My daughter turned 20 when it finally turned Spring. To celebrate, I pulled-off hosting a surprise dinner party for her and her friends, highlighting florals, good food, and her mom’s dessert. This was so fun! Sachi was surprised!
I was excited that her boyfriend, friends and I could work it all out to meet up at our home, after a happy visit to the SD Zoo that rainy Saturday, a few days after her actual birthday. She’d enter the front door to shouts of “SURPRISE!” in-time for a full dinner spread, and tons of love to celebrate her.
A couple days beforehand, I bought local flowers, and was able to hide the buckets, and her decorated birthday cake in my work fridge with “20” written at the top, without her seeing them. (Life of a working, full-time college student is crazy busy, so I’m not too surprised she missed them. If she found them, our plan would still happen.)
All of the flower processing and home-decorating had to happen day of, so I didn’t have the time, or mindset to create anything crazy. I made sure not to stress it! How it all turned out was totally beautiful! I just just went with the flow and worked in bunches for the cake table because it was what I could do in the time I had.
Most of my time was spent making sure the dining room flowers were a focal. I had the candles I wanted, and intentionally used my favorite vessels, all of them made by Sachi. She is an artist and ceramicist – some of her work is posted to @covered.n.clay.
She made florist “frogs” for me/Glorified Hobby, and they are brilliant. I couldn’t wait to use them! They held two arrangements of Feverfew (like Chamomile). I used her collection of bud vases for both pink Rice Flower and pink-burgundy Hellebores, and her larger-mouth vase for an arrangement.
In this larger arrangement I used reflexed double-Tulips, blue Thistle, more Rice Flowers, a touch of yellow and white Emile Misty, Eriostemon (the prettiest, messiest filler I may never choose to work with again – no to offense Erios…), and pale yellow Butterfly Ranunculus.
I knew she would love everything about the birthday cake I made with her in mind. (I loved that she asked me about making her a birthday cake… I love that my kids in general will ask me to bake for them. Nothing like baking for your loved ones!) I recently added heart-shaped pans to the Mili’s Sweets menu, and she mentioned in passing that she liked the flavor combination of super-strawberry and matcha. The outside was colored vanilla buttercream in super pale pink, pale yellow and deeper kelly/forest green. I went for it with vintage-style piping and strategic floral placement.
On her actual birthday, as a family at home, we celebrated Sachi with an Orange Tiramisu. This trifle was a triumph! I made this the night before. There was a lot of love and prep, but there is no baking involved, so just a LOT of dishes to do as I was putting it all together.
This was so good, I’d make it again! Now let me see if I can remember what I did..off the top of my memory as sometimes “last weekend” can feel like a month went by…
Each of these prep-tasks were separate before bringing everything together – layer on top of layer – for this my favorite and best ever trifle.
espresso: First, I did the easiest bit possible and brewed fresh espresso with my handy “moka” stovetop maker and set it aside.
chocolate bars and dipping: I tempered dark chocolate and dipped dehydrated orange slices for the top. I coarsely chopped two and a half bars of quality chocolate and set them aside. (I’d use the chocolate instead of cocoa powder, for a next-level texture and flavor-bomb.)
reduction: I made orange liqueur reduction using Grand Imperial Orange Liqueur, and cooking it down with the rind, peal, and juice of a fresh orange, and agave nectar for a touch of sweetness. After cooking this, I strained the reduction to set aside, and blended-smooth the totally soft and cooked orange discards and remnants.
custard: I made a fresh batch of Italian Custard and folded in both the blended orange remnant from the liqueur reduction, plus some espresso and a pinch of espresso powder. I covered the top and set it aside to cool.
zest and orange prep: I zested 4 Cara Cara oranges (they are in season, are have a really beautiful color and taste), slice them for the fresh fruit placement at the bottom and top of the trifle. I’d plated the slices on a paper towel and refrigerated them while I finished the last couple of to-dos.
mascarpone: I whipped up one container of mascarpone with sugar, fresh orange zest, orange liqueur reduction, and a pinch of ground espresso to taste. I then folded in chocolate shavings. The texture and flavor of this subtle cheese is sooo good, I didn’t want to cut it with whipped cream. Instead I made lots of whipped cream for other layers.
whipped cream two-ways: I made a double batch of my vanilla whipped cream recipe. (Vanilla is not typical in Italian baking, or in Tiramisu, but it felt right.) One batch was espresso-orange and the other was plain vanilla for the top. I had these two in separate piping bags and ready to go.
ladyfinger dipping: Savoiardi lady finger cookies were set aside and ready for dipping/soaking assembly-time. I had two dipping bowls: (I could have combined the two but I had two bowls) one with the orange liqueur reduction and one with the espresso. Each cookie would be soaked in both.
assembly: I first lined up soaked ladyfinger cookies that made a mini square at the very bottom of my vessel to make my fresh orange slices hold up to the side on their own. I circled the base in orange slices, then a layer of the custard, covered by a full row of soaked cookies, then the mascarpone, another layer of soaked cookies, then chopped chocolate shavings, a layer of the espresso-orange whipped cream, fresh half-cut slices of orange at the top, centered by another layer of soaked cookies, topped with lots of classic vanilla whipped cream, covered with the rest of the chocolate shavings and the chocolate-dipped dehydrated orange slices. (I think it got it all!)
The cake slice photo. I didn’t get to it… Her cake was a small part of our joy that weekend. A sweet, core-memory was made for my baby girl’s 20th! Love her so much. Beyond proud of her. Love this precious time we have. xoxox
