It’s a Prince!

For days, much of the world has been waiting for the Royal baby to arrive.  Baby Cambridge was born today, and it’s a Prince! His name has not been revealed yet, and may not for days. Sophie is hoping for Ryland, but I’m with all those who think George is a nice name.  We shall see eh?

What better way to celebrate the royal baby’s birth than with cake?  Not just any cake though, we need a Chocolate Biscuit Cake. 

Chocolate Biscuit Cake will not be new to any Royal Watchers.  It was the cake William chose to be his Groom’s Cake.  In his book, Eating Royally, Darren McGrady, former chef to Queen Elizabeth II and Princess Diana, relates that this is the Queen’s favorite tea cake.  I’ve also read somewhere that she would have it served when William visited from Eton and it is his favorite too! 

Click here for the recipe!

Here is a little video from 2011 with McVitie’s on making the cake for the Royal Wedding.

The Royal Wedding Cake

One Year Olds ROCK!!

 

Last Saturday we celebrated my nephew’s first birthday. 

My nephew, Logan, ROCKS!!

I made the cupcakes for the party.  They were so good they made you wanna smash your guitar. 

To make the really cool, almost tie-died icing, just fill your decorator’s bag with two colors of icing, keeping them separated, each color taking up half the bag.  Pipe your swirls as usual.

Decorating for the party was fun.  Among the decorations were microwaved CDs. 

Here’s a random YouTube video that shows how:

When you party like a Rock Star, you usually end up destroying things.

Every Rocker needs some cool shades right?

The cupcakes were a smash…in the face.  “What was that for, Mom?”

Logan had his first real taste of sugar.  He ate almost the whole cupcake. 

Has everyone made these by now?  If not, what’s taking you so long?  These are THE BEST CUPCAKES EVER!!!

I couldn’t leave without showing you my cute little one year old.  Liam is learning to use a spoon and is so proud of himself.

A Hoppin’ Party

 

This post has been a long time coming.  It is the final post for Liam’s first birthday party.  I thought this day would never come!  You’re probably sick of seeing little froggies by now, but there’s still a little cuteness left.  But just in case you can’t get enough, I’ve added a few reminders of what I’ve already shown you. Just click on the links to view the original posts.

The Invitations

 

The Decorations:

Lily Pads

 

Decorating with Frames

 

Decorating with Albums

 

The Meal: Baked Spaghetti, Fettuccini Alfredeaux, Bread and Salad

 

The Dessert Table

First of all, that’s a lot of cupcakes!

I already had the two cupcake holders, but I needed something to hold the rest of them and add height and a focal point for the table.  I pulled out all my glass/crystal cake stands and fiddled with them until I came up with this tower of breakables.  The tiny cake stand up top came from Hobby Lobby and I love it!

The cupcakes are my favorite cupcakes topped with frogs made from candy melts.

To the left we had Tiny Crispy Rice Squares, Oreo Truffles and small frogs and L’s made with more candy melts.  Hours of fun, those candy melts were!

On the right were more Crispy Rice Squares (this time dipped in vanilla bark), green mints and Gummi Frogs!

So, it was time for the Birthday Boy to dive into the cake.  We sang “Happy Birthday.”  And this happened…

  I guess he didn’t know what was going on. Everyone was looking at him and singing.  Scary!

The cake, by the way, was made by stacking 3 small cakes I baked in ramekins.  I used a flat piping tip (the other side of a basket weave tip) and made vertical lines.  They were a little wavy and had the look of water.  Some little swirls decorated the top.

Again, I used candy melts to make a large frog on a wooden skewer.  He was so adorable!

Bluebeard got mad again toward the end.  I blame it on the sugar high.

Thanks for enduring all these posts.  But a bigger thank you goes to everyone who helped celebrate my baby’s birthday.

 

A Hoppin’ Party: The Invitations

Our little Liam is growing up too fast!  This weekend we celebrated his first birthday with a hoppin’ froggy party.  It was so much fun!  I’ve been very busy the last few weeks with planning and preparations, but it was so worth it; you’ll soon see what I mean.  I’ve got a lot to show you, so I’m going to spread this out over several days.

I’m also using this week as a way to introduce you to a new section of my blog: A Girl In Her Kitchen Crafts.  It just so happens that I do a lot of non-cooking projects in my kitchen.  It has great daytime lighting and LOTS of counter space.  This week’s craft posts will be duplicated in the crafting blog.  In the future, they will, with few exceptions, be found only in the crafting section.  You can follow the crafting blog in blogger or with Networked Blogs, (see the right hand side of the craft blog.)  Or you can just pop in from time to time to see if I’ve been up to anything new.

We’ll begin with the invitations to Liam’s birthday party.  I made them using Microsoft PowerPoint. 

First, I scanned into my computer a few pieces of scrapbook paper in blues and greens.

In PowerPoint I arranged the paper to where the front of the card would be.  I used more paper to create 3 little rectangles where I then added black and white photos of Liam at different times during his first year. At the bottom I wrote Look who’s turning one!

Here’s a peek at the inside.  I found both the frog and the poem online.

The back of the card (not shown) also had his monogram for a nice little touch.  After printing, I stuffed them into light blue envelopes. 

These were easy to make and so cute.  If the guests were like me, they displayed their invitations where they could bask in the cuteness.

I’m sharing this project, literally, by making it available in Google documents.  Hopefully, you can edit it there for your own little one.  Or you can write me for it at emcook17[at]comcast[dot]net.     

Milk and Cookies and Milk

Here’s a recipe I found on Tasty Kitchen that I wanted to share with you. It’s for Lactation Cookies. These cookies include ingredients said to increase the nursing mom’s milk supply.

Peaceful Parenting has a nice post telling you about the benefits of oatmeal, flax and yeast in increasing milk supply. Check it out here.

I thought these were some pretty yummy cookies. I diverged from the original recipe by using margarine instead of butter, adding more chocolate chips and because I didn’t have fresh yeast I used 1 1/2 tablespoons dried yeast. I also think that because of the effect the flax has on the finished cookie, these are best on the crispy side. I left them in the oven a little longer to do this, and probably the margarine helped them spread well too. You can store these in a plastic freezer bag. Take one out of the freezer and microwave about 10 seconds before enjoying. Eat at least 1 a day for the milk increasing benefits.

Here’s where you can find the recipe. Of course, if you’re concerned about your milk supply, finding a good Lactation Consultant and/or a breastfeeding support group will be very important. A Lactation Consultant will make sure your baby is getting a proper latch, getting enough milk, and can help with other nursing troubles too.

If you have other family members jealous of your special cookies, by all means share! You don’t have to worry about your husband or children spontaneously lactating. They can benefit from these healthful ingredients too!

It's a Boy!

Baby Liam is finally here!
Born 8/13 at 12:55 p.m., weighing in at 8 lbs. 13 oz. and measuring 21 inches.

Baby Liam with Daddy and Big Sister Sophie

Last week we had a baby shower and my mom made the punch. Several people wanted the recipe, so here it is.

 

It's A Boy Punch
24 Servings

1 (0.13 ounce) package blue raspberry flavored unsweetened Kool-Aid
1 (2 liter) Sprite
1 (64 fluid ounce) bottle white cranberry juice or white grape juice
1 cup sugar, or to taste
8 scoops vanilla ice cream

In your punch bowl, add the Kool-Aid, Sprite and juice and stir to combine. Add the sugar a little at a time, stirring well and tasting after each addition until it is sweetened to your taste. Drop scoops of ice cream into the punch, allowing them to float on top like clouds. Once the ice cream begins to melt a little, it will turn the punch baby blue colored.

Variation:
For the picture shown, Sugar-Free Kool-Aid was used and it made it foamy. It still looks nice, but Mom says it's better as prepared according to this recipe.

*For the shower she also used the white grape juice.

Click here for the Printable Recipe at Tasty Kitchen.

Enjoy!