80th Birthday Party ~ dessert table

December 2017 has been an extra busy month which is why I have not had time to post for the past several weeks. I am happy to finally be back and have a lot of fun things to share. 

The past several months I have been planning a party with my two sisters for our Mother's 80th Birthday which was December 23rd. We decided to have a family brunch celebration and chose a Scandinavian theme in honor of her Swedish heritage. 

I decided to share the dessert table first since it was so much fun to prepare. For the backdrop I used a rod and curtains that previously hung in Miss E's bedroom. She helped me by hanging string lights on the wall behind the curtains and I strung red wooden beads along the top. The top seemed a bit blah so I made tissue paper pom poms to hang above the beads which made it look much more finished. 

Our mother requested a chocolate birthday cake with chocolate frosting so Miss E made her famous Chocolate Espresso Cake with mascarpone frosting. We dirty frosted the cake and added a chocolate ganache drip glaze to the top. 

I made edible almond pinecones which we added to the top of the cake along with fresh roses, sugar coated cranberries and number sparklers.

For the final touch I made a mini gold lace crown to set on top.

Since the cake was not very big I made a batch of chocolate cupcakes as well. 

I made several edible "snow" covered trees. A gingerbread tree, strawberry tree and a donut tree which was part of the centerpiece on the main table. 

We also had a variety of Swedish cookies.

My youngest sister made the Chokladbollar cookies.

I made the Rosenmunnar cookies,  Swedish Almond cookies and snowball cookies.

Of course we could not have a Swedish themed birthday party without a Swedish Princess Cake. I was very excited about making this cake and was really pleased with how it turned out. I started out by using a  new recipe for the cake however it did not turn out how I thought it should so made a new one using one of my own recipes. From there the cake went together perfectly and I would definitely make it again. 

The layers consisted of cake, pastry cream, raspberry jam, whipped cream and marzipan. Mr. Wonderful had trouble cutting the cake due to a ribbon he didn't realize I had tied at the bottom for decoration so the pieces did not cut clean.  However, they tasted amazing!

Last but not least, the Swedish Cream Parfaits.

These fancy little parfaits are topped with a mixed berry compote. I used plastic champagne flutes for the individual servings. 

There you have it, the complete dessert table at Mom's 80th Birthday Party. 

I will be posting more birthday party details this week so be sure and check back. 

Have a wonderful day!