It's A Boy // Kenangan Tempo Hari

Hi There :)

I was smiling to myself an hour ago, thinking of how funny life is. My Dad passed away a couple of days ago, and today we are remembering our youngest's baby shower, 5 years ago- today. When old leaves one by one fall to the ground, new leaves coming out, one by one as well. Such is life, hey? :)

Just last night I was going through my wedding pictures, the last time I saw my Dad, earlier I was going through my baby shower pictures for my youngest. Tears of sadness, tears of joy. Life is just funny that way.

Anyhoo...

I hope you guys been well!

Today I would like to share some pictures from the baby shower, if you don't mind :)

As we learned our baby was going to be a boy, for sure the theme color was blue, so cliche, hey hahah Have you seen the new ads from Celine Dion, of neutral gender? So cute.

I prepared everything myself, with some help from my husband and my then 4 yo son :) Just like my first pregnancy, we did not reveal to nobody that we were expecting, so our baby showers were ALWAYS surprise parties to friends (lol). I always hid myself well during both of my pregnancies, no families no friends could tell, so yeah, instead us being pampered, we were the one who pampered them instead, it's fun and funny that way, maybe :P

For this baby shower, as again we had winter baby, we prepared hot chocolate station, dessert table, and beef chili station,and we had 3 separate tables for those.
I decorated the wall with baby clothes on clothes hangline, and I crumpled some blue tissue papers to make wall pom-poms.

Coincidentally I won online contest for a boy diaper-cake, so that made a nice decoration for the dessert table.

If you can see behind my son, there is a wooden box, that is actually a cake-pop stand, which my husband made :)

For this baby shower, here are the sweets on the dessert table.

- Baby Face Cake Pops - for the 'thank you for coming' gifts
- Blue Teddy Chocolate Pops
- Navy Blue Swirled Cake Pops
- Cat's Tongues Cookies
- Biscotti
- Cotton Candy Cupcakes
- Coconut Meringue (schuimpjes)
- Blue Zebra Baby Cart Cake

Here are the recipes should you like to try them goodies, but they are not vegan, as this was 5 years ago lol - and @cheetah/owner, these are already blogged on my website, FYI

Biscotti:

- 1 1/2 csugar
- 2 1/2 c flour
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp salt
- A couple of minty candies, crushed. Make sure to choose blue colored candies, so you will get the blue theme of baby boy.

Method

- Sift flour, baking soda and salt together into small bowl. In medium bowl, cream together sugar, butter, eggs and vanilla. Add flour mixture and crushed candies. Form two logs. Place parchment paper on cookie sheet, and evenly space the two logs on the paper. Beat egg white until foamy, and brush on top and sides of each log. Bake in 350 degree oven for about 30-35 mins, until golden brown. Remove from oven and allow entire pan to cool completely on cookie rack. Remove the cooled logs from the pan. Using serrated knife, slice logs on a diagonal into 1/2" slices. Place slices on cookie sheet and bake in 350 degree oven for 10 minutes. Turn over and bake again about 5 minutes, until just beginning to color. Remove from rack to cool.

Cat's Tongue:

- 250 g unsalted butter
- 200 g berry sugar
- 225 g AP flour
- 5 egg whites
- 1/2 tbsp almond extract
- blue food coloring, gel or liquid

Method

- Cream butter and sugar. Add egg whites gradually and keep beating until very fluffy. Add in extract, beat until combined. Fold in flour and divide batter in to two bowls, one regular, and one is mixed with food coloring. Pour batter into two separate pipping bags and pipe them onto greased baking sheet. Bake at 350 F for 18 mins (dry and crisp).

Cake Pops:

- They are made using any flavor cakes and cream of your choice. Crumble cake, mix with cream, shape to round balls and dip them in melted chocolate.

Chocolate Pops:

- They are made by melting blue colored chocolate (like from Wilton) and molded using a chocolate mold, teddy bear shaped

Coconut Meringue:

- 250 g sugar
- 125 ml egg whites
- gel food color
- coconut essence/extract

Method

- On electric mixer, beat egg whites until soft peak on medium speed. Add in a little sugar at a time while keep beating. Once all sugar is gone and dissolving, turn up speed to the highest and keep beating for 10 minutes, until firm stiff peak. Once stiff peak is reached, if you would like to color and flavor it, here is the time. beat for a minute. Spoon meringue into a bag with nozzle and start piping shapes of your choice on baking pan lined with parchment paper. (For lazy version, just drop a dollop/tbsp of meringue on parchment instead piping!) Bake at 100 C for 50 minutes.

Cupcakes:

- They are made using any white cake recipe with vanilla extract added. For the cotton candy buttercream, add in an envelope of cotton candy flavoring (available at Walmart) to your fav. buttercream. Ducks are made with modeling chocolate, available at stores which offer baking stuffs. They are rolled thin and cut with cookie cutter, duck shaped.

Blue Zebra Cake:

- 400 ml egg whites
- 1 tsp emulsifier (such as ovalet, available at Asian stores or online)
- 175 gr sugar
- 175 gr flour
- 25 gr corn starch
- 200 gr butter/margarine, melted
- blue food coloring
- Buttercream of your choice

Method

- Preheat oven to 180 C. Grease your pans (2 7 inch or 1 9 inch), line with parchment, and grease again. Beat egg whites and emulsifier until fluffy. Add in sugar gradually while keep beating until thickened and firm. Fold in flour mixture with corn starch. Fold in melted margarine. Divide into two bowls, one as is, one colored with blue food coloring. Pour batter alternating each other on the center of the pans. Bake for 30-45 minutes until knife inserted in center comes out clean. Cover and decorate with buttercream and give a proper topper of your choice (stork, baby, baby cart etc)

Here are some more pictures from the party :D

But somehow there isn't my picture, right at the party. I do have a picture of me holding the baby cart cake, but I look humangously round, so yeah, not sharing that hahaha

And....not forgetting the hot chocolate and chili stations :D

The easy way to serve hot chocolate so it stays hot is with crockpot. Buy ready to brew hot chocolate powder such as Carnation, Tim Horton's etc. Prepare as directed and pour into crockpot, simmer.

For the addition: Chocolate Minty Spoons - Made by melting chocolate, dipping the spoon into melted chocolate and sprinkle chocolate while still fresh with crushed minty candies. Chocolate wafer rolls - available at most grocery stores or Dollar Store. Mini marshmallows. Chocolate chips of milk, white, butterscotch or any flavor you like. More crushed minty candies and obviously don't forget to prepare the ladle so your guests can serve themselves :)

As for the chili, I also prepared a crockpot. Prepare your favorite chili and pour them into crockpot and let it simmer

For additions: Crackers, Chips, Dips (jalapeno slices, sour cream, grated cheese, etc)

Easy peasy ;-)

Sorry, rather a lengthy post today :)

Thanks for reading tho!