oooh baby, baby...ba-baby baby

My bestie is was pregnant. (By the time I got around to this post, she already had her baby!) I'm pretty sure she tried to drop me hints before her and her hubby told everyone. And I was pretty clueless. hahahaha. It's not usually like that. Honest.

So when we finally knew what was up, I snapped into shower-planning mode. Being that she has no sisters, and her closest cousins are in Canada, a couple other girlfriends and I jumped at the opportunity to plan something amazing for our beloved girl and her baby girl {oh yes, and her hubby, too}.

It was very much a Pinterest-inspired shower, on a very tight budget, for a guest list mostly populated by the baby momma's Filipino family -- men included. Us hostesses rose to the challenge, and, months later, out came a successful shower to welcome an already very loved little one.

My bestie and I share a love for sweets, mostly anything in cupcake and cheesecake form. In our apartment in college, baked goods often took up the space on the counter between the fridge and stove...and while counter-top real estate was highly sought after, we happily allowed whatever sugary goodness that came from our oven to live there, rent-free. So planning from the beginning, I knew that I wanted to have a sumptuous sweet table for the shower.

I had the eyes of a hawk, scanning through pins, and reading up on my favorite blogs. So many good things surfaced, and it was hard to pare it all down. But I knew that in order to keep the high quality of anything I was putting my name on, I had to focus my efforts.

First, as any good hostess should do, I inquired as to what the guests of honor would like. She said that it would be best to keep the cupcake flavors simple, since there would be kids there as well. I figured with the assortment we would have, minis were the best option. And with chocolate and vanilla, it only makes sense to alternate the flavors, and give the butter cream some color. Green and pink accent the baby's room, so green and pink vanilla frosting it was.

She didn't know the extent of the options for the sweet table -- I like to have some surprises -- nor did she request anything else.

Because the baby's room is monkey-themed, I knew I had to make some monkey cake pops. And since the cupcakes were chocolate and vanilla, the cake pops were red velvet -- a favorite of the parents-to-be (and several guests, too). This is what I did.

I alternated pink and green cake pops as well, to add more 'pops' of color to the table.

After seeing the recipe for cake batter cheesecake on Pinterest, I knew I had to make these. They were SO. GOOD. I cut them into small squares -- perfect for a bite or two. 

There are two things, regardless of pregnancy, that my bestie usually has around: 1) a package of Oreos and 2) rice krispy treats {or at least ingredients to make them}. Seriously. This is one of many reasons why we get a long so well :P 

I had made these Oreo cheesecake cupcakes for my students, and they were a hit. So I knew these would be perfect for the shower. I did regular cupcake-sized cheesecakes, and bought some mini Oreos to make mini cupcake-sized ones as well.



One of the hostesses worked with me tirelessly through the night {thanks again, Danielle!}. She gets the credit for the rice krispy treats -- with sprinkles, to give them a little color and make them more festive. :)

She also made the white chocolate popcorn favors, like these {unfortunately, not pictured} which turned out awesome! (Note: It's a good idea to stock up on the pastel-colored white chocolate m&ms right around Easter.) 

For the favors: Using my 'fancy' scrapbooking scissors, I cut the tops off of plain paper lunch bags, and she stuffed them with the goods. We used thank you stickers that we printed out to close the bags and they looked great.

Last but not least, I wanted to make a small cake. Something with pink frosting. But since we already had the pink vanilla buttercream, I was thinking: strawberry! And nothing seemed more shower-like and springtime-y than strawberry lemonade. I was really excited about this cake. 

From the inside out: lemonade cake, strawberry lemon mousse, strawberry frosting. Check out my directions here.

We also had some assorted fresh fruit and my bestie's momma made her filipino fruit salad. Such a good way to round out this spread! 

We were very fortunate for all the help and support that we got from the grandparents as well a couple of friends and family - both behind the scenes and on the day of. Everyone's work made this shower a success! It was a great way to welcome this baby girl into the world. And now that she's here, I can't wait to start baking for her! :)

Read about the shower decor details here!

baby shower - monkey cake pops

To make the monkeys, I used a couple tutorials and pictures as guidance. This video by Dessert Decorating is pretty clear though. 

So this is what I did: I started with a regular cake ball. 

**For the ears: I used chocolate chips (flat side facing front). I didn't dip them in the melts before sticking them into the cake ball, as the tutorial suggested -- for me, it didn't seem necessary. 

**For the face and ear color: I had some peach candy melts and mixed in a few chocolate melts until I felt I had the right color. Other tutorials used a mixture of white and chocolate melts or just peanut butter melts. 

**Applying the face and ear color : In the video, she used toothpicks to apply the melts for the face and ears. Really warm or not, I found the candy melts rather difficult to 'paint' with. After a couple of super-lumpy-faced monkeys, I promptly poured the melts into a plastic icing bottle. This worked like a charm. 

If the melts got a little lumpy (started to dry more quickly than I was finishing the face shape) I just popped the bottle back in the microwave for 10 seconds or so. Be careful not to heat the melts too much. If it's too hot, it can crack your chocolate coating.

I did like the video tip of making the top part of the face shaped like a heart, and then the bottom of the face into an oval. 


Normally, when I make cake pops, I stick them in my Styrofoam stands to dry. For these, I laid them flat on a cookie rack to dry after I applied the face and ears, just to make sure none of the melts shifted or dripped off during the drying process.

**For drawing on the face: I only had the Wilton food markers on hand. I had used them once before, and I thought I was using them wrong. This time around, I learned that they're really not that great. At least on the candy melts they aren't. It took me a longer time to draw on the monkey faces than to outline them with the light brown melts. It was a tad bit frustrating.

Ordering new markers is on my list of things to do. I've heard good things about AmeriColor, and I love their gel coloring, so I can't imagine they'd steer me wrong. Any suggestions are welcome. 

Overall, these pops were fairly easy to make. I love the cartoonish look to them, which match a lot of the baby monkey decor that is out there. And even if you want to match the decor more precisely, this is a good starting point. 


Hope you have some fun monkeyin' around with these cake pops! (LOL...I had to...)

baby shower - strawberry lemonade cake

From the inside out: lemonade cake, lemon glaze, strawberry lemon mousse, strawberry frosting.

Instead of making my lemon cake, I thought: ooh! maybe I'll make a lemonade cake instead -- who knows what the actual difference is, aside from lemonade mix...it just sounded good to me. So I used this popular food channel personality's recipe. I made some slight changes, as I used my own white cake recipe and used lemonade vs. pink lemonade mix. I don't know if it was the mix or what, but the cake was on the dry side (didn't overbake either). Nor did it taste as lemony as I was expecting.

I ended up making a lemon glaze to generously brush onto the inside layers, hoping that would help both the lack of lemon taste as well as its dehydration.

I made a strawberry {lemon} mousse to go between the cake layers. Such a good choice. The original recipe is just strawberry. But I wanted the strawberry and lemon flavors to marry together, so I added some fresh lemon juice and lemon zest to the mix. The mousse is fantastic on its own. But it's sooo delish with the cake.

For the outside, I used Sprinkles' strawberry frosting recipe. Mmmmmm... One of the notes says it should be creamy like ice cream. Now, strawberry isn't my favorite ice cream flavor, but man is this frosting good! I added a little more milk to make it decorating-capable. And little pink ruffles for the baby girl? So sweet!

The cake, as a whole, tasted good, but I was a little underwhelmed. I'll have to make it again. Soon. With improvements. :)

Strawberry Lemon Mousse

adapted from Taste of Home

Ingredients:
~16 oz. frozen strawberries, thawed
1/3 cup Splenda, rounded
1 oz. package sugar-free instant vanilla pudding mix
~1 lemon, juiced and zested
1 tub (8 oz.) reduced-fat frozen whipped topping, thawed

Directions:
Using a food processor, combine strawberries and Splenda until smooth.

Strain out the seeds. Toss 'em, unless you can figure out a brilliant use for them. Put the {somewhat seedless} strawberry mixture back into the food processor.

Add pudding mix and process until smooth. Add lemon juice and zest. Pulse to combine. Taste. Add more lemon if you like. Try to remember that you still have to add the whipped topping before you eat the whole thing.

Pour mixture into a large bowl. Fold in thawed whipped topping. Taste. Wash your spoon before it's too late. You will honestly want to eat the whole large bowl of strawberry lemon mousse. Just know that you have been warned.

Note 1: It takes the longest to strain out the strawberry seeds. Pouring a little at a time, I helped the process by running a spoon around the mesh strainer to force the mixture out a little more quickly. Just get as many seeds out as you can -- it'll be fine if some get through.

Note 2: I added the juice of a whole lemon and most of its zest. It doesn't really matter when you add it, as long as it's before the whipped topping. And I was going kind of crazy, so I'm pretty sure I added some lemon extract as well. I wasn't tasting the lemon, and I wasn't thinking about the flavor enhancing as it chilled. Either way, the extract didn't hurt it, but you could probably do without. :)

The original recipe serves the mousse as is - making 8 servings. I love it as a cake filling. This makes plenty for about 1" of filling in a 6" round cake {Perfect to have your own bowl while you chill your cake}. Next time, I may make more cake layers to use more of the mousse.

**FOR THE CAKE**
After I spread the mousse onto my bottom cake layer, I carefully put on the top layer. At this point, you may want to freeze the cake for about 30 minutes, before applying your crumb coat. This is to prevent the mousse from smushing out as you put the first layer of frosting on. Nothing bad will happen, it will just make things a bit easier.

For the ruffles, I used a Wilton leaf-shaped tip (#102 or #104 depending on the ruffle size you prefer).

tiny details

I had dreams about doing this sweet table for my bestie's baby shower. I did a small one during the holidays, and I had been chomping at the bit to do another one.

Loving crafts and being on a budget definitely contributed to and confined ideas for the shower. There were so many wonderful ideas that I came across, but we were working with very specific guidelines.

Because of the venue rules, we were not allowed to hang anything on the walls or from the ceiling. This really limited what we could do in terms of sprucing up the room. So I had to get creative. Seeing various pins of amazing sweet tables, I desperately wanted to do a back drop. Initially, I was going to get some poster board and cover it with fabric. And then I came across an Easter-themed party with lattice decorated with poms. I fell in love. 

Initially, I was going to make the lattice. How hard is it to slap some wood pieces together? But during my visit to Home Depot, the hubs helped me discover that it was cheaper to buy something pre-made. So I did. I made tissue paper poms in various colors and sizes and attached them onto the lattice with floral wire. Excuse my camera phone shot. This was taken after I finished all the poms and arranged them onto the lattice.

I made a 'Sweet Baby' banner hung from twine and clothespins. I found the idea and free printable here. I mixed in some solid backgrounds with the printable ones (which I printed on 'draft' so they came out lighter). These were easy to make, but accordion-folding took the longest, same as the poms. 

I was very proud of the green polka dot cloth drawers holding the cake pops, which I scored from the dollar store -- complete with velcro-attachable dividers. I figured they could be used in the nursery, and if not, they were only a dollar each! 

After all would be said and done, I knew that these sweets would only last a short while. And though I knew mom and dad would appreciate it all, we wanted them to have a little something extra. Fingerprint guest books are more commonly used for weddings, but since a lot of family and friends would be in attendance, I thought it would be a nice idea for the shower and a sweet keepsake for the family.

I enlisted the artistic abilities of the hubs, and he totally rocked it out. I gave him a few guidelines from a couple ideas that I had seen online, and he did everything perfectly! We got a couple stamp pads, put out some hand sanitizer and paper towels for guests to clean up, and now they have a great start to their family tree of love. I suggested they keep it out on their entry table for when people come to visit, since not everyone made it to the shower, but they could still be part of the tree.

For the utensil holders, I covered tin cans with cardstock. I used the cut tops from the lunch bags to create a layered look, then tied some yarn around it and added labels so guests knew what they were grabbing for. Although it's harder to fit into the tin, I put everything with handles up, so guests didn't have to worry about other hands touching their utensils.

Baby's abuela and I made some simple diaper cakes adorned with ribbon to use as centerpieces. We customized a couple of onesies to hang up, and got some fresh flowers and pink and green balloons to round out the decorations. 

And lastly, since we had a buffett-style lunch which included several Filipino dishes, I printed labels for all the food, that way all of the guests knew what they were looking at.

For those who are wondering, we rushed through three of our four shower games. One of the hostesses created a {passive} 'guess the baby's birth date' game. She printed up a couple of calendars and guests signed their name on the date the baby would actually arrive {Nobody won}. The other hostess tapped into her teacher role and made up cute 'gift bingo' playing cards. We used m&ms as our markers.  Baby's abuela did a baby word scramble. We had planned on doing a parents-to-be trivia game, but were pressed for time so we cut it out. 

So many little things go into the success of hostessing an event. It took many hours and was a labor of love ;) and everything turned out great!

malted. and baked.

In the town I grew up in, there's this family restaurant. I loved going there because they had the best sundaes...I mean, really, it has "ice cream parlor" in its name. And one of my favorites had malt powder on it, cleverly dubbed the 'dusty road'.

In recent years, I've discovered baking with malt powder, instead of just sprinkling some onto my ice cream or mixing it up with some milk. I made Pioneer Woman's malted milk chocolate chip cookies for the hubs' family at some point, and now they're always in high demand. Sought after at every family gathering...or even a quick visit to say hi. I'm strongly questioned when I don't come bearing said cookies. And if I didn't make any, it must mean there is a dysfunction in my mental state. 

So now, I always have malted milk powder in my pantry. I also bought some Ovaltine Classic Malt, so I wouldn't dip into my baking products. Now I mix it with some almond milk. Mmmm...so good. And since I'm trying to make better choices, I sprinkle some on my oatmeal. I mean, it can't be all bad...there are vitamins and minerals up in my malt. ;) You should try it. You won't be sorry. 

But the other day...brilliance! I had some frozen mini vanilla cupcakes that I was looking to fix up. And lo and behold, as I was flipping through one of my Christmas gifts from my sister-in-law, [Baked. Have ya heard of it?] I came across their malted milk chocolate sauce recipe. But since this sounded like it'd be better paired with some chocolate cupcakes, I changed it up a bit.

Normally, if and when I freeze my cupcakes, I individually wrap each one with saran wrap, and then place them in freezer bags or freezable plastic storage. However, for some reason, I just threw these into a freezer bag. So the cake got a little dry. Hence the search for a syrup. And if I have a malted syrup on my cupcake, I gotta have some malted butter cream. Such a good decision. 

Malted Milk Chocolate Sauce

adapted from Baked: New Frontiers in Baking

Ingredients

2/3 cup heavy cream; I used 3/4 cup and added some milk too
1/3 cup light corn syrup
1/4 cup chocolate malt Ovaltine; I used Original malt, plus extra for taste
1/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 ounces milk chocolate, coarsely chopped; I omitted this
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

*Note: the original recipe is meant to be more of a sauce for various desserts. I wanted mine to run thin in order to moisten my cupcakes, which is why I added more cream and milk. The directions are for what I did in my kitchen.

Directions:
In a medium saucepan, combine cream, corn syrup, Ovaltine, brown sugar, and salt. Bring to a boil. Stir until well-blended. Simmer. Add milk and original Ovaltine until desired consistency and flavor is reached. Heat until soft boil, while stirring occasionally.

Remove from heat and mix in butter and vanilla. Let sauce cool. 

Cut out the middle of your cupcake (I did a cone shape). Spoon some sauce into the middle. Replace cake. Drizzle more sauce over the top of it (I poked some holes with a toothpick, just to make sure the sauce got all up in there :D)

And then I finished off the cupcake with the butter cream.

Malted Milk Butter Cream

adapted from Betty Crocker

Ingredients:

1/4 cup butter, softened
2 cups powdered sugar
2 tablespoons malted milk powder; I used 1/4 cup combo of malted milk powder and Ovaltine, cuz I'm crazy like that
1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa; I omitted this
2 tbsp milk, plus more if desired

Directions:

In mixing bowl, cream butter until smooth. Add powdered sugar, malted milk powder and 2 tbsp of milk. Mix. Add more milk for a smoother consistency. Place into piping bag and frost your cupcakes. 

And then I dug through my pantry because I swore I bought some Whoppers at some point. So I chopped some up and garnished these babies. Cuz a little more malt won't hurt you.

I was told that these are "FRICKIN AMAZING!!" and "unreal!!" -- so in spite of my cupcake-freezing mishap, I think I made some good cupcakes. 

I've also now concluded that malt saves everything. And helps you choke down your oatmeal.

distractions.

Did you know that having your basement flood right before Thanksgiving causes one to go berserk?

I went berserk.

I literally just finished an order, and the next morning, we’ve got water in our finished basement like we’re trying to fill up a new indoor swimming pool. That we didn’t want.

Luckily, the hubs and I were home at the time and discovered it rather quickly. So I’m grateful for that. Because it could’ve been much worse had we been at work and found it when we got home. We got a plumber and the insurance guys to come and work everything out, from getting assessed to having our damaged floors ripped out. It all eventually was taken care of.

But it definitely put a damper on my holiday baking.

Well, that and just being a new homeowner period. In addition to our "basement remodel", our house had to be readied for the upcoming holidays…including our first time hosting Christmas. With my parents coming to visit and staying with us.

And in that time between having random men coming in and out of my home (for various flooring visits), I was finally invited to Pinterest. Which for those of you who don’t know already…it’s a time sucker, just like your favorite social networking sites. Only more interesting.

It is quite addicting – finding things that you like, or new things that you never knew you can’t live without, or ideas that you hope to execute someday…and all these things that you want to remember you can pin to virtual boards for you to refer back to at your convenience. Any interest you have, you’re covered. There are recipes, educational tips, vintage cars, fitness routines, hot vacation spots…I mean, I could keep going.

My time had been spent scouring the DIY and holiday boards so I could decorate our humble abode. So wreaths and bows took the place of cookies and cupcakes. It was fun until I realized I hadn’t really baked anything. And then it was the holidays and everyone was at our house, so I couldn’t dwell on it anymore. It’s a new year, and I’ve got new things baking up. After I finish a couple more Pinterest-inspired projects. ;)

And to thank you for listening to my Pinterest babble, let me catch you up on goodies since October. These were the happenings from my kitchen:


Engagement party & Tailgate (with a chili cook-off)
     Sugar cookies decorated with butter cream frosting.

Many guests were Michigan State alum and/or fans.

The happy couple sharing some sugar.

 Thirteenth Birthday 

Sugar cookies decorated with butter cream frosting. I studied his football jersey to make sure I got it right!

Chocolate cake, filled with Oreo butter cream, covered with dark chocolate butter cream.

Sent from my sister: The cake decorated with the sugar cookies.

Thanksgiving Family Get-Together
Pump'kin Patch cupcakes (pumpkin cake with cream cheese frosting)
Just Like Heaven cupcakes (chocolate cake, nutella ganache, caramel frosting, toffee bits garnish)

The branches and paper flowers posing with the cupcakes was my first Pinterest project. ;)

Christmas Family Get-Together
Red velvet and chocolate cake pops 

Santa's belt, snowflakes, and holly & berry wreaths for a festive holiday celebration.

How to decorate these cake pops:
I go back and forth with using decorating bags and tips when I'm decorating with candy melts. I feel like I spend more time going back and forth between the table and the microwave because the melts harden more quickly in the tip, even if the rest is still warm/usable. I often just use toothpicks instead.

Santa's belt:

• Use black candy melts, black sanding sugar, and silver sanding sugar
• Dip a toothpick in your smooth black candy melt and "paint" on a line in the middle of the cake pop, about 1 cm thick. Coat with black sanding sugar.  Note 1: I usually would do half of the belt and then sugar, then finish the other half of the belt and sugar. This is to prevent the candy melt from hardening before you sugar it. Note 2: It's best to have parchment paper beneath your workspace, making it easier to save your sugar and pour it back into its container. I also do one color at a time to avoid mixing colors.
• Repeat for remaining cake pops.
• Dip your toothpick in the candy melt again. Paint on a small rectangle for the belt buckle. I made the rectangles thin to prevent them from turning out more square, since it turns out 'thicker' once you add the sugar.
• Coat with silver sanding sugar. (Some people like yellow or gold for the buckle, but I like silver...so your choice!).

Snowflakes:

• Use white candy melts, white sanding sugar, and white snowflake sprinkles.  Note: I used two different types of sprinkles to differentiate cake flavors; i.e. sanding sugar = red velvet, snowflakes = chocolate
• For sanding sugar snowflake. 
• Dip a toothpick in your smooth white candy melts. 
• Draw two lines like a + sign. 
• Add small slanted lines like \/ at the end of each line (it should look like kind of like an arrow's end). 
• Coat with white sanding sugar.
• Add four more smaller lines in between the open spaces in your + and small slanted lines at the ends of these lines.
• Coat with white sanding sugar. 

• For snowflake sprinkles.
• Lay out your sprinkles in the design that you want.
• I made one long line of 5 snowflake sprinkles, then branched out four short lines of 2 sprinkles each (the cake pop gets crowded real quick!) Think of an asterisk shape *
• Dip a toothpick in your smooth white candy melts.
• Dot in the center and place your first snowflake. Note: I used dots versus lines so you can see the snowflakes clearly.
• Repeat with remaining snowflakes. 

Holly & berry wreaths 

• Use green candy melts and holly berry sprinkle mix (in a small shallow bowl).
• Instead of a toothpick, use a small tool to create your circle for the wreath. I used the screw cap from one of my small plastic decorating bottles. 
• Dip the cap (or whatever circular tool you chose) in your smooth green candy melts.  
• Carefully place cap on your cake pop. Be sure that your circle is complete. Repeat dip if necessary.
• Dip cake pop in holly & berry mix, or sprinkle them over your circle. Note: Dipping the cake pop can spread the candy melt out a little bit, making your wreath a little wider. I used both methods to see what worked best -- dipping is obviously not as messy, but sprinkling creates a more defined wreath (If you look at my second picture with all of the pops together, see the front two wreaths? The one on the left was dipped, and the one of the right was sprinkled).

Despite the fact that the winter holidays are now over, I hope you will "pin" my short  tute so you can reference it for 2012's holidays. ;)  And, I wish I could provide images to show each step, but 1, I was still in berserk-dom, and 2, I'm just not that organized when I bake. And 3, I'm terrible at doing a visual step-by-step on my own, and I couldn't dare bother the hubs while he's playing a video game...gasp! 

 

I hope you've enjoyed my 'recent' happenings. Now I'm off to Pinterest to find some more inspiration :D