The Most Important Ingredient

Please forgive my week long silence. Do not take it as a prelude to total abandonment.
You see, preparation for great celebration has been the goal of the past seven days.

Over this past week I have been involved in the use of 3 kilograms of butter, 6 kilograms of sugar, countless packets of flour, numerous bars of chocolate, hen houses full of eggs, bricks of cream cheese and fields of little tiny flowers made of sugar paste.
Thanks to a little magic, a tireless dishwasher and consistent oven, Martha Stewart's sagely wisdom, and free refrigerator space in the kitchens of kindly neighbours all these ingredients came together to form a heavenly morning tea for my little sister's bridal shower!

We had chosen a 'Kitchen Tea' theme and as her Maid of Honour, I was more than excited to take the lead in organising the baked goods for the day.
Mum was chief decorator, and she did such a beautiful job of looping bunting up over bookshelves, hanging paper lanterns, arranging all the tablecloths, napkins and assorted things that always slip my mind.
Casey (also a bridesmaid) brought over delicious salted caramel macarons and raspberry macarons and Sam (Jess's best friend and the third member of our bridesmaid trio) flew up especially from her new home in Victoria, especially for the day!

Over thirty of our closest female family and friends showed up to shower our beautiful bride to be with kitchen related gifts, play games (including the toilet paper wedding dress game - I definitely recommend this one!), share countless pots of tea and laughter, and indulge in a little (well, maybe more than a little) bite or two of a yummy treat.

In my family celebrations of this sort call for generous amounts of food.

Thus we confront guests with scenes such as this.

Plates of mini quiches, potato and capsicum frittata, a cheeseboard, fresh fruit and bite size pastry scrolls.

Perfect for Christmas appetizers, recipe to come.

Of course, the most important part of any gathering in our cottage requires copious sweets!

Chocolate cake (which you might remember from this post), a gluten free orange and yoghurt cake, cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, Jessica's baked vanilla cheesecake, Mum's famous scones and a gluten free variation made up the sugar containing quota of food.

The most important ingredient in any gathering though, is always love.

Friends who are like family and travel long ways just to be here for special occasions.

Family whom we love enough to know that we are also friends.

Sunday marked another celebration on the way to my little sister becoming a wife and starting a whole new stage of her life. I am so glad that we could take the time to gather with our female friends and give her the most important ingredient in starting her new life; love.

Love is always the most important ingredient.

May your cupboards never be bare.