Sunflower Tea Party

Everything is coming up sunflowers on my patio!  

Please come in and sit a while.  We can have a slice of my cake or we can each have a cupcake.  Sit and ease your back with a happy sunflower pillow as we enjoy the sounds from my little waterfall.

It's Tea on Tuesday and I am honored and humbled to be invited as a guest host to share along with Mary and Pam for September's Tea on Tuesday.   You can find Pam's and Mary's Tea invitations at the bottom of the page. 

My son, Mike, painted this darling tea kettle for me several years ago to mimic a MacKenzie-Childs Courtly Check one.  Doesn't it look so cheerful filled with sunflowers?!

My pretty sunflower teacup is ready to be filled.

I made this gingham napkin and popped a cute bee napkin ring around it that my dear friend, Pat, gave to me.  Bees and sunflowers just seem to go together, don't you think?

Tiny bee candies are buzzing around the sunflowers on my small bundt cake.  I used a chocolate cake mix and got one small bundt cake and nine cupcakes.  The cake is on a plate from Pier 1, where I used to find the prettiest plates.  

As a matter of fact, this beautiful plate came from Pier 1, also.  I keep my kitchen table set at all times, because my late beloved husband loved the looks of it.  The sunflower plates are on there right now.

There wasn't enough room on my table to include my teapot with my homemade tea cozy, but I'd love to pour you a cup.  Would you like to try some pumpkin spice tea as we ease into Fall?  My long time tea friend, Margie, who lives in Canada, and blogs at Tea in the Valley sent me this tea to try because I had asked her what her favorite pumpkin tea was.  Margie so generously sent me two other teas to try, too.  Margie is a connoisseur of tea!

Yield: You can make a layer cake, or a small bundt cake, and about 9 cupcakes

Author: Kitty, but the decorating was inspired from an old Woman's Day magazine from November 1, 1996

Sunflower Cake

When my darling daughter turned 30, back in 2004 I decorated her birthday cake with sunflowers. They are fairly easy to do.

Ingredients

• 1 cake mix, plus ingredients for mixing
• mini Oreo cookies
• 1 tub of chocolate frosting
• 1 tub of vanilla frosting
• yellow and green food colors (I added a tiny bit of red to the yellow)
• chocolate jimmies or pipe on chocolate dots with a plain tip for the centers of the sunflowers

Instructions

1. Make the cake according to the directions on the box and then let cool.
2. Frost the cakes with the chocolate frosting, saving a little to cover the Oreos.
3. Color about 3/4 of the vanilla frosting in a bowl with the yellow food coloring, and about 1/4 in a separate bowl with the green food coloring.
4. Fit a decorating bag with a star tip and fill with the yellow frosting, and fit another bag with a leaf tip and fill with the green frosting.
5. Take a part the Oreo cookies and cover them with chocolate frosting and sprinkle with chocolate jimmies. Place the cookies on the cake as to where you'd like them to be.
6. Using the yellow frosting filled bag, pipe on the sunflower petals around the cookie, and then place a few leaves with the green frosting.
7. Enjoy your happy and cheery creation!

Thank you for stopping by for tea today.  I always appreciate your visits and kind comments.  

Please visit Pam's and Mary's lovely tea invitations below.

Pam @ Everyday Living

Mary @ Home Is Where The Boat Is

Thank you for your visit!  xo