Baby Shower Treats!

Kelli’s cousin Stacey is having a baby! Due in late December, her baby shower was this past weekend. As soon as I heard she was pregnant, I wanted to bake cute baby stuff for her! I’d seen tons of cute ideas on the internet for adorable sugar cookies that I was dying for a reason to make! With Kelli as the party planner, we were ready for one awesome shower! With close to 50 invitations sent out for the event, we were going to need a whole lot of dessert. Sheet cake was the obvious choice, but who wants a plain, dried out, over sugary store bought sheet cake? Not me! Stacey’s sister Ashley wanted to make a cake in the shape of a monkey to go with the nursery theme, but all the designs we could find only served 8 to 10. That would be enough for the immediate family, so how about cupcakes for everyone else!

Stacey wanted “Funfetti” cupcakes, so I tried out the Vanilla cupcakes from More from Magnolia and threw in some awesome sprinkles I found at my new favorite store, The Happy Hostess House. They came out great, but only made 2 dozen, so I decided to try the chocolate cupcakes from Magnolia too to add some variety.

I should have just stuck with the chocolate cupcakes I have been making. Those have worked so well—baking up perfectly and tasting amazing every time! I don’t know what I did wrong with the Magnolia cupcakes, but every single one sunk in the center, with a few having humongous holes in the center. A bit of frosting could fix that right up, as long as they tasted okay, right? Right. Too bad they tasted horrible. They were almost hollow in the center, were impossible to pull away from the wrapper without falling apart, and the taste—not good. Kelli thought they were okay, but I thought they were terrible. I was not serving those to a whole party of people. So I served them to the trashcan instead, and went back to my tried and true recipe—the Chocolate Mayonnaise cake. Mixing and matching Vanilla Bean and Chocolate frostings, the cupcakes came out great!


I loved making the sugar cookies. With a onesie, a bib, a teddy bear, and a bottle, they came out so cute! I was a little scared of the monkey on the onesie and the bib, since I don’t have a ton of artistic talent, but I think they came out pretty cute anyway!


The cutest part of all was the monkey cake. Kelli found a really cute pattern on Parenting.com that we tried to follow. With a boxed cake mix, canned frosting, and some candy and doughnuts, it ended up being SO cute and super easy!


It was the perfect centerpiece to our dessert spread! Look how cute it all looked!


The party was so fun! I rocked the Celebrity baby game (I totally would’ve won if I had been able to play for prizes! Too bad Kelli had already quizzed me in the car...), and the Candy Bar Diaper Game was fun, even though it was absolutely disgusting (melted candy bars mashed up in a diaper? Yeah. Totally gross.) Now I can’t wait until Stacey has her baby!

(I just realized that I’ve never given you the recipe for my Chocolate Mayonnaise cupcakes! Don’t worry. It’ll be featured in my next post.)

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Magnolia’s Vanilla Cupcakes
From More From Magnolia by Allysa Torey
Makes about 2 dozen cupcakes



1 ½ cups self rising flour*
1 ¼ cups all purpose flour
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
2 cups sugar
4 large eggs, room temperature
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. Line two 12-cup muffin tins with cupcake papers.
3. In a small bowl, combine the flours. Set aside.
4. In a large bowl, on medium speed of an electric mixer, cream the butter until smooth. Add the sugar gradually and beat until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the dry ingredients in three parts, alternating with the milk and vanilla. With each addition, beat until the ingredients are incorporated, but do not overbeat. Using a rubber spatula, scrape down the batter in the bowl to make sure the ingredients are well blended. Carefully spoon the batter into the cupcake liners, filling them about three-quarters full. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean.
5. Cool cupcakes in the tins for 15 minutes. Remove from the tins and cool completely on a wire rack before icing.

*Note: If you do not have self-rising flour, add 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder and 1/2 teaspoon salt for every cup of All-Purpose Flour substituted in the recipe. In the case of this recipe, you would use 1 ½ cups of all purpose flour, 2 ¼ teaspoons baking powder, and ¾ teaspoon of salt in place of the 1 ½ cups of self-rising flour.

Vanilla Bean Buttercream
From Love and Olive Oil
Makes enough for 2 dozen cupcakes

1 cup (2 sticks) butter or margarine, room temperature
6 cups confectioners’ sugar
1 vanilla bean (seeds only)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
food coloring (optional)

1. Cream butter in electric mixer for 1-2 minutes until fluffy. Slowly add 1 cup sugar and beat until smooth. Add remaining confectioners’ sugar, 1/2 cup at a time, and beat until well incorporated. Add vanilla seeds, extract, and food coloring, and mix at medium-high speed until light and fluffy (2-3 minutes). Add milk or sugar as necessary to achieve proper consistency. Pipe or spread onto cooled cupcakes.

Chocolate Buttercream
From More from Magnolia by Allysa Torey
Makes enough for 2 dozen cupcakes

1 ½ cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
2 tablespoons milk
9 ounces semisweet chocolate, melted and cooled to lukewarm
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 ¼ cups sifted confectioners’ sugar

1. In a large bowl, on medium speed of an electric mixer, beat the butter until smooth and creamy, about 3 minutes. Add the milk carefully and beat until smooth. Add the melted chocolate and beat well, about 2 minutes. Add the vanilla and beat for 3 minutes. Gradually add the sugar and beat on low speed until creamy and of desired consistency.