How I Hosted A Family Birthday Party For 25 People

Good morning you guys so it is Monday at a nice little 9 14 a.m. and my papa's 85th birthday is this Saturday however I am going out of town Tuesday to Thursday. Today starts the beginning of prepping for his birthday party that you and I are gonna be hosting together because I'm bringing you along for everything this entire summer. Actually it's really fun because our girls group chat my friends and I went from scrapping yap because we love scrapping and yapping together those are literally our night our girls night scrapping yap and I love it to girl summer because there's just so many things in the world and it's gonna be super fun I'm so excited to take y'all with me but first things first my papa is the sweetest kindest most selfless man y'all have probably seen him in so many videos especially on Instagram he's taught me so much in the garden just like he's helped me he literally helped me pull the carpets that were so dusty and so old like 50 plus years old out of my living room and my den and he's helped me with so many renovations on this house and outside they're just amazing both my grandparents are amazing we're gonna celebrate him in his big 85 this Saturday his birthday is actually today so I'm gonna try to do something before I go out of town for him today but because he's 85 he's not getting just one he's getting two birthday cakes and so that's what we're gonna work on today so that I can let them completely cool and then we're gonna wrap them up in parchment paper and then a plastic wrap and I'm gonna put our serene wrap and I'm gonna put them in my deep freezer and then on Thursday I'm going to have them thaw out on the counter overnight and then Friday I'll assemble them put them in their little cake containers and also on Friday I'll take out with me we're gonna make so the menus I wanted it kind of fun and springy and bright and fresh because all of my mom's I my family will be here and we're actually gonna set it up outside too under I have a Japanese maple tree in the middle of my backyard right kind of right next to the chicken coop which will be really fun for all the little kids and so I have two outdoor tables and then one table I keep in like my carport area that I bring in and out when I have larger dinner parties or like more than I can fit in my bankhead so we're gonna bring those three tables out in the middle of the yard we have a little 85 has never looked better I think it's what it says birthday sign and I'm gonna try to do some paper chains hanging from the maple tree too and that will do Friday as well and oh I think I meant to share the menu it's gonna be like homemade tortellini I think I'm gonna marinate some chicken we'll grill it super super early Saturday morning because because of all the little kids they go down for naps early so we have to eat pretty early reading around I know they'll get here around 1030 in the morning but we'll eat around 11 a.m. so it's gonna be like brunch lunch which is why I wanted it lighter and springy and it's also going to be like 85 89 degrees outside thankfully no it's gonna be cloudy so we shouldn't get it shouldn't be super super hot and I'll be like earlier in the morning so we're gonna start the cakes today are I was gonna do a carrot cake I'm a little fun and this is also the best I was gonna do carrot cake and then I was gonna slice it in half and then do like frosting in the middle and then on top but I decided last minute to switch it up to a hummingbird cake cuz I haven't made that in a while and he does love like pineapple and coconut even though hummingbird cake doesn't coconut it does have pecans and he's a pecan lover so we're gonna do a hummingbird cake in my butt cake pan which I've never done that before in a bun cake pan so we'll see how that turns out and then after it cools I'll slice it in half and then wrap it away I'll have a cream cheese frosting cream cheese buttercream frosting and then the other cake is it's just a spring go-to for the past like five years it's my lemon Chantilly cake it's super light and bright and it's fun because my chamomile outside in the garden is blooming and usually I like to decorate the lemon Chantilly cake with some fresh thyme and chamomile flowers and some lemon slices but I won't add those to like right before everyone comes because sometimes lemon slices sweat so they'll like fall down in the frosting so I add those very last but I'm gonna toast the pecans and let's just get to it cake it's a southern specialty made with mashed bananas but it doesn't taste like banana bread so you don't have to worry about it being a banana bread cake even though the does sound kind of delicious so it has mashed bananas that crushed pineapple and then toasted pecans some people also add coconut which would be very delicious but I don't think I'm gonna do that today so we're gonna keep with the classic trio and for the mashed bananas you need about a cup which is typically two to three bananas we're gonna mash an extra one because I did not mash another little trick when you go to make cakes that my Nana taught me is the more acidity like buttermilk sour cream and having it also be cultured buttermilk and cultured sour cream it will help make for a lighter more moist cake that will also stay moist longer so which so it's like really helpful when you're prepping cakes in advance like I'm doing now so now we're on to the lemon chantilly cake and for this one it's gonna be a typical layer cake we're gonna do two at 9-inch cake pans and then I'm gonna split it in half or slice it in half or four very thin cake layers and one of my biggest tips I'm making any kind of lemon baked good is to rub the lemon zest and the sugar together just for like 30 seconds it's gonna help release all those lemon essential oils and make it very aromatic and just so much more lemony flavored and you also don't want to get the white on lemon you just want to do a nice little a nice little zester moment so you're just getting the yellow of the lemon and of the lemon pill otherwise the white will be very bitter it's gonna smell so good at this point Oh first week is done for them to have to like roam outside of the run we have our hummingbird cake which smells so good this one's just like a southern classic comfort cake but it's still super springy because of the pineapple and the bananas in it I do kind of wish I added coconut but I wasn't gonna run to the store to buy coconut then we have the lemon Chantilly's which I just pulled out the ovens there the pans are nice and hot and those need to cool in their pan for about 20 minutes I'm gonna flip the bundt cake and a key tip when you're prepping any cakes in advance because even when I'm not prepping like five days in advance for a party of any kind whether it be a dinner party birthday party whatever that I'm making a cake for is I always prep the cakes the day before I frost them and if I am not prepping more than two days in advance then I'll just leave it on the counter I'll wrap it in parchment paper and then saran wrap as I mentioned earlier and store it on the counter away from direct sunlight and heat and it's perfect in this case which I'm prepping five days in advance the case I'm going to put them in the freezer I'm gonna wrap them the exact same way except I might just toss them in a freezer safe bag just to make sure they don't get freezer frost yeah I just want them to be stored perfectly and oh I did also make a homemade lemon curd with lots of lemon zest this is going to be in between the frosting like the lemon chantilly and then the frosting the lemon curd and I'm very excited for that one I think I might switch from the traditional lemon buttercream that I make with my lemon chantilly to a Swiss meringue buttercream which if you followed along to my other dinner party videos I talked about how much I love a Swiss meringue buttercream thinking with the heat I don't know if that's gonna uphold but I'll probably keep the cakes inside and then bring them outside right when we're about to eat them and yeah I think that's pretty much it for now all this will the lemon curd will hold in the fridge for a week so that's totally fine you do want to make sure saran wrap is covering directly on the surface of lemon curd because I can form like this tough shell on top and I'm gonna let those cool and I will see you guys Friday hello happy Friday morning long time no see you guys so I am finally back from literally if you guys follow me on Instagram you've seen it the most insane trip with home goods I've been shopping at home goods with my mom and my aunt and my Nana since I was a little girl so this is it's mind-blowing and it's all thanks to you guys so that was really fun to take you guys along with that on Instagram today though we gotta get to work it is 948 a.m. and I've done all my morning chores in the morning work and my papa's birthday is tomorrow and everyone's arriving at 10 a.m. but I was like we're not gonna eat until 11 because let me explain the agenda for today so one I set out my cake last night when I got home from the airport to thaw and I can film and they're pretty much thawed and then I went to cake stands out we're gonna go ahead and assemble the cakes and then we're gonna start working on the homemade pasta I want to do like lemon ricotta tortellini maybe I feel like that'd be really fun and then I need to make two batches of my sourdough focaccia and then marinate the chicken I think that's pretty much it I wanted to keep the menu really simple I'll make a salad tomorrow I might prep like the lemon vinaigrette for the salad today as well and then we also need to go outside and set up everything because tomorrow's gonna be really pretty and it is gonna be like 80 but since we're eating and everyone's coming over earlier in the day my backyard where we'll have it it's pretty much shaded by trees so I think it won't get too hot and overwhelming outside so we're gonna set up three tables out there my mom got this like 85th birthday banner and then I might use some paper chain banners that kept from like dinner parties as well so let's get to it so for the hummingbird bun cake we're going to do just like a classic cream cheese buttercream which I didn't have time for this to soften so we'll just beat it a little bit longer so whenever I make cream cheese frosting the little trick is a dash of ground nutmeg I usually like fresh nutmeg but also I have a whole jar of ground up like so we're just gonna let it go to waste so like I'm not slicing this in half evenly I could have probably added more frosting this is a funky looking cake you gotta make it look a little prettier first one done gotta get every last inch the one trick with Swiss meringue buttercream is that you want our sugar mixture to be completely cooled like even cooler than room temperature I'm gonna whip this until stiff peaks toss it in the fridge for 10 minutes and then add my softened butter or else it's just gonna turn into one big fleshy which is totally fine you could just pop it in the fridge for like 20-30 minutes and then rewhip it and it'll be perfect so this is the texture we are going for if you kind of feel it and it feels like not warm but cool down you can just go ahead and start adding the butter this one will not be uneven we're gonna slice it perfectly in half okay not bad we are finally done with both of the cakes we have the hummingbird cake which is very I did not cut in half properly or evenly at all but it's okay it's a cake it tastes good because I sliced off a little slither and then my lemon chantilly which I did a really different design for it and I also added the lemon curd I'm very excited for both of these I'm gonna put their cake covers on them and then we gotta get started next up is making my sourdough focaccia and the pasta it takes so long I'm gonna let the pasta dough rest for like 30 minutes and I just did double zero flour and eggs and it's about 100 grams double zero flour to one egg or two egg yolks so that's ratio I did here I did seven times that so seven no six times 600 grams of flour six eggs and if it gets a little dry you can just add a little bit of water and then now I think I'm gonna start in the ricotta filling so now we're on to the pasta you could roll this out with like any rolling pin which I actually normally do a rolling pin but I brought out the pasta machine because we have a lot more dough to get through so I decided I kind of tested this out I think I might do this almost candy shape I am sure has a specific Italian name but we're gonna call it candy shape right now and I'm using my great-great-aunt's little pasta roller to give it some scalloped edges I don't know why I decided to do pasta for I think there's gonna be like 26 people tomorrow you never know I was like let's make it springy and fun and light which is nice because it's gonna be 80 plus degrees tomorrow but at the same time I'm like this is a lot of pasta to make which is why I'm making a double batch of focaccia and chicken so they can fill up on that and not just the pasta as the main I'm just piping our lemon ricotta mixture and then I'll use a chef's knife to slice it I'm trying to give about like two inches in between each ricotta piping so that I can roll it and I love using whenever you make any kind of ricotta or pasta shapes that have a filling I found using water to wet the edges and then rolling it or then like adding the second sheet of pasta on top makes all the difference to help seal it in sit on the ground and I'm done okay happy Saturday and day of my Papa's 85th birthday party so we've been running around this morning getting things we put like covers over the table so that any pollen because the pollen is so bad right now what I get on the tables to the streamers fell down so I retied those up and then as you saw I went ahead and put out like the silverware and the food coverings which I know you guys are gonna ask I got them all at Home Goods um which is so nice because flies is also like one of the biggest struggles with hosting but I also this morning as soon as I woke up got started on the focaccia so I had time to cool hopefully you can see how beautiful and golden they are right it's just always incredible bread butter honey or bread and honey butter is great for hosting too because people can like fill up on that when they're hungry and there's you know that way you don't have to make an exorbitant amount of food next up I oh let me show you this setup for the pasta so this is my little ravioli setup the ravioli is in the fridge but I have the water filled the pot filled with water and then the salt nearby so I can salt it once it starts boiling bowls two different types of ravioli fresh basil and basil pesto and then parmesan and the grater those bananas will be turned into pancakes tomorrow and I'm very excited but yeah this is I showed y'all this and like my other dinner party video it's always great to set up your station so that you're not running all over the kitchen looking for everything other than that I have the arugula for the salad and my favorite additions to a salad oh I also made a lemon vinaigrette super simple and easy and then I have my radishes and sweet peas snap peas I don't know why I always want to say sweet peas sugar snap peas and usually I love watermelon radish but it is still a little bit early in the season here in North Carolina to get it locally so hopefully that will be in the next month or so but yeah I'm gonna go ahead and toss this together but I'm not gonna add the vinaigrette until right before everyone comes same for the pasta I'm not gonna cook it until everyone will start arriving about an hour before we actually eat so I went ahead and put some chips which was in the red pasta strainer that you guys saw me putting out there on the birthday present table so that the kids and anyone else can just like snack on that before we eat and I think that's oh I also if you saw I'm my mom got this cannon the lavender loose leaf tea and it makes such good sweet tea so I went ahead and brewed that last night let it cool overnight and I just like halfway covered it with the completely cool and I'll also deepen the flavor and then it'll be very strongly brewed when you do that and then obviously like a little sugar and honey in it I'll put ice in that right before everyone starts coming to I think that might be it so I might see y'all when everyone starts getting here we'll see I don't know I know what I was gonna say I need to run to the store and get charcoal for my grill heat the grill and then grill the chicken the beautiful thing about chicken when it's not like fried chicken you can just cover in foil and my grandparents are here fascinating I'll be back that was really funny they came over to drop off water and then candles my Nana's been in a candle making and soap making mood and then while we were out there one of the chickens had gone out of the little fenced in area and we were looking we're like that chicken looks like it's outside the fence and then Aspen was nose-to-nose with the chicken which was a good thing to know that she's not gonna like pounce on them I was really fearful that was a problem but it looks like we're doing pretty good so what I was saying earlier though is I need to run and get charcoal and grill the chicken because the beautiful thing about chicken is you can just cover it in foil and then pop that baby in the oven at like 100 degrees Fahrenheit and I'll stay warm and moist and you're set so let's start doing this