A Charming Charleston Christmas

Overview

Something amazing happened! Do you remember when one of my cakes was featured in Entertain & Celebrate’s Summer issue for a 4th of July party setup? Well the same magazine—Entertain & Celebrate—was so kind to do a full feature on For Heaven Bakes, and in their Christmas issue of all issues! And as added excitement, they included my recipe for my favorite holiday cake—gingerbread cake with lemon cream cheese frosting! You can order a copy of the magazine here.

The Party Setup

For the article, I put together a Christmas party spread that was centered around what else—a cake! A blue and white vase cake filled with sugar flowers to be exact. While the cake was easy for me, I called in the experts to help me design the tablescape and all the little party elements.

If you remember my friend Lydia Menzies (of Lydia Menzies Celebrates), the 4th of July E&C article was actually a feature on her business, and if you’ve seen any of her work you know that she has an eye for party design unlike anyone else!

Lydia and I chatted about different party themes, and after I told her I wanted the centerpiece to be the blue and white vase cake, we came up with “A Charming Charleston Christmas” which allowed us to incorporate blue and white (my favorite!), as well as little coastal nods to the lowcountry mixed throughout the scene. You can read Lydia’s writeup of the party setup here!

The Cake(s)

While the blue and white vase cake was the centerpiece, I knew this party needed another dessert—so I added two more! At each place setting I included a sugar cookie decorated with one of the famous Charleston pink doors, with blue and white planters on either side of the doors. And to top it off, I made my absolute favorite Christmas cake recipe—gingerbread cake with lemon cream cheese frosting! If you pickup a hard copy of the magazine, you’ll find my top secret recipe included in the article!

The Details

The details, the details! This party setup has some of the most adorable details included! Lydia thought of everything—down to the luxe blue velvet ribbons tied around the oranges spread throughout, and the monogramed oyster shell place markers. One of my favorite aspects of the party actually didn’t make it into the magazine, but I’m including photos of it in the gallery below—it’s a full coffee/tea/espresso bar, complete with a rattan coffee thermos (to tie into the lowcountry vibes), blue and white china teacups, and an antique coffee pot.

And the bar setup is also SO Pinterest-worthy! It includes the most adorable blue and white fringe cocktail napkins from The Preppy Stitch, as well as blue and white ginger jar drink stirrers from Giddy Paperie. And don’t forget the super cute blue and white bead/pink tassel earrings (I’m wearing in the photo) from Tiny Tassel!

The photography really makes this party stand out. And of course the photos are beautiful, because they were all taken by the amazing Abby Murphy Photo! If you’ve seen any of my cake photos, there’s a 99% chance that Abby took them. She’s so incredible!

The full photo gallery from the shoot is below. I hope you love it as much as I do! 🙂

A Special Thank You To The Collaborators: Lydia Menzies Celebrates, The Preppy Stitch, Tiny Tassel, Giddy Paperie.