ROYAL TART – Forum/Blog

It’s the time of the year to celebrate Independence Day–to shoot off fireworks and sparklers into the night sky…Royal Tart has the coolest tube sparklers available. Check them out at www.RoyalTart.com. We can express ship them to you so you can have them for your 4th of July festivities.

Royal Tart also has an amazing Red, White & Boom Celebration available–perfect for your backyard barbeque or poolside picnic lunch.

Cheers,
Tricia

Delivering Complete Prepackaged Designer Parties to Your Door

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Recently I took my boys to a school mate’s birthday party. The theme was a combination of Star Wars and Buzz Lightyear. As with all four year-old birthdays everyone had a great time. What was especially neat about the party was the party favor. The birthday child’s parents were incredibly creative and the kids loved the favors.

Each child was presented with a beribboned package of Astronaut Ice Cream and a space themed activity book.

This party favor would be just as cool presented at the end of an adult birthday party or other celebration as it was at this party.

Most of the time I like party favors to tie to the party theme or at least coordinate with the theme but I could see this favor given out at the end of a traditional cake and ice cream party or if the party honoree is a big fan of space, astronauts, Martians–you get the idea. My Dad would be the perfect honoree for just such a favor as anyone that knows him knows he is BIG on anything space related.

You could also throw a movie theme party and show a space movie or you can throw an ice cream social–any excuse to show off your cool creative entertaining abilities (dare I say “spacey” abilities?).

May The Force Be With You!

Cheers,
Tricia

Delivering Complete Prepackaged Designer Parties to Your DoorHappy Father’s Day.

In need of an amazing chocolaty dessert for your next dinner party, luncheon celebration or summer bbq? Do you need a “wowie” dessert for your July 4th barbeque? Well Royal Tart has a rich summer treat that is easy to make and really worth the time it takes, which is little more than baking a batch of Maida’s famous Chocolate Whopper Cookies and scooping some premium vanilla ice cream between two cookies to make a killer homemade ice cream sandwich.

Maida’s Chocolate Whopper Cookie Recipe

2 ounces (2 squares) unsweetened chocolate
6 ounces semisweet chocolate (Scharffenberger or other premium chocolate)
3/4 stick unsalted butter
1/4 cup sifted all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons powdered (not granular) instant coffee or espresso
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup semisweet chocolate morsels
1 cup walnuts, broken into large pieces
1 cup toasted pecans (you can add 2 cups of just one nut if you would rather)

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper or foil.

Place the unsweetened chocolate, semisweet chocolate, and butter in the top of a small double boiler over hot water on moderate heat (or melt ingredients in the microwave stirring every 30 seconds until melted.). Stir occasionally until melted and smooth. Remove from double boiler and cool slightly.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt, and set aside.

In the small bowl of an electric mixer, beat the eggs, sugar, coffee or espresso, and vanilla at high speed for a minute or two.

Beat in the melted chocolates and butter (which may still be quite warm) on low speed just to mix. Add the sifted dry ingredients and again beat on low speed just to mix, scraping the sides of the bowl as necessary with a rubber spatula to incorporate the ingredients. Remove from the mixer and transfer to a larger bowl.

Stir in the chocolate morsels, the walnuts, and the pecans.

Use a 1/3-cup metal measuring cup to measure the amount of batter for each cookie. Use a rubber spatula to push the mixture into the measuring cup and then to scoop it out onto the lined sheet (the dough is gooey). Do not flatten the tops.

Bake two sheets at a time, reversing the sheets top to bottom and front to back once during baking to ensure even baking. Bake for 16 to 17 minutes-no longer. The surface of the cookies will be dry but the insides will still be soft. There is really no way to test these; just use a portable oven thermometer before baking to be sure your oven is right, and then watch the clock.

When the cookies have cooled, use a wide metal spatula to release them and turn them over to air the bottoms a bit.

Assembling the Ice Cream Sandwiches

Cool cookies completely. While you are baking the cookies thaw vanilla ice cream (the cookie is so rich that I found the only other flavor I liked was coffee). When the cookies are completely cooled and the ice cream is easy to manipulate. Scoop one scoop of ice cream onto one cookie half. Place another cookie half on top of the ice cream scoop and press lightly. Repeat this process. Place all ice cream sandwiches on a cookie sheet and freeze until firm (a couple of hours). Take the ice cream sandwiches out of the freezer a few minutes before serving. Makes about 6-8 ice cream sandwiches. Enjoy.

Cheers,

Tricia

Delivering Complete Prepackaged Designer Parties to Your Door

Royal Tart cannot take credit for this quick and easy but very touching Father’s Day gift idea but we can share it with all of you.
I met a woman at a party and she told me she had been doing this for her husband since her children were babies. Now she has several years collected.

Take a white dress shirt of your husbands or if he doesn’t wear business clothes take one of his work shirts (one that is classic as you will want to save it from year to year) and dress your child or children in the shirt. Take a picture. Put the picture in a frame and voila a super easy, super fun Father’s Day gift. Then next year do the same and the year after… it’s a Father’s Day gift that keeps going year after year so you don’t have to worry about what to get the father of your babies every year—now that is a gift that keeps on giving. Plus, by the time your children are young adults and they can no longer fit into the shirt you will have years of Father’s Day pictures from each stage of the child’s/children’s life.

If you are inclined to take it a step farther. Have the child/children decorate a frame and place the picture in the frame. My four-year old decorated four Popsicle sticks with various buttons then we glued the Popsicle sticks together to make a frame; inserted the picture and covered the back with construction paper. The result is darling. It will be part of my husband’s cherished pictures for a long time.

Happy Father’s Day.

Cheers,
Tricia

Delivering Complete Prepackaged Designer Parties to Your DoorHappy Father’s Day.

Hi All You Last-Minuters,

Here’s a super easy quick tabletop centerpiece or decoration for your Father’s Day Celebration. Take an odd numbered grouping (3 or 5 depending on the size of your table) of similar tin pails or even plastic buckets (yes, it is the time of year and like many I really like little tin pails). Place some small rocks or sand in the bottom of the pails to weight them. Then insert small flags or pinwheels or flowers into the sand or rocks to create an arrangement. I have seen darling painted tin pails at Target for $1.00 each so not only will this arrangement look great but it is cheap, cheap, and cheap to create.

I think the pails would look so great with Royal Tart’s Dad Rocks Celebration (above) but also with Royal Tart’s Gone to the Beach Party.

The Centerpiece would also look great with Royal Tart’s Fourth of July Party Red, White & Boom.

I hope this super-easy, super quick and super inexpensive party tip makes your entertaining life easier.

Happy Father’s Day.

Cheers,
Tricia

Delivering Complete Prepackaged Designer Parties to Your Door

Royal Tart is proud to introduce our newest bridal shower: Sabrina. It is long on ease and high on style. Royal Tart designs prepackaged parties delivered to your door with everything you need to throw a stylish wedding or bridal shower. We also design other parties like baby showers, Fourth of July BBQs, kid’s parties, Father’s Day Celebrations, tween parties, tea parties, dinner parties…you get the idea. So now to our newest Bridal Shower…Sabrina.

Things went really well in Chicago. The Royal Tart Team is super excited but before I tell you more about our Country Living Pitch and Conference I want to tell you about our great time in Chicago. We always like to mix business with pleasure especially since Royal Tart is based in celebration. We stayed at the Palmer House Hotel in the Loop. It is a historic hotel of gigantic proportions (think Las Vegas hotel huge). I had a few cocktails in the lobby bar and couldn’t take my eyes of the ceiling. It was stunning. I also met a delightful couple from Michigan and lost a bet to the husband. I s’pose I learned that one should never bet a professional poker player.