Festive Gingerbread

Maple Pots d' Creme

Gingerbread House Dessert Display

Kerri, our newest addition to the staff at Emily's, has been working extremely hard as a baker and a part time gingerbread house architect . If you've ever attempted to build one of these from the ground up, you know how time consuming, fun, and potentially maddening the whole process can be. Here we share with you, her first two houses along with a few other festive gingerbread ideas and winter trends!

Fall Wedding Images

Summer Showcase

Two Sunday's ago, we hosted a Summer Showcase at Albemarle in Princeton. The day was a lot of fun and featured a variety of local wedding and event vendors and highlighted a few things that we think are fun and exciting including: a digital photo booth, a cappuccino bar, and a customized prosecco bar.

Our prosecco bar featured mango mimosas, strawberry smash, lemon pop, lavendar & sage bellinis, kir royal, and a classic champagne cocktail.

An autumn or winter twist could be spun to create a seasonal prosecco bar anytime of the year. For autumn cocktails you could consider apple cider spritzers and candied ginger sugared rims with a variety of bubbly + juices.

Winter prosecco bars could highlight white cran spritzers, pomegranate, and bloodorange.

Thanks to all who came and to our featured vendors for participating. Special thanks to Brillman's Rental Barn for coordinating the rentals.

Thanks also to our chefs and servers who made the day possible, and to the inner child within all of us, who is responsible for this downright, silly but really fun photo!

Creating a Farm Stand

We wanted to showcase the local produce for this crudite display by designing a creative "farm stand" for guests at this wedding to enjoy. One fun feature of the farm stand is that the centerpiece is a portable clay planter that we potted white petunias in. When potting the petunias we inserted a 2" wide pvc pipe in the center of the soil, so that we could stick the white umbrella into it, thus creating portable shade for food displays.

Things We've Liked: Wedding Spring Season

Spring is a daring time to go for alfresca dining, but one of our spring brides, dared to do it, and the results were stunning.

This wedding took place on the Delaware River in Stockton, New Jersey. The setting is perfectly rustic with the red barn as a back drop.

Crisp white linens and home-made burlap runners (which were perfect in every way), complemented the natural green environment and provided the most dazzling under the stars feel. Additionally, this bride gave all of her guests a variety of succulents; a tribute, surely, to her California home.

Featured above are a cappuccino bar and three separate cakes for dessert. The cappuccino bar was a huge hit. It was a hot day, and because we had an espresso machine and a few shakers, we were able to make all of the guests favorite coffee drinks, ICED!

Instead of opting for a single flavor traditionally tiered cake, this bride decided to offer three unique flavors to her guests. Chocolate-chocolate, chai, and lemon butter cream were the flavors this bride decided to go with.

In summary: you never know what the weather will hold, more is more---not less is more, and people really love their coffee!

Cup Cake Mania

Who doesn't love a tasty little cup cake? We certainly love them, and find that they work so well on many different kinds of menus because of their versatility and because of their wide-spread fan base. Adults and kids alike smile at the sight of a tray ladden with these delicous little sweets.

This week we are featuring Guinness Cup Cakes with Bailey's Irish Cream Frosing, and recently we featured dark chocolate cup cakes with sea salt caramel icing. The possibilites are endless, so for your next gathering, consider cup cakes.

Emily's Cafe and Catering is seeking a new full time Sous Chef / Catering Chef. We are very excited about adding a new member to our restaurant/catering team and look forward to meeting someone with lots of energy, who is passionate about food. Personality, team commitment, and organization are also key. Contact Emily or Samantha if you or someone you know is interested.

Super Superbowl Ideas

Need ideas for a fun, new appetizers? Why not try petite grilled cheese sandwiches and bite size guacamole bites in a black bean cup. Try experimenting with different combinations of cheeses and bread to dress up the petite grilled cheeses. We like gruyere cheese with sourdough bread and brie cheese on black olive is a nice combination as well.

Guacamole Tip:

Leaving the avocado nut within the guacamole mixture until the time when you are serving it will help preserve the life of the guacamole and will lessen the occurance of browning.

January is Showcase Month

Pistachio and Raspberry linens make a fun, yet sophisticated pairing.

Forced tree blossoms combined in a tall vase with pale yellow tulips make a bold spring-like statement.

Simply Nic's artisan shortbread is a really unique and tasty idea for wedding favors, and as an added bonus they are made locally.

Our new favorite linen, cascade, is anything but boring; it's texturized and in this photo the color is penny. We paired it with gold satin napkins and mahogany chevari chairs.

By the way, you can find all of the items shown here at Brillman's Rental Barn of Newtown.

Honeydew with a sheer organza overlay is garden perfect. A popular wedding idea we've encountered with spring brides this year is a formal "tea" style reception.

You may have noticed the exquisite floral arrangements we used as center pieces on our showcase tables, and we have to give a big thanks to Dahlia's Floral Concepts of Pennington for providing these and so much more.

Many thanks again to all who particpated, including: Jen's Pastries, Heather Hibbert Photography, Kevin Birch Photography, Simply Nic's, Shop Rite Liquors, Drew Brady, Mirage Video, Dahlia's Floral Concepts, and Brillman's Rental Barn.

Cozy up with Tea

Blustery, winter days when darkness falls early are the perfect days for getting together with a friend for afternoon tea. Back by popular demand, our afternoon tea will be offered twice a month on a select Wednesday and Thursday. Check out our website to find the days we'll be taking reservations for tea and to get a peek at the menu and pricing.

Also, our tea menu is a very popular catering menu for brunches, showers, and corporate meetings. Talk to one of our catering specialists if you're interested in a larger scale tea.

One more note, speaking of friends and cozying up: We'll all miss Corey and Bill and wish them the very best on this new leg of their lives.