CELEBRATIONS: Surprise Baby Shower
Almost two weeks ago, my friends prepared a surprise baby shower for me. It was not really a surprise because I had an idea about it but not the details. My hubby and I had argued a lot close to the date of the shower because he won't divulge any details about the food to be prepared and the number of people coming. Because I was over thinking the situation and I'm worried that there won't be enough food, as I only knew that a friend will help prepare more dishes for me, I prepared cupcakes. Hubby assured me that it's all I need to prepare but as stubborn as I might be, I still prepared two extra dishes (baked lechon kawali and lumpia) because he won't tell me anything if some other friends will be bringing food. When the day came, three other friends brought more dishes (so relieved that there would be enough food for everyone) and I was so overwhelmed by our friends who came over. I almost thought no one will be throwing a baby shower for me. I also can't help gushing over the cute gifts for our baby.
Below are the pictures of the baby shower. As a theme, because we're having a girl (scan said 80% so we're assuming it's a girl), I had stuff in pink from the tablecloth, paper napkins and cupcake holder to my Peppa Pig cupcakes. The other decorations were made by my husband's colleagues at work who are also our friends. I have prepared the cupcakes all adorned with the Peppa Pig design I made myself (I used sticks for cake pops and cut out the design from a Peppa Pig gift wrapper, I love Peppa Pig by the way) and wrapped in brown cafe style cupcake/muffin cases (I thought brown complements well with pink but in the end I kind of wished I never used the cases because it was hard to pour batter on them as well as frosting them. My oven wasn't also that big to accommodate the high muffin cases so I had to fold them whilst baking. I made:
Carrot cupcakes with cream cheese frosting (in orange food coloring) and topped with crushed cashew nuts
Chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting and infused with dulce de leche (some topped with white chocolate buttons and some with mixed nuts)
Chocolate and Vanilla cookies and cream cupcakes with frosting and topped with mini-Oreos
Vanilla cupcakes with chocolate frosting and infused with dulce de leche
The dulce de leche I used is straight from the can. I attempted on making dulce de leche frosting but I haven't been successful yet. All attempts have been runny so far so I am still working on it.
VANILLA CUPCAKES
I finally found a good vanilla cupcake recipe which is not dry. Again I got it from my favorite, Ina Garten of Barefoot Contessa fame. It was a birthday cake recipe but I used it as a cupcake and I just reduced the ingredients as the original calls for a 3-tier birthday cake. My last resort was to use a chiffon cake recipe but thank God, I found this so that I don't have to go through separating the eggs for the chiffon. Don't worry if the batter may seem a bit runny. As what I've heard some chef say in Food Network, when it's runny, it's good because that means it's moist and not dry.
INGREDIENTS:
1 cup self-raising flour
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla
2 and 2/3 tbsp cornstarch
lemon zest
5 tbsp and 1 tsp cream
6 tbsp butter
Preheat oven to 150C. Cream sugar and butter using a electric mixer for 5 minutes at medium speed. Add eggs, one at a time, then cream, vanilla and lemon zest. Mix well. Sift together the dry ingredients (flour, corn starch, salt and baking soda) then on low speed, add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture until smooth. Put the batter into the muffin/cupcake pan. Bake until the toothpick comes out clean. Cool completely and frost the cupcakes, as desired. Makes about 12-15 cupcakes.
COOKIES AND CREAM CUPCAKES
Another cupcake I made for the baby shower. As I have mentioned above, some of the cookies and cream cupcakes were vanilla and the others are chocolate. For the vanilla cupcakes, I used the same recipe above and for the chocolate ones, I used the same recipe for my moist chocolate cake and using only half of the ingredients. The only additional thing to do is to add Oreo cookies in the batter. This is done by putting some crushed oreo biscuits before pouring the batter into the muffin pans.
For the frosting
INGREDIENTS:
1 3/4 cup and 2 tbsp whipping cream or double cream (I used double cream)
3 tbsp icing sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
6 tbsp oreo cookie crumbs
Combine the cream, icing sugar and vanilla then beat on high speed using an electric mixer until stiff peaks form. Don't worry, it may look like it won't thicken at first but believe me, it will. Fold in the cookie crumbs. Frosting is enough for at least 20 cupcakes. For an added flair, I topped them with mini-Oreos.
I got the frosting recipe from this blog as well as the idea to add the oreos into the cupcakes.
Below are the pictures of the baby shower. As a theme, because we're having a girl (scan said 80% so we're assuming it's a girl), I had stuff in pink from the tablecloth, paper napkins and cupcake holder to my Peppa Pig cupcakes. The other decorations were made by my husband's colleagues at work who are also our friends. I have prepared the cupcakes all adorned with the Peppa Pig design I made myself (I used sticks for cake pops and cut out the design from a Peppa Pig gift wrapper, I love Peppa Pig by the way) and wrapped in brown cafe style cupcake/muffin cases (I thought brown complements well with pink but in the end I kind of wished I never used the cases because it was hard to pour batter on them as well as frosting them. My oven wasn't also that big to accommodate the high muffin cases so I had to fold them whilst baking. I made:
Carrot cupcakes with cream cheese frosting (in orange food coloring) and topped with crushed cashew nuts
Chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting and infused with dulce de leche (some topped with white chocolate buttons and some with mixed nuts)
Chocolate and Vanilla cookies and cream cupcakes with frosting and topped with mini-Oreos
Vanilla cupcakes with chocolate frosting and infused with dulce de leche
The dulce de leche I used is straight from the can. I attempted on making dulce de leche frosting but I haven't been successful yet. All attempts have been runny so far so I am still working on it.
VANILLA CUPCAKES
I finally found a good vanilla cupcake recipe which is not dry. Again I got it from my favorite, Ina Garten of Barefoot Contessa fame. It was a birthday cake recipe but I used it as a cupcake and I just reduced the ingredients as the original calls for a 3-tier birthday cake. My last resort was to use a chiffon cake recipe but thank God, I found this so that I don't have to go through separating the eggs for the chiffon. Don't worry if the batter may seem a bit runny. As what I've heard some chef say in Food Network, when it's runny, it's good because that means it's moist and not dry.
INGREDIENTS:
1 cup self-raising flour
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla
2 and 2/3 tbsp cornstarch
lemon zest
5 tbsp and 1 tsp cream
6 tbsp butter
Preheat oven to 150C. Cream sugar and butter using a electric mixer for 5 minutes at medium speed. Add eggs, one at a time, then cream, vanilla and lemon zest. Mix well. Sift together the dry ingredients (flour, corn starch, salt and baking soda) then on low speed, add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture until smooth. Put the batter into the muffin/cupcake pan. Bake until the toothpick comes out clean. Cool completely and frost the cupcakes, as desired. Makes about 12-15 cupcakes.
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| Vanilla Cupcake with Oreo frosting and fruits (first attempt) |
Another cupcake I made for the baby shower. As I have mentioned above, some of the cookies and cream cupcakes were vanilla and the others are chocolate. For the vanilla cupcakes, I used the same recipe above and for the chocolate ones, I used the same recipe for my moist chocolate cake and using only half of the ingredients. The only additional thing to do is to add Oreo cookies in the batter. This is done by putting some crushed oreo biscuits before pouring the batter into the muffin pans.
For the frosting
INGREDIENTS:
1 3/4 cup and 2 tbsp whipping cream or double cream (I used double cream)
3 tbsp icing sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
6 tbsp oreo cookie crumbs
Combine the cream, icing sugar and vanilla then beat on high speed using an electric mixer until stiff peaks form. Don't worry, it may look like it won't thicken at first but believe me, it will. Fold in the cookie crumbs. Frosting is enough for at least 20 cupcakes. For an added flair, I topped them with mini-Oreos.
I got the frosting recipe from this blog as well as the idea to add the oreos into the cupcakes.
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| My baked lechon kawali. Please refer to previous blog entry for the recipe. I used 3 boneless pork belly joints. It has remained crispy throughout the party and there were no left-overs at all. |
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| My lumpia. The Romaine lettuce was supposed to be for my pancit bihon but I never had the chance (& energy) to make one more dish so I used it as a bed for the lumpia. Good thing, one of our friends actually brought pancit bihon. |
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| Gifts for our baby |
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| This shot was taken the morning after :) |
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