Oh Baby! Shower...

let's rewind back to June, shall we?... and I would tell you that I hosted a baby shower for a friend of mine. This post has been requested by quite a few people, but they just wanted the details. so here are the details my friends.

this is the invite i made up. i actually used this for another friends baby shower a while back, so all i had to do was fix the information. :) i also made special mailing labels. i LOVE making customized mailing labels.

for the decorations - i did it nice and simple. i picked up a bunch of mini pink roses from walmart and put them in mason jars. i actually already had the mason jars, they were a nice find at Goodwill and they only cost me .25 cents. I put the jars along my fireplace mantel and on the food table.

POM-POMS! No party is complete without pom-poms. i love them. and they are so super easy to make. for those who wanted the tutorial on how to make them click here

the food table was nice and simple and super yummy! i asked my friend things she liked and if she had any prego cravings, so the food was designed around that. we had cookies, reese peanut butter cups, starburst and i make chocolate cupcakes with brown sugar frosting topped with scor bar. i also did some fruit skewers and a veggie platter and then served mini chicken salad sandwiches, yum! i have requests for both the cupcakes and chicken salad recipes. the recipes will be at the end of this post. i also made some little flags to put on cupcakes and some of the other food.

i am SO not a fan of games at a baby shower. but i thought it would be fun to do a little some'in some'in. so i made up a "baby quiz" about my friend and i also made up a "baby scattergories" game. it ended up being a lot of fun.

for Thank You's, I made rice krispy pops. super easy and super yummy. i just made a few batches of rice krispy, cut them out in circles, i melted some chocolate and covered the tops of the circles in chocolate and added little edible candy pearls for a pretty little touch. i added a sucker stick and a little pink bow on the stick as well, and put them in little clear bags. easy! and i also made a fun 'thank you label' to put on each treat. love it.

and there you have it!

and for the recipes:

Chicken Salad Sandwiches

2-3 cooked chicken breasts shredded or cubed (i just used a rotisserie chicken)

4 oz. cream cheese (softened)

1/4 cup mayo (sometimes you need a little less or more, depending on how much chicken you use.)

1 small can of crushed or cubed pineapple (drained)

1/2 cup toasted sliver almonds

2 stalks of celery chopped (you don't even have to add the celery if you don't want)

salt and pepper for taste

mix: everything together.

I suggest putting a nice little scoop of salad on a roll (i prefer a yummy potato roll) and i alway butter the roll on both sides just a little bit before adding the salad.

YUM!!

Chocolate Cupcake with Brown Sugar Frosting

*This is without a doubt THE BEST chocolate cake recipe EVER! The recipe does call for you to add 2 cups of chocolate chips to the batter, but I never do. It's good either way. AND the bonus, you can really do this cake with any cake flavor you wanted, you'd just have to match the pudding to with whatever cake flavor you choose. SO GOOD!

BEST Chocolate Cake

*Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F

Ingredients:

1 box devil’s food cake mix
1 small box Jello instant chocolate pudding mix (not the sugar or fat free kind!)
1 cup sour cream
1 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 cups mini semisweet chocolate chips

All you do is dump everything except the chocolate chips into a very large bowl– A 4 qt bowl is good, but one of those 8 cup mixing bowls is too small! — then mix well with a beater. The batter will be thick!

Then take your 2 cups of chocolate chips–and stir them in.

Now, pour your batter into your cake pan of choice. Okay, it doesn’t really pour. It’s very thick. “Scoop” your batter into your cake pan of choice.

like to bake my cakes in two, 9-inch pie pans or do cupcakes. But you could really use this batter to make any kind of cake- sheet cake, cupcakes, bundt cake, etc. It tells you the cooking times for specific cakes on the back of the cake mix box. I use that as a guide. Sometimes I need to add about 5-10 mins to whatever they say. Make sure to do the toothpick check, but remember, you may get some of the chocolate from the melted chips on your toothpick so don’t let that fool you. ;) you want your toothpick to come out clean and you cake is done. DONT over bake!

let your cake cool.

Brown Sugar Frosting

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter

1 cup packed dark brown sugar

1/3 cup heavy cream, or more if needed

1 (16-ounce) box confectioners' sugar

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 cup chopped scor bar optional

Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat and stir in brown sugar and cream. Bring to a boil and boil for at least 1 minute and stir consistently , and then transfer to a mixing bowl. Add confectioners' sugar and vanilla. Beat with a handheld electric mixer until it reaches a spreading consistency. At this time it may be necessary to add a tablespoon of heavy cream, or more, if frosting gets too thick. Just be sure to add cream in small amounts because you can always "add to", but you can't take away. Frost cake and sprinkle top with chopped scor bar, if desired.