get to know him. 

The night of Cooking for a Cure was an absolute celebration of Matt's life.  There was a live band, The Calypso Cowboys and they were followed by the St. Jude's Dance Team.  The whole night was a blast and I cannot wait till next year to be involved again!