the candy bar: happy birthday jennifer!

The first time I ever met up with my friend Jennifer outside of our knitting circle she tracked down - with the intensity of a heat-guided missile - the one market booth out of 60 selling pumpkin whoopie pies. It was the beginning of a beautiful friendship. 

This week marked Jennifer's first birthday since moving to Fredericton, so Jilanna and I knew we wanted to do something memorable.  And we knew the starting point had to be baked goods.  And candy.  So we decided to do our spin on a decorate your own cupcake party.   And then on Thursday afternoon we dialed it up...

From: Heather
Sent: Thursday, 5:06 PM
To: Jilanna
Subject: Candy Bar
There’s probably not enough time for me to build a “Candy Bar” in my house, huh?

From: Jilanna
Sent: Thursday, 5:10 PM
To: Heather
Subject: RE: Candy Bar
Probably not quite enough time…but we might be able to come up with a mini version...

While I handled decorations (and the red velvet cupcakes), Jilanna had the enviable task of heading to our favourite local bulk store to stock up on treats (with an assist from her dear husband who bonded with Jennifer early on over a shared love of Jelly Bellys).   She arrived on Saturday night with Mason jars full of every candy you could want - sours, chocolate, jelly beans, a tray of rich chocolate cupcakes and fudgy frosting and a fairly good start on her sugar high.  Along with Stacey's lemon cupcakes and lime frosting, we had a well-stocked cupcake bar.

The birthday girl enjoys the first cupcake of the night.

I'm not sure if it was the sugar rush but I haven't laughed as much as we did during this party in a long time.  And the birthday girl? Like a kid in the proverbial candy store.
 

Went with one of my favorite colour schemes for evening.  So cheerful!

More pictures after the jump!

Along with Emilie-Claire Barlow's latest and the Good Lovelies, the backbone of the evening's playlist was the Puppini Sisters.  The trio specializes in Andrews Sisters-inspired close harmonies.  And while they pull a number of songs from the swing era catalogue and write originals, it's their whimsical covers of pop songs that made them the perfect choice for a sugar-fueled evening... 

There's only one rule:  no one goes hungry.

Penny in her remake of  Le ballon rouge..

Randomly grabbed these jellybeans out of the jar - love the colour combos!



Happy Birthday, Jennifer!