I’m at that age where my Facebook feed is full of engagement stories, wedding photos and … babies! Millie is my first close friend to be expecting and this past weekend, a few of us former bridesmaids organized a Hello Kitty themed baby shower to celebrate her upcoming baby girl. We each divided the roles based on what we were interested in: Norma and Alison wanted to make a diaper cake and I was excited to make a full-on coordinated dessert table!
(Such a beautiful photo captured by Peter)
I baked mini cupcakes for a wedding this summer, and had a pretty elaborate high tea spread for my friends 30th birthday, so why not add a pretty in pink baby shower table to the mix?
Here’s how I did it:
Once we agreed on a pink Hello Kitty theme, I started picking up supplies like these cute plates and cupcake liners.
Then I also ordered these adorable cookie gift bags online that look like Hello Kitty. Finally, I know part of the setting involved nice plates and cake stands, so I purchased those as well.
I wanted to make a variety of things and settled on 6 different treats for the table.
I had previously learned about the French cooking term “mise en place” before you set to cook, which means getting all your supplies in place before cooking/baking. And so, early Saturday morning I got all these ingredients together: I measured the flour needed for each piece and started to sift all the dry ingredients and set aside. Then I got together all the liquids and did the same. Good thing I measured out all the milk I needed because Eric ended up drinking the rest of the milk in the cartoon that afternoon =p
The Menu!
Cherry cupcakes with vanilla buttercream frosting
Oatmeal cookies with pumpkin seeds, cranberries and chocolate chips (the healthy snack 😉 )
Smartie Cookies
Sugar cookies with buttercream frosting
Chocolate-covered strawberries
and last.. Cake Pops! The most difficult, and yet most popular dessert!!
Paper Crafts
When all the baking was done, I took out my trusty Cricut machine and began making some signage for the table, and signage for each of the desserts.
Given that it was a shower theme, I made little umbrellas to glue on the tags.. and.. I had these super cute, and super appropriate pink kitten umbrellas all the way from France! My sister picked these up the morning of my wedding because we were worried about the rain. I was so lucky that I didn’t need these in the end, but aren’t they perfect?
We left a couple of these for Eric’s younger cousins to use, but kept two to bring home (this is just part of the reason we paid $300 in over weight luggage fees – at least I’m getting use out of it!)
I own a great turquoise cake stand that’s been used often in my dessert photos, but it wouldn’t do for this party. Rather than buy a colour-specific stand (although I did consider it!), I took a shoe box and draped several layers of pink tissue paper over it. Then I tied the box with a shiny white ribbon, glued my paper craft on the front, and boom! A pretty pedestal to display the cupcakes.
I did a quick practice layout on my dining room table just to make sure everything would line up right and I had taken all the considerations needed for plate ware.
The final reveal at the baby shower location!
The other ladies had picked up some table cloth and banners, and chips and drinks so in the end, this was the final set-up!
(Alison, Norma, Lily and I – happy to see our visions come to life)
When I was running late and forgot to eat lunch, I had a few moments of “hmmm, maybe I was being overly ambitious!!” But thankfully, we got everything set up before the guests arrived. This was even after Norma picked me up from my house and I realized we had to go back for a few things! Thanks girl <3
The best part was seeing the mom-to-be really surprised and happy, and having the guests ask if baked professionally! To which I answered, no, it’s a hobby… I love to bake, but if someone wants to pay me for this, I’ll certainly take orders 😉
Thanks to Peter, budding amateur photographer, I have all these gorgeous photos of my work (and can start building my portfolio 🙂
One drawback: apparently things looked TOO pretty so no one was eating initially! Nick took the plunge by messing up the symmetry and going for a cake pop!
We each have a serious sweet tooth, so he ended up trying everything and said the cake pop was the best! I described to everyone as a chocolate and peanut butter truffle covered in chocolate.
One guest told me that everything was really moist and that’s what stood out about the dessert being tasty. Okay – time to expose a secret… the secret is BUTTER.. and CREAM.. and sour cream!
Well with October being a month of belated wedding celebrations and birthday festivities.. I’ve definitely had my fair share of dessert and so I think I will take a short break from baking…. cooking is a different matter.
Next post – Cooking Classes at the Dirty Apron!!
*EDIT* I took some of the leftover cookies and cupcakes to my bouldering gym the next day since I know they appreciate it when I bring treats. To which one of the guys working there said, “Your cupcakes were so good, I’m going to name my first child after you! Girl OR boy!”
That sure made my day 😀
So now that I have all these pink Hello Kitty decorations, please contact me if you’d like to throw a similar party 🙂