This is a continuation from “Pearls, Lace and Diamonds! A Girl’s Best Friends!” Theme, Part Two.
For fun beverages, offer three non-alcoholic mocktail punch beverages, which you appropriately rename – “Pearls’ Perfectly Perfect Punch” (which is actually Planter’s Punch or something similar), “Lace’s Old-Fashioned Lemonade” (whatever lemonade recipe you like or try French Lemonade) and “Diamonds’ Glampagne” (make ‘Champagne Punch’, substituting sparkling cider for the Champagne). Be sure to make cards with the name of each mocktail and attach them to the container, the guests will enjoy the references to the theme and trying each of them. It might be fun for guests to ‘vote’ for whomever prepared their favorite beverage. Make up pre-printed slips of paper with either “Pearls”, “Lace” or “Diamonds”. Guest will choose their favorite and drop it into a small decorated hat box or container for tallying later in the party.
With food displays, line the food trays with lots of paper lace doilies. For dessert, make “Paper Lace” Flower Cake/Food Picks for adorable cupcake toppers. Order or make a bowl of edible ‘Pearls’ (cover Rice Krispies Treats or cake balls with pre-made white fondant icing, made in ’2-bite’ sized balls or made into slightly larger balls as Pops. Roll them in white coarse sanding sugar for sparkle.
If you want to go ‘all out’ or some level thereof, decorate a “Pearls, Lace and Diamonds!” cake that will ‘Wow!’ your guests. Make or order an inexpensive layer cake done in white icing, piped in your accent color or all-white frosting. Now you’ll take this ordinary cake to an extraordinary cake! Make lots of “Paper Lace” flowers in a variety of sizes, probably 1 dz of the smallest size, 6-8 medium size and 2-3 of the largest size. From a craft store in candymaking and wedding aisles, purchase 1 container of white coarse sanding sugar glitter, one set of plastic ‘diamonds’ usually marketed as mini ornaments, and 1 or 2 inexpensive strands of craft or dress-up pearls. Wash all the ‘diamonds’ (remove cord hangers) and pearls with dish washing liquid soap and wipe dry; bag in a clean zipper baggie.
Up to 1 hour before the party starts, embellish the cake. Place the cake on your cake platter which is covered by a large paper lace doily. Sprinkle the entire top layer of icing with coarse white sanding sugar for a subtle sparkle (only sugar the flat surface of the top layer, work around any icing embellishments). Next, place the largest lace flower in the center of the top layer. Continue placing the flowers so they flow from the center of the cake’s top layer, curve around towards the edge, spill over the edge of the top layer, and cascade down to the cake plate which is also lined with a large paper doily. Then, place your pearls in an artistic way, drape them casually over the edge, following the same lines as the floral cascade. Place the second strand of pearls. Last come the ‘diamonds’; thoughtfully place the diamonds, tucking them in with the lace flowers here and there, following the same cascading lines. Voila! A gorgeous (and reasonably priced) custom “Pearls, Lace and Diamonds!” Cake! When cutting the cake, you can remove the embellishments from the individual pieces as you go, or point out the diamonds to the guests as you hand them their slice.
