My First Ever Baby Shower!

So no-one really close to me has ever had a baby...or if they have they lived too far away for me to do anything about it! So I've never been to a baby shower which for a 26 year old mormon is pretty unheard of! 

As fate would cruelly have it, a few months after we moved to Vancouver my sister called to tell me she was pregnant and I also found out one of my best friends from high school was pregnant (the first out of our whole group of friends!) so I was more than heartbroken at the thought I was going to be missing both of these super important events, including their baby showers! With my love of all things sweet, and planning dessert tables I have been waiting to throw someone a baby shower for years! So when I met my friend Nicole at church here in Vancouver and found out she was expecting I knew I wanted to do something special for her! 

 I've decided if I could just be a party planner for the rest of my life I'd be so happy! I spent every day leading up to the baby shower dreaming up colour combinations and styles of table decorations! I was sad that I didn't have my cake stand collection here in Vancouver and so I had to make do with the limited resources I had but considering it was on a budget, it came together pretty well! 

I knew the chocolate ganache raspberry cupcakes were going to be the main focus of the table and so I decided the colour scheme should be pink to tie in with the pink raspberry frosting.  I spent a while thinking about what colour would work well with pink and so in the end I went with lime green.  I found that gorgeous polka dot sparkly tissue paper in the exact shades I needed and even found matching serviettes and paper plates in those colours too.

Luckily, my friend Kristen was able to lend me this pretty cake stand to make the cupcakes stand out...

I bought some pink and green plates to display the rest of the goodies, and I whipped up some of my oreo truffles because a party isn't a party without an oreo truffle! The green ones were mint flavour, 

and the pink ones I just made with regular oreo's and milk chocolate coating.  I drizzled each truffle in green or pink candy melt, and then put them in these cute colour co-ordinating mini cupcake liners.

I also tried out these creamy lime squares and I added some shredded coconut into the shortbread base because coconut and lime is a winner! 

These raspberry lemonade bars turned out great, and I loved how vibrant the colour turned out!

Kristen also brought a huge bowl of delicious fruit salad which I forgot to take a picture of! That was a great thing to bring because it was nice to even out all the sweetness with just a bit of healthiness on the side!!

I ordered the stripey straws off a baking website - they were my fave part of the table! and I also bought the mason jars from a canning factory, because drinks in jars makes everything more fun! 

To fill the jars, Cassie made up a few jugs of some rather delicious fresh raspberry lemonade! with real fresh raspberries in it too - it was sooo good!

Here's Nicole, who the baby shower was honouring! with the cute big sister Cambree.

Cambree's favourite part of the dessert table were the chocolate covered pretzels! She sure loved digging into them! as her face and hands will tell you!

After everyone devoured the food, it was time for a little present opening...

isn't this 'little sister' onesie the cutest! and Paisley, the baby of honour, is modelling it!

Cambree was enjoying all the excess wrappings!

Here's some of the lovely ladies that attended: Lindsay, Denise and Jessie

and here's my co-hosts Kristen and Cassie who produced some super fun shower games! 

One of the games was where you have to describe a baby word first round, then next round just use actions and the third round you just use one word.  

With quite a lot of the words involved there were some very funny actions going on! I think the look Lindsay is giving Denise here is even funnier than her action! 

I'm thinking maybe this was our 'hospital' action where we tried to recreate giving birth in an action!

I have no idea what's going on here but again, Kristen's face watching Nicole's actions below is pretty hilarious!

It was such a great night.  I love these girls I have met in Vancouver so much, I can't believe I only have 2 months left to enjoy them and then we're homeward bound back to the UK! 

Christmas Mint Oreo Truffles coated with Mint Aero Chocolate

I know, I know - Oreo Truffles? you've heard it all before! These have been around the blogging world for about as long as I can remember...

but they are a timeless classic and delicious enough to be mentioned again! 

Everyone knows I am a fan of the Mint Oreo and especially because it's nearly Christmas I thought it was more than appropriate to make some Mint Oreo Truffles to take to our Relief Society Christmas social at church.

I even coated them in Mint Aero chocolate just for fun, but I made sure I used half regular chocolate and half Mint Aero because despite the past 3 days featuring minty treats I do know where to draw the line when it comes to mint! 

So, for those of you who are new to the Oreo Truffle - only 3 ingredients are required: Oreos, Cream Cheese and Chocolate! So what are you waiting for?

They are the perfect party treat! 

Mint Oreo Truffles:

Makes about 30 (depending on how large you want them)

Adapted from Bakerella

450g Mint Oreo cookies 

225g Cream cheese

200g Mint Aero chocolate

200g Milk chocolate

Sprinkles and sanding sugars to decorate

Finely crush the Oreo cookies in a food processor or in a ziploc bag with a rolling pin.

Stir in softened cream cheese. Use the back of a large spoon to help mash the two together completely.

Roll the mixture into 1″ balls and place on wax paper covered baking tray.

Place covered in the freezer for 30 minutes to help them retain shape when dipping in melted chocolate.

Melt chocolate in a double boiler or in 30 second intervals in the microwave.

Dip balls into chocolate (I use a teaspoon) tap off extra and set aside on wax paper covered cookie sheet to dry.

Sprinkle with green and red sanding sugar and festive Christmas tree sprinkles. Make sure to sprinkle the decorations on one at a time after each truffle has been dipped, if you try to do a few at a time the chocolate will set before you get the chance to stick them on.

Refrigerate for 30 minutes and then enjoy!

The Birthday Dessert Bar!

I have been planning this for a long time now! I have developed 
an obsession with stalking dessert bar blogs and ogling at how 
amazingly talented the people are who create them! So I
decided I wanted to have a go at one myself.  I decided my colour theme would be brown and green and so to go along with that everything was chocolate or mint or both! I spent the whole of last week baking in preparation, so I baked one new thing each evening and then froze everything up until the big day!  My sister Mara baked the whoopies since she has been busy developing a whoopie pie range for her company so I figured I'd leave it to the pro! and I left the bunting to my scrapbooking pro sister Mel.  My Mom provided the yummy Root Beer, which our whole family is 
crazy about (and of course it fitted with the brown colour theme!) and everything else on the table was baked by me.
I'll give you a little break down of what we had.....

The Cupcake centre piece, these were my favourite mint oreo cupcakes with an oreo baked into the base of the cupcake.  You can also see one of my brand new cupcake stands that I got for my birthday here (I got a whole lot of cupcake goodies as presents that I will blog about in the next few days!)

These were little sweetie jars filled with coconut M&M's, green apple and juicy pear Jelly Belly's and maltesers.

Next we have the fabulous whoopies, they were chocolate flavoured with a cheesecake filling (tinted green).

After that, we have some brownie pops.  They weren't quite the shape I was hoping for, but it was my first time making them so I guess perfection comes with practice! These brownies were covered in melted mint aero and rolled in green sanding sugar.

These are some mini cupcakes that were made using the same mixture as the Oreo cupcakes you saw earlier, but instead of Oreo frosting I went with a basic vanilla buttercream (tinted green) and topped with a little wedge of peppermint crisp (a chocolate bar only available in South Africa...so thanks to my grandparents-in-law for bringing me some over!!)

Then we have the cake pops.  These were mint chocolate cupcakes that are then crumbled to pieces.   I mixed in some swiss meringue buttercream to the crumbled cake mess, rolled them into balls, after freezing they were dipped in green candy melts and finished off with a mini brown smartie.

And last, but definitely not least (I think these were the fave of the whole dessert bar), are the Oreo balls. These are crushed up Oreos mixed in with some cream cheese, and then after being frozen they are dipped in mint chocolate and finished off with a sprinkling of peppermint crisp.

And here we are, the two birthday girls, about to enjoy the feast before us!

I was pretty pleased with how it all turned out! The family were certainly impressed! I know it doesn't look as perfect or as polished as the ones you see on the dessert bar blogs but for my first time I felt it couldn't have gone better!  It did take a LOT of work though, so I think I'm going to try and enjoy a week free of baking...I feel I've earned it, starting tomorrow though because this evening I have been baking birthday cupcakes to take into work! 

Some mint-spiration!

One of my big loves is dessert bars! I have a few favourite websites that showcase professional dessert bars and also ones submitted by everyday bloggers.  My very favourite one is Half Baked, you definitely need to check it out! It is amazing how creative these people are who do this! If you want to look at an amazing professional dessert bar designer then head over to Amy Atlas.

For a while now I have been wanting to have a go at doing one myself! So for the past month I have been scouring the internet for inspiration and buying far too much in preparation for my birthday in a couple of weeks time when I will finally get to put all my blog surfing into action!  There has been many a fight in my household over whether I need to buy special plates when we have perfectly good ones already, or why I need to order special m&m's from America, or why I need to be buying more cake stands when I own a zillion already...but it all comes down to colour co-ordination! so yes I need new things to tie the whole table together!

I have settled for the combination of chocolate and mint, so the table will be decorated accordingly in the colours of green and brown.  I will be making mint chocolate oreo cupcakes, oreo truffles, mint brownie pops, my sister Mara will be providing the whoopie pies, my sister Mel is going to make the bunting and my mom is providing the Root Beer - accompanied with green straws of course!  I am so excited to see how it turns out!

So I thought I'd give you a little sneaky peek into my 'mint-spiration', I have stolen this phrase from Kate over at Grin and Bake It because it is genius! but all credit goes to her  for thinking up such a witty title!

The delicious looking whoopie pies and polka dot cookies featured above both come from her blog.

The five layered green mint cupcakes are baked by the very talented Liz at Hoosier Homemade.


The amazing brownie pops come from Jonna over at Get off your Butt and BAKE!


The brownie balls are a creation of mine I made a while ago, and the coconut m&m's were imported from the U.S by a seller on ebay who has a rather tasty selection of American delicacies on offer that we can't get over here.  If you fancy all things American like me you should definitely check it out, the prices aren't too bad...and if you love coconut you have simply got to try these m&m's - they are to die for! They will be featuring on the dessert table in some cute little jars I got at a farm shop near where I live, along with some green apple and root beer jelly belly's too!

Twist it, Dunk it, Lick it...CUPCAKE IT!

As you've probably gathered by now, oreos are a firm favourite of mine! I went to Guildford yesterday for a bakefest with a friend who is wanting to extend her baking repertoire, and decided oreo cupcakes topped with oreo truffles should be on the menu.

We began making the oreo truffles. These are just so easy to make and so delicious too, I could eat them all day long! These lovely little creations are all down to the wonderfully imaginative Bakerella, if you've never checked out her blog you're missing out. You just mix a box and a half (English style) of crushed up Oreos with a tub of cream cheese, shape them into little balls, freeze for an hour until they set, melt some chocolate in a bowl and dip away (garnish with sprinkles or crushed oreo bits at your discretion!)!

Whilst they were setting we started on the cupcakes. We used my favourite recipe from The Red Deer, where you line the cupcake cases with oreo cookies first and then pour the mix on top. There is nothing better than having a cute little biscuit as the base as you take your first bite. There were also crushed oreos in the mix, and then they were finished with cream cheese and oreo frosting. Delish!

Oreo Cupcakes:
Makes 18 Cupcakes


3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup brown sugar
8 oz dark chocolate, melted
3 large eggs, separated
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 3/4 cups milk
8 Oreo cookies, smashed to bits
18 Oreos halved

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C.
In each cupcake liner place half an Oreo (the half with the cream filling still on it). 


Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Mix in egg yolks.  Mix in vanilla and chocolate.
In a separate bowl, mix the flour, bicarbonate of soda, and baking powder.
Alternate adding the flour mixture and milk to the butter/sugar mixture.


Stir in Oreos.  In a separate bowl, whip egg whites until peaks form.  Fold the batter into the egg whites.


Fill cupcake liners 2/3 full.
Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.


Once cupcakes have cooled top with Oreo cream cheese frosting and an Oreo truffle.


Oreo Cream Cheese Frosting:


8 oz package of cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
4 cups icing sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup crushed Oreos 


Whip cream cheese and butter until light and fluffy.  Mix in powdered sugar one cup at a time.
Add vanilla extract. Gently stir in crushed Oreos (Ensure that the Oreos are really finely crushed otherwise bigger chunks won't fit through your piping nozzle).


Oreo Truffles:

1 package oreo cookies (divided… use cookie including the cream center)
1 8oz. package cream cheese (softened)
Milk chocolate, melted

Finely crush 7 cookies in a food processor or place them in a ziploc bag and crush into a fine consistency. Reserve for later.
Crush remaining cookies and stir in softened cream cheese. Use the back of a large spoon to help mash the two together.
Roll the mixture into 1″ balls and place on wax paper covered cookie sheet.
 Melt chocolate and then dip balls into chocolate, tap off extra and set aside on wax paper covered cookie sheet to dry. You can sprinkle the tops with the 7 crushed cookies for decoration (or use sprinkles like I did).
Once dry, refrigerate and enjoy!

Makes about 36 truffles.

Mint choc oreo cupcakes..for Iron cupcake!

So a lot of time was spent on these little beauties!! As you know I'd been planning on baking banoffee cupcakes but after making brownie balls I changed my mind and decided chocolate and mint was the way to go! and what I really wanted to do was chocolate and mint oreo but since England is pretty backwards in the selection of oreos they offer I knew I'd have to find an American shop to get me what I needed. However after much ringing around I established none of the American shops even had them in stock..how disappointing! I broadcast my frustrations on facebook and an American friend offered to send me some but since that was on Thursday they wouldn't have arrived in time! I decided to take matters into my own hands..and spent more time than it was probably worth scraping the filling from each little oreo and flavouring it mint and tinting it green! I put these at the bottom of my cases and used my fail safe chocolate oreo recipe which I borrowed from the great red deer and started the baking.

Before all of this I should mention I had already prepared my oreo balls..similar to the brownie bites but in the middle I had crushed oreo mixed with cream cheese and then dipped in mint aero with green sprinkles for decoraton. They were in the freezer setting at this point. All was going smoothly..next the frosting!

These cupcakes usually call for cream cheese frosting so I had planned to flavour it peppermint to match the cupcake (which I had melted a dash of mint aero in too). I decided to double the batch since I had alot of cupcakes to frost..and apparently that didn't really work! I mixed the frosting and butter first and then realised it called for tons of icing sugar..and I ran out! ahh..so I couldn't go and buy any more but my lovely husband offered to wake up at 6am Monday morning to get me some! unfortunately the tesco express he went to didn't have any so I woke up to get to Sainsbury's for 7am to buy some more and then it was a mad rush to whip up a double batch of mint buttercream (I gave up on the cream cheese idea!) and still get to school on time!!

...but one taste and it was all worth it! Here's a cross section so you can see the little oreo biscuit base!