Pepper Design Blog

Oh-So-Yummy Ice Cream Dessert Buffet!

I stumbled across this adorable ice cream dessert buffet by Amy of Eat Drink Chic while perusing some of my favorite blogs (thanks Little Ant Design blog!) and had to share it with you! I think it’s absolutely fantastic — from the candy pink theme to the perfect little labels (which, by the way, are available as free template downloads at the original post!).

This easy buffet bar allows the hostess to build a crafty dessert center with very little food prep — 100% of your buffet could be store bought and no one would think twice about it! Plus, it allows guests to customize their own special treat, making the dessert delicious & fun! The free label downloads are so darling and ideal for any dessert buffet, from a wedding to a kid’s party.

Follow the jump to find more fun images from Amy’s masterpiece! Read more »

Friday Guest Blog Interview: Celebrations at Home!

It is such an honor to host Chris of Celebrations at Home for our Friday Guest Blog series! She’s an extremely talented event planner & styler (you MUST check out her nautical themed baby shower after the jump!) with a degree in Fashion Merchandising and a spot-on specialty for creating perfect celebrations. Her passions include fashion, interior decorating and entertaining — and you’ll absolutely agree with me that her eye for details is superb after reading her interview! After throwing a multitude of themed parties, showers and events for family and friends, she finally took her passion to the blogging world and created Celebrations at Home.

Again, we quizzed her with four critical home & entertaining design questions, and you will love her answers! She’s offered us some incredible inspiration, tips and DIY ideas for our next Celebration at Home. Read more »

Cupcake Heaven: Delicious Lemon Raspberry!

The search today for modern & pretty — but delightfully appetizing & divine — cupcakes is virtually endless. Cupcakes are the new wedding cake, dessert bar and afternoon snack. There are so many fabulous bakeries sprinkled about to satisfy the craving — but when Vanilla Bake Shop decided to divulge one of it’s best kept secrets, how to recreate the salivatingly sweet Raspberry Meyer Lemon Cupcake with Martha and her audience, I dropped everything to give it a try myself. Amy Berman (founder of the Santa Monica patisserie) was featured on The Martha Stewart Show after proving that her cupcakes were not only beautiful, but also extraordinarily finger-licking delicious!

Note: the Raspberry Meyer Lemon Cupcake is pictured top left in the picture below, the other delicious goodies shown are also all Vanilla Bake Shop.

After many an attempt to recreate such delectable finds on my own, I borrowed Amy’s recipe to make the (complicated but definitely worth it) treats for a friend’s beach baby shower.

While the pressed white sugar topping is clever (I’ll be using that again) I opted to swap it out for crushed graham crackers for a sun-kissed, sandy-beach cupcake topped with candy shells. (Another great hint after experimentation: try adding a whole raspberry into each filling hole with the lemon meyer concentrate – you’ll knowwhat I mean after you watch the video). For a link to a video of Martha and Amy assembling the mini creations — as well as the recipe — follow the jump. Read more »