Ashley's Baby Shower: Part I

This weekend I helped host my friend Ashley's baby shower! The two other girls (Erika and Heather) who helped put the shower together, have design experience and I love putting together these kind of events, so we made a great team :) We have been planning for the past few months now and it all came together this past Sunday. The inspiration was drawn from the beautiful invitation our friend Erika designed:I love it! How cute is the bird family?! The theme for the shower was birds with the color palate of green, blue and orange with hints of brown and yellow here and there. Our friend Ashley does eco-friendly fashion so we wanted it to be very natural and "naturey" as well. In this first post, I will post all the food from the shower.

Our menu and the frame I painted to match the shower theme.

Close up of the menu. We had sweet and savory items.

Cucumber and radish open faced sandwiches made by Erika. I also made the plate stand. I will post how I did that later :)

Desserts included: lemon blueberry cupcakes, chocolate orange cupcakes, a small lemon blue berry cake, bird's nest treats, coconut macaroons and fruit salad served in sugar cones.


So many pics, so little space... click to see these larger :)


6 inch mini lemon blueberry cake with vanilla swiss meringue buttercream for the mommy to be. Notice the birds match the birds on the invite :)


Everyone loves these homemade coconut macaroons! They have become a staple any time I do an event for my friends lately. They're so easy to make too!

For favors we ordered swirl lollipops and personalized them with our own sticker to match the shower as well a simple bow.

So you can't eat it, but a shower is not complete these days without a diaper cake! I like to keep mine simple, so I made a basket to hold a majority of the contents. Products included all natural baby products from my friend's website Mom To Mom Health!

Gotta wash it all down with personalized water bottles! Label designed by our friend Heather.

Stay tuned for the next post for part II.

strawberry shortcake

Whipped up some easy strawberry shortcakes the other day for dessert. Still waiting for the strawberries to come in to season (definitely had to sugar them up a bit), but the cake part was super easy and tasted so good! Especially when served right out of the oven ;-) I added a touch of lemon zest to the biscuits and vanilla bean to the homemade whipped cream. The following recipe that I used is from Baking Bites. I cut it in half so I'd have just enough and not many leftovers.


Strawberry Buttermilk Shortcakes
Recipe adapted from Baking Bites
Makes just about 5 servings (depending on how big or small you prepare the biscuits)

1 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tbsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
3 1/2 tbls butter, chilled and cut into pieces
3/8 cup buttermilk (that's half of 3/4 cup ;-)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract Fresh lemon zest (about a half lemon)
Fresh, ripe strawberries
Homemade whipped cream

1. Preheat oven to 400F.

2. In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.

3. Rub in butter with your finger tips until mixture resembles coarse crumbs (or pulse a few times in a food processor).

4. Stir in buttermilk, vanilla extract and lemon zest until the dough comes together. Add an additional tablespoon of buttermilk if the dough is slightly dry.

5. Drop by 1/4 cups (use a measuring cup) onto a parchment-lined baking sheet. Or, I gently spread out the dough to around a 1/2 inch thickness and cut out the short cakes with a heart shaped cookie cutter (or use a small biscuit cutter). I got about 10 heart shaped biscuits with the size cutter I used.

6. Bake for 15 minutes, or until golden.

I like to serve them immediately out of the oven. Slice in half, put in fresh strawberries, homemade whipped cream, and enjoy ;-) I'm definitely ready for summer and strawberry season! ~Cara Lee

may = baby showers

I'm just about finished my spring semester and looking forward to blogging once again this summer! I've been able to bake a bit more, a few cupcakes here and there for friends, but I'm itching to make a cake. It's been awhile since I've done one!

In the mean time I have 3 baby showers this month! One was this weekend that I had to miss :( But I sent over some cupcakes of course ;-)

Red velvet with vanilla bean cream cheese frosting
and homemade cupcake toppers

Next weekend I'm helping host my girlfriend Ashley's baby shower. I'm sooo excited! Here's a little sneak peek at the invitation our friend designed. The theme of the whole shower is inspired by her wonderful art work!

Beautiful invite designed by our friend Erika

We have been preparing for Ashley's baby shower for a few months now. I can't wait to unveil all our hard work next weekend! Until then...

M.I.A.

I can't believe it's been over a month since my last post! I've been crazy busy with grad school, homework, work, and somehow I try to fit a social life in there somewhere. I really have not been in the kitchen to bake anything since my last post, but yesterday I finally got to whip up some cupcakes for my friends Stella & Dot jewelry show.

How cute is my new cupcake stand?! Goes perfect with the Jewelry.

Cupcake flavors were chocolate orange, chocolate peanut butter, gluten free lemon, gluten free coconut and to top it all off I made coconut macaroons too. I made the sweets to entice people to come look at the jewelry ;-) ....Well a few more weeks of school and a condensed summer course to go and I will be free! I also have a few friends weddings this summer and will be making cakes for them, so I'm excited about that!

Butterfly Bridal Shower

I had the honor of putting together one of my closest friend's bridal shower together this weekend. I was excited to be able to choose the theme and everything.

I knew I wanted something with butterflies and the color purple since that is her wedding theme. I went to one of my favorite sites for inspiration: etsy. I truly admire the talent so many people have on that site. In my search for all things butterflies and purple, I came across the Frog Prince Paperie. Paula, of the Frog Prince Paperie was so kind and personalized what was originally a birthday party idea into a bridal shower theme for me. Here's how the party turned out...

The decor/theme: butterflies, purple with green accents. I loved Paula's simple butterfly theme. She made water bottle labels, cupcake topper (I couldn't find the right size scalloped punch to make them as pretty as I wanted); bag labels; and banner (and more but I just didn't have time to use all the materials she created). The guests loved the personal touches it added to the party :)

The main table: I was excited the bride's mom had an area to set up the cupcake tower and cookie favors (made by the bride's mom too). I hung up the banner over it - looking back, maybe I should have hung the banner over the mirror, but ah well. I also added some flowers on each side.

The food table: Thanks to the lovely bridesmaids who helped put together the main food which included brie with hot pepper jam, spanikopita, mini quiche, hummus and veggies, fruit and more. I love the center piece I came up with the day of - green and purple vases .99 cents each at the thrift store; the L and B initials $1.00 each at Michael's; LOVE sign the bride's mom already had; flowers from the local grocery store for around $20 total. Not bad!

Desserts I made: As you know from my blog I love dessert :) I made lemon blackberry cupcakes, coconut macaroons and white chocolate dipped oreos. The cupcakes made a great center piece on the main table.

I was so happy with the final result! This was only the second party I've gotten to really put together. There was a lot more detail I wanted to add, but time constraints (grad school, work, etc.) but I'm happy with what we ended up with. I'm ready to start planning the next party! Thanks to the bridesmaids for all the help; to the bride's mom for letting us use her house and making the sugar cookie favors; and the Frog Prince Paperie for the designs.

Lucky Monkey Baby Shower

This past weekend I made cupcakes for a shamrock/monkey theme baby shower. The family is Irish (hence the shamrocks) and for the monkeys they wanted the Fisher Price Rainforest monkey. I did my best interpretation of the monkey I could ;-) Cupcake flavors included lemon and Oreo mint.

Since I had extra cupcakes, I made some different flavor combos to bring to my friend's bachelorette party that night. Flavors included lemon or chocolate cake with raspberry swiss meringue buttercream with a Chambord raspberry filling. Kinda funny - I bought the jam at the dutch market and mixed alcohol in it ;-)


I also made a coffee swiss meringue buttercream to top off some of the chocolate cupcakes. I looove the coffee swiss meringue, it reminds me of coffee ice cream and pairs so well with chocolate cake.

The ladies loved them, I mean... Who doesn't love cupcakes after a few drinks?? ;-)

Lemon Blackberry Cupcakes

It's been awhile since my last post! School and work have consumed my life. Haven't been able to bake as much as I've liked. I didn't even get to make something cute for a valentine's day post :( Ah well... I made these cupcakes last weekend for a friend's birthday. Blackberries were on sale and I've been wanting to make some lemon cupcakes. A great flavor combo - reminds me that spring is around the corner!

Recipes Used:

Martha Stewart's Swiss Meringue Buttercream
-I cut this recipe in 1/2 and added a few tablespoons fresh blackberry puree (be sure to remove the seeds! I use either a mesh strainer or a cheesecloth) instead of using vanilla
-It makes a beautiful all natural purple color that I just love

Joy of Baking Yellow Cupcakes
-I added fresh lemon zest and lemon juice to the batter
-This recipe is best when eaten the same day, if not as soon as its cooled. I think I would use another yellow/vanilla cake recipe instead next time because they were a bit dry at the time of the party that night (but still tasty ;-)

Almost forgot... I got to use my logo stickers! I look so professional huh?? ;-) ~Cara Lee

Super Bowl XLV Cupcakes

I made some Super Bowl cupcakes for the big game today. I came up with a "Pretzels and Beer" cupcake. How I came up with this concoction:

Pretzels + Chocolate = Flipz
Pretzels + Beer = A delicious food combination
Chocolate + Beer = Young's Chocolate Stout
Pretzels + Chocolate + Beer = CUPCAKE!

The result: a cupcake with a pretzel crust, chocolate stout cake, a little vanilla swiss meringue frosting, and topped with a chocolate covered pretzel.


I could care less for the teams who were in the game (I'm and Eagles fan myself ;-) but I did match the colors black liners with yellow sprinkles for the Steelers and then yellow liner with green sprinkles for the Packers.

Recipes I used

Crust: I just winged it... smashed up some pretzels, sprinkled some sugar and some melted butter

For the cake: Smitten Kitchen's Chocolate Whiskey and Beer Cake (just the cake part, and I used Young's Chocolate Stout instead of Guinness)

Frosting: Martha Stewart's Swiss Meringue

Valentine's Birthday

A friend of mine asked me to make some cupcakes for his girlfriend's birthday. He let me do anything I wanted, except the flavor had to be red velvet - her fave ;-) Since Valentine's Day is around the corner I used that as inspiration.



Even though I cannot stand the taste of those conversation hearts, I do think they are fun to look at. I made fondant conversation hearts and I thought it would be a cute idea to write things on each heart that had to do with them as a couple. Some phrases I used: "family" (since they are expecting), "farmville" (she loves that game), to really personalize it. I also put fun fondant curly ribbon on some of the cakes to make it more birthday-ish :)





So I had some left over red velvet batter and wanted to create something... I came up with a "red bottom" cupcake.


It's red velvet and cheesecake cupcake with chocolate chips. Traditionally you use a chocolate cake on the bottom. I attempted to make the cheesecake part look like a heart ...FAIL! But it tasted good. You don't even need frosting. You know I've met quite a few people who ... dare I say this....don't care for frosting! (My BF included... but I've been working on that ;-) ~Cara Lee

Giveaway Winner!

Happy February. Thanks to all who entered the giveaway this past week. Congrats to Rene of Rene Takes the Cake! She left the 3rd comment and she is the Winner of the CSN Stores giveaway. She won $35 to any of their online stores! Thanks again to everyone :)