sweet pregnancy

Obviously, I haven't been very good about keeping my blog updated with tales of baking and pictures of delicious treats. Since July I've been occupied with other things, primarily with being pregnant! That's right, I'm expecting my first child... due March 20, 2012! Brett and I are incredibly excited, and can't wait until the arrival of our sweet baby girl! It's hard to believe that I'm already 27 weeks pregnant, almost 7 months! It's just nuts, the past few months have flown by. When we first found out back on July 6th, it felt like March was a million months away - now it's just three short months away! I keep thinking about how this will be our last Christmas as a family of two. Next year will be incredibly different!

I feel incredibly blessed to have had an easy pregnancy thus far. No morning sickness, nausea or food aversions. My sense of smell is definitely heightened, and I have cravings for all things sweet (especially Sour Patch Kids). I had an onslaught of headaches in the first 4 months, which were a pain considering the only medicine I can take is Tylenol. Other that that, no complaints! Now that my belly is getting bigger, my back hurts a lot, most often during the day while I'm sitting at my desk. No matter what I do, I just can't get comfortable. Luckily my sleep hasn't suffered (yet). I'm still the same old Erin with narcoleptic tendencies.

I think being incredibly busy with Holiday Mart helped the first five months fly by. The height of Holiday Mart planning and work was August-October, so I stayed super busy! The Mart was a huge success, and I feel so proud to have been a part of it.

So, with my work, Holiday Mart responsibilities and pregnancy, I haven't done much baking in the last few months.

I did manage to make some yummy Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bars for a work event...

They were amazing! I got the recipe from Bake at 350 - I highly recommend them!

Now that we're in the midst of the Christmas season, I've made a few holiday treats... red velvet cake balls, chocolate chip cookies and reindeer crunch. This weekend I plan on making French Toast Casserole for Christmas Eve breakfast, and Hot Beef Dip for the Lambert family Christmas Eve dinner.

I LOVE the holiday's - the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas is my favorite time of the year. I love being with family and friends, the traditions, memories of year's past, the sounds, smells, nonstop Christmas music... everything! Being pregnant during the holiday's has been fun (except for not being able to wear the cute holiday dresses). I've been trying to savor every moment and not rush things. While I can't wait for baby girl L. to arrive, I'm trying to enjoy the moments that Brett and I have together now... being able to have our Christmas date night, going to see the Nutcracker together, Christmas shopping without a little one in tow, etc. We're both ready for the next phase of our lives, but it's nice to enjoy our last Christmas as a family of two.

Here are a few pictures to get you up to speed on my pregnancy...

My first "bump" picture - 5 weeks pregnant!

How we told my Mom and Dad

How we told Brett's parents

Week 8

Week 9

Week 11

Week 19

Week 20 - halfway there!

Week 21 - Photo Shoot for our Christmas Card

Week 23 - Thanksgiving day!

Week 25 - Brett's Work Christmas Party

Week 27 - December 21

On October 20 (week 18), we had our first sonogram and found out Baby L.'s gender! To announce the gender to our families, we had a "Gender Reveal Party." I made a sweet treat to help with the announcement - more on that and pictures in my next post!

Merry Christmas!

festive treats fit for a holiday party

Merry Christmas, everyone! I know that I'm a day late, but it was a busy holiday! And, considering all the snow we got over the last few days, it still feels like Christmas! In fact, it's snowing again...

Last weekend we hosted a Holiday Party, so leading up to the party I was in the kitchen, busy making cupcakes, sugar cookies, chocolate chip cookies and white chocolate party mix, along with all the salty snacks I made. Since I had lots to do in a limited amount of time, I used the same Perfect Cake-Mix Cupcake recipe that I wrote about in my last entry. This time I used a white cake mix rather than devil's food and changed up the decorating. The design on the cupcakes are holly leaves with berries. I used jelly belly sour cherries for the berries and spearmint gummies for the leaves. Spearmint wasn't the ideal flavor, but it was the only candy shaped like a leaf that I found.







For the Holly Berry Cupcakes I used the same frosting recipe that I used for the Christmas Cupcakes and the Thanksgiving Cupcakes. For the Christmas Cupcakes I used peppermint flavoring in the recipe (rather than almond), and for the Holly Berry Cupcakes I used the almond flavoring. You can also use creme bouquet flavoring rather than almond.

Buttercream Frosting Recipe:
2 lb bag of powdered sugar, sift for decorating
1 stick (1/2 cup) butter, not margarine, room temperature
1/2 cup hi-ratio or icing shortening - not Crisco
1/2 cup milk (minus 2 Tbsp in the summer)
1 teaspoon clear vanilla
1/4 teaspoon creme bouquet or almond flavoring
1/8 teaspoon salt
*Cocoa for chocolate

Cream butter and shortening together until fluffy, with mixer on low, add the milk (-2 Tbsp), 1/2 the bag of sugar slowly, the flavorings and the salt. Mix until creamy, slowly add the remaining sugar. If the icing is too stiff, add remaining milk. In the summer leave out the extra 2 Tbsp.

Scrape the sides of the bowl. Turn mixer on high and beat for 6-10 min. until icing has doubled in volume. Keep covered while working. Store in a tightly covered container in the refrigerator for up to 4 weeks or freeze for 6 months. Thaw to room temperature and re-whip.

To make Chocolate Buttercream, make the regular buttercream as above. Add cocoa (start with 1/2-3/4 cup or more) and milk (1 Tbsp at a time) to thin. Add a pinch o salt to help bring out the flavor. This icing will thicken as it sits. It should be made ahead and rewhipped to the right consistency. More cocoa to make darker and richer and milk to keep from being too thick.

You can't find hi-ratio/icing shortening at a typical grocery store. I bought my shortening at The Baker's Rack in downtown Lenexa, KS, which is where this icing recipe came from. The reason for using hi-ratio/icing shortening rather than Crisco is because Crisco is heavy and is made for frying, so it will be greasy on the tongue. Hi-ratio/icing shortening is digestible and made for eating, and will whip up fluffy.

Buttercream Frosting in the making...



One thing to note is that this recipe makes a LOT of frosting... more than enough to frost two dozen cupcakes. It would likely be the perfect amount to frost a cake with. The next time I make this frosting, I'm going to try cutting the recipe in half... I'll let you know how that goes.

Just for fun, here are a few shots of my sugar cookies: