The Caterist Files ~ The Bridal Shower!

The days before the wedding become a flurry of activity for the bride, and family, alike! And, the Bridal Shower is one of the most important of the pre-wedding get togethers! I've done Blogs on the Bridal Shower Brunch, and an evening Bridal Shower Brunch, that we call The Black Satin Brunch. This Blog dedicates to the afternoon get together; so, it's more like a Tea, but with a lovely, Get Over the Wedding Jitters Champagne Punch, or maybe, a Wine or Bellini Bar...or even a regular Tea! However you'd like it!

Small bites, finger foods and variety are the orders of the day! Let me share some of my ideas with you!

The Bellini Bar is a great, fun idea for the Bridal Shower. Bring your concentrates and your champagne, for a create your own bellini experience your friends are sure to remember!

Of course, a simple Wine Bar would always suffice, with whatever variety you decide to bring.

A fun punch is The Bridesmaid's Punch...

it's 2 bottles of Pink Moscato, 1 can of Pink Lemonade Concentrate and 3 cups of Sprite with fresh raspberries or strawberries to garnish, maybe a few lemon slices to float on top, too, if you like. Bring your ingredients, we can mix it up in the kitchen for you.

On the Bridal Shower Buffet, the tea sandwich takes the form of hearts! These cute little cutouts can hold a variety of fillings, select what you like best, one or two varieties.

~ Deli Meat & Cheese...for the meat, select from honey baked ham, black forest ham, smoked ham, smoked turkey, oven roast turkey, roast chicken, roast beef...cheese selection, American, Swiss, cheddar, gouda, pepper jack, mozzarella or provolone. We use a light Dijon mayo for the spread.

~ Chicken Salad

~ Ham Salad

~ Tuna Salad

~ Egg Salad

~ Pimiento Cheese

These are about 3" across, so, with the other items on the buffet, you'll most likely need just one per guest of these cuties.

Pinwheels are another great find on the Bridal Shower Buffet.

We can use regular flour tortillas, spinach wraps, wheat wraps or sundried tomato wraps. Fillings are many...

~ Ham & Pimiento Cheese

~ Cheddar Bacon Ranch

~ Buffalo Chicken

~ Chicken Caesar

~ Red Pepper Hummus

~ Loaded Cream Cheese (bacon, pepperoni, cheddar, peppers & chives)

Crostini...crisp toast bites with any matter of toppings.

These are just a few of the offerings.

Shrimp Avocado, above

Goat Cheese, Fig Jam & Proscuitto, top right

Tomato Bruschetta, direct right

More varieties...Smoked Salmon with Dilled Cream Cheese ~ Caramelized Onion & Tomato Jam w/ Brie ~ Grilled Peach with Arugula & Goat Cheese ~ French Onion ~ Pesto Brie w/ Roasted Grape Tomatoes ~ Artichoke Spread. Depending on your group size, we could, possibly, do 2 or 3 of these, arranged on a platter.

To go with the sandwiches and the sandwich-nots, we need some freshness.

Veggie Shots are something new on the buffet scene. They're cute little shot glasses with Ranch or your favorite dip in the bottom third of the glass, filled with fresh veggie strips and a skewer with grape tomatoes. This picture shows celery and carrot strips, but the available list of characters expands to include cucumber strips, bell pepper strips, green onions, lightly blanched asparagus and lightly blanched snap or snow peas.

Fruit Skewers are sweet on the Shower Buffet, too! Other fruits could go on here, if you want a different selection...kiwi and blackberries make a pretty color contrast. Or, green or black grapes, or other melon. It depends on the size of group you're expecting.

For the middle, we'll add a bowl of chips, dip and a small bowl of pretzels.

Now we can move on to the sweet end of things! Cupcakes are a traditional part of the Bridal Shower and we have many, many flavors to select from. I love this effect with the lace being wrapped around the cupcakes! Select flowers or dragees. We'll color match with your scheme.

For flavors, go with vanilla, pink champagne, lemon, peach, apricot, banana or butter pecan. A simply colored to match buttercream will be made to top the cupcakes.

If you want a second simple bite for the Buffet, I'd suggest Truffle Pops, which are cute as can be!

Truffle Pops can be done in few recipes. We've got the Classic Chocolate, Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, Sugar Cookie and Peanut Butter.

They may be coated with a milk chocolate ganache, a dark chocolate or a vanilla bark ganache, to be sprinkled with edible pretties, to match your colors.

With that, we'll wrap up our buffet!