A Dessert Table Inspired by Love

I love it when inspiration begets inspiration. Martha Stewart and her work completely inspire this blog and, by extension, this blog creates more Martha moments outside of the webisphere; it's a glorious chain reaction. One of my long-distance friends, and a longtime reader of Martha Moments, Rowaida Flayhan, wrote to me recently to inform me that my Instagram post about Martha's heart-shaped linzer cookies last week inspired a dessert buffet she created for her daughter Nour's birthday. Rowaida and her family live in Kuwait most of the year but also call Lebanon and London home. My own Lebanese and British heritage may be what solidified our friendship but our shared love of all things Martha certainly helped bridge the geographical gap as well.

I've featured Rowaida's work here before. You can click here to see the other posts I've written about her baking. Rowaida was kind enough to share photographs of her dessert buffet table with us. The photographs were taken by her son, Ramzi, a talented photographer, and edited by her other son, Samo, who is studying architecture. Below you will find a list of what Rowaida served. If you have questions about the recipes, all of which are Rowaida's own, please leave a comment with your email. Enjoy the photos! I'm sure you'll agree Rowaida is a tremendous baker with an eye for detail and elegance. The beautiful results of Rowaida's efforts were inspired by her love for her daughter - and I believe that really shines through.

All of the desserts you will see here are vegan, dairy-free, gluten free and made without the use of refined sugars or processed flours. This vanilla almond cake is made with gluten-free flour and coconut whipped cream frosting. Rowaida surprised Nour with the dessert buffet on her birthday.

These vegan red-velvet cakes are beautifully heart-shaped. Steamed beets were used for the colour and sweetness was added with medgool dates. The little roses on top are completely edible!

The chocolate cake was baked with raw cacao and sweetened with chocolate frosting made with raw coconut sugar. It was decorated with fresh berries. Rowaida also made dairy-free raspberry ice cream, seen far right.

These truffles made with raw chocolate, coconut milk and chestnuts look absolutely delicious!

The heart-shaped cookies were made with oat flour and topped with homemade raspberry chia jam. This photo is by Nour Flayhan.

This image from a past issue of Martha Stewart Living magazine, which I posted on the Martha Moments Instagram page last week, was the inspiration for Rowaida's dessert buffet. I love how the seed of an idea can come from practically anywhere.

INSTA-FAMOUS FAMILY:

The Flayhans are a talented group!
Follow Rowaida on Instagram for so much cooking and baking inspiration!
To see more of her son Ramzi's work, follow him on Instagram here.
Samo, who is studying architecture, can be found on Instagram here.
Her daughter, Nour, is a very talented artist and designer. Follow her on Instagram here.

Rowaida's Christmas Dessert Table

I'm always impressed by how talented readers of this blog truly are. One such reader is Rowaida Flayhan. I have blogged about her before. She is a talented cook and baker from Kuwait who spends much of the year in London. This year she sent me photos of her Christmas dessert table, made exclusively using Martha Stewart recipes! I think they look extraordinary and I'm sure they taste just as wonderful. Many people in Rowaida's life, including her friends and family, have urged her to start a cookbook. You can why if you follow her on Instagram where she often shares many of the delicious-looking creations she makes at home. She is frequently inspired by her Middle-Eastern heritage and her family. She's invited me over for dinner several times! I am so tempted to book a flight! Click here to read more about Rowaida and see more of her beautiful work.

The recipes for this spread include Martha's chocolate yule log, gingerbread snowflakes, reindeer and people, three-dimensional Christmas-tree cookies, a chocolate truffle cake and a sugar-and-spice cake and truffles. See below for the sources.

Rowaida's presentation is always perfect.

RECIPE SOURCES:

The Yule Log: click here

Ginger bread snowflakes page 259 Martha Stewart Cookies book

Gingerbread men and women cookies: click here

Chocolate Truffle cake page 271 of Martha Stewart Cakes book 

Sugar and Spics cake page 280 of Martha Stewart Cakes book

Royal icing was used for the wreaths on the chocolate cake

Rowaida's Martha-Inspired Christmas Dessert Buffet

One of the best things about being a blogger is meeting so many great people from all over the world. Rowaida Flayhan, a reader in Kuwait, has visited Martha Moments every day for a few years now and she often sends me photographs of her very inspiring work, which I never hesitate to highlight on the blog. Last year, Rowaida sent me these amazing photographs of a dessert buffet table she set up for her Christmas party. The recipes for the cake and the Christmas-tree cut-out cookies are Martha's, of course, and she also made Christmas tree desserts using ice-cream cones that she filled with M&M chocolates and then iced to create a tree effect.

The extremely beautiful presentation is certainly "very Martha" but also "very Rowaida!" She stood the cookies in uncooked rice for a pretty snow effect and made a cute little cake-topper using wooden skewers and tiny ornaments strung between them. If you click here you can see how beautifully she always presents her baking. The recipe for the cake and frosting that you see in Rowaida's photos is this one from Martha's Baking Handbook. You can get Martha's recipe for the tree-shaped cookies with royal icing in Martha Stewart's Cookies book on page 241. The photos were taken by Rowaida's son Samo and I hope you enjoy them!

 



Rowaida's Valentine's Day Dessert Table

Rowaida Flayhan, a Martha Moments reader from Kuwait who spends part of the year in London, loves to entertain and Martha Stewart is always her inspiration. She sent in these photos of a gorgeous Valentine's Day dessert table she set up at her home last year for a party she threw for friends and family. Rowaida made all of the desserts and styled the table. The cupcakes and cookies are Martha Stewart recipes and the other desserts are Rowaida's own creations! As you can see from the photos, Rowaida loves details. She hand-painted the red flowers on some of the cookies and applied edible pearls to their centers. She iced the heart-shaped cookies and decorated them with edible glitter and heart candies. I love the red-and-white palette she used for all of the desserts. The cake toppers and place cards are by TomKat Studio. The entire effect is gorgeous! You can see some of Rowaida's other creations here.

A Reader's Spring Sweets

As I've stated here before, one of the best things about blogging is meeting so many wonderful people from so many different places. While I am based in Canada, this blog receives traffic from all over the U.S., Europe, the Middle East, Australia, Central and South America, Iceland, Japan and India - to name a few - and I've been fortunate to have had some very nice correspondence with many, many people from around the globe. It's really the best perk of having blog!

One of the most supportive readers is Rowaida Flayhan, a longtime Martha Stewart enthusiast who lives in London, Endland. Recently, she shared photographs of some of her homemade confections with me and I was so astounded by the level of professionalism and beauty that I had to share them. 

Rowaida takes advanced private baking lessons from renowned British cake designer Zoe Clark. Spring was the inspiration behind these particular creations, below. "I wanted to incorporate the soft, dreamy pastel colours of spring, working with flowers and butterflies," she says. "I baked assorted sweets, such as cupcakes, mini cakes, petit fours, cookies and a two-tier cake." I'm sure you'll agree that the results are stunning. The photos were taken by her son, Sam. Thank you for sharing this Martha Moment, Rowaida! See more at Flickr.