Party Prep

I had a little help with the baking. Shhh...

I am the maid of honor in an upcoming wedding this October. Therefore, I am in charge of throwing a bridal shower. This Saturday is the date of the anticipated event. I am excited, but nervous as this is my first time planning such an affair. It will be an intimate, cozy party (her mother will be throwing a separate one for the majority of her extended family). I decided to go for an afternoon tea theme. The bride lives in NYC and loves the restaurant Alice's Tea Cup (there are 3 locations). It is a fantastic place for brunch or afternoon snacks. The bride and I have enjoyed several extended gab sessions over pots of lavender earl grey and I thought it would be nice to bring these fond memories to theme the bridal shower.

Party planning takes a lot of work, but it is also very fun and allows for a great amount of creativity (something I love). In order for the day of the party to run smoothly, I want to get as much done beforehand as possible. I will be serving a variety of treats, and I wanted to make as many as I could in advance. I checked all the recipes and made sure that each would keep well for the big day.

Lots of work being done here, people!

Today, I chose to make lemon bars, shortbread wedges, and double chocolate mocha cookies. The lemon bars are from Gourmet magazine via epicurious.com. I love epicurious and this recipe was very easy. The shortbread wedges, too, were incredibly simple to make. I found the recipe on realsimple.com.

As you can tell by my focus on the ease of recipes, I am not too confident in my baking skills. I want everything to taste great, so I didn't want  fussy recipes that allowed too much space for disaster. Thus, my secret shame: Duncan Hines. Hey, I heard Jackie O used the box mix on occasion as well. I used the recipe for Chocolate Espresso Cookies on the back of the box (I used instant regular coffee instead of instant espresso). They are AH-MAZING. My faith in the box is solid. Just don't tell Martha.

Post Note: Here is the recipe for the  Duncan Heins Dark Chocolate Espresso Cookies. In mine, I used instant Folger's regular coffee because that was what we had in the house. I also skipped the Hershey's Kiss and put in small semi-sweet chocolate chips (about a bag). They were so good! Everyone loved them! I am going to make the same with gluten-free brownie mix for my mom.