Pinkies Up! - A Birthday Tea Party Table

Happy Birthday to my sweet, amazing Mom! She is thoughtful, loving, caring, extremely funny, and she knows how to have a good time. She just also happens to be the #1 Nana, and has the coffee mug to prove it. I would not be a cookie baker if it weren't for my mom. We spent countless hours in the kitchen baking together when I was little. She is the one that encouraged me to start my own cookie business. When times get stressful, I know I can turn to her for encouragement. She's just awesome!

My mom is also a tea lover, drinks it every night. She collects teacups and teapots. And, I love to find her unique tea bags and flavors.  To celebrate her special day, I made her a miniature birthday tea party set completely out of cookies!

Pinkies up! This cookie collection has everything needed for a tea party for four! There are oodles of sweets, including the cupcakes, a 3-tier birthday cake, and sugar cookies with sprinkles on top. Also on the table are cucumber sandwiches with the crusts cut off. 

My favorite part of the project was creating the cupcake tower. I have been dreaming of making this for some time. From the table to the top cupcake it measures 14 inches. In my cookie cutter collection, I have a nice assortment of minis. I have picked them up along the way and found many at www.foosecookiecutters.com. That is where I found the mini teacup and teapot. However, I did not have a mini cupcake, and since I dislike cutting cookie by hand, I 'Sugarbelled' them. [To Sugarbelle: verb. To take two or more different cookie cutter shapes and cut them together to create a brand new unique cookie shape] I took a mini purse cookie cutter and the teapot and cut them together to make 21 mini cupcakes. 

Everything is made from cookies, well, with one exception. The supports under each tray on the cupcake tower is a child's building block. I couldn't get a sturdy enough support out of anything edible, and boy did I try! So maybe that is cheating just a little. This photo is a great view of the detail around the sides of the cupcake tower. I have seen this simple draping design on many wedding cakes, but this was the first time I tried it on a cookie.

The only other non-cookie item at the tea party, is found on the top tier of the tower. I used two Canada mints to give that center cupcake a little lift. I wanted that one to sit up a little at the top.

I made four place settings for the tea party. Each guest gets a napkin and silverware set, a plate with a cookie and cucumber sandwich, and a teacup on a saucer. The milk and sugar are available for those that like to sweeten their tea just a tad, like me. The 3-D cookies (cup and sugar set) are decorated on both sides...that way they will look pretty to my mom from any angle. I painted the silverware with luster dust to give it a bit of a metallic shine. 

This cake was inspired by a mini ring I once saw on Etsy in the Sugar Junkie Shop. I'm a big fan of basket weave, I just love how it looks, and it's easy to do. 

I was going to make one of those cakes that you see as wedding favors. The kind with 6 or so round cookies stacked on top of each other to make a 3-D tiered cake. But, I didn't know how my mom would actually eat that, so I went with Sugarbelle's version of a cake on a pedestal. You can see her tutorial here. One day, I plan to order a cookie cutter that looks like this from Copper Gifts. But since I was only making one, I took the 'construction' route. 

The flower vase was an interesting cookie. Originally, I was going to put the flowers on toothpicks and attach them to the cookie vase. That idea didn't fly, so I glued the flowers together with a little royal icing. Once the structure was dry, I decorated the reverse side so that it would also be pretty from any view. I used a very mini flower cutter that I believe is for fondant. It worked on dough, too, thank goodness. I like how the light shines through the bouquet. Kinda cool, though not planned.

If I'm hosting a birthday tea party, you can be there will be sugar cookies on the table. These mini hearts are just perfect for the table. I used a mini scallop heart and a mini folk heart and accented them with some white nubs (aka non-pareils). 

It was a toss up on whether I was going to serve cucumber sandwiches or egg salad. I went with the cucumber and of course no crusts!

My mom loved it! Here she is with my two little girls seeing it for the first time. She took lots of time to look over the cookies and enjoy each detail. There is nothing like making a special project for someone and have them really enjoy. My mom is just the best. Needless to say, she gave me a thousand hugs! And like any good Nana, she shared her cookies, making Gracie very happy!

You know what I loved the most about making these cookies...I did not use my kopykake! I felt so free and without any pressure to make each cookie perfect or exact. Don't get me wrong, I love my KK. I do not consider it cheating. I consider it a tool. It's especially helpful for characters or specific fonts. But, it's nice to decorate cookies without it once in a while. 

I hope you enjoyed looking at this fun little project! I can tell you that my mom went bananas over it! 

Have a sweet day,

Anne