Saraid's Baby Shower - How to co-host from afar

Sometimes living in London is great. 

Sometimes, it is not so great. 

Like when your closest friends are going through the most exciting time of their lives, and suddenly London feels worlds away from everywhere and everyone who are important in our lives. 

But having lived away from loved ones for a while now, I feel like I'm starting to find better ways of still being involved and part of their special moments. 

Sometimes it takes one or two planes to literally be there,  often it is just lots and lots of weekend Skype sessions, and sometimes, I need to send a meg-package to have as much of me there as possible. 

Laura Ashley blog cameo appearance, catering a baby shower!

Do you remember how back in July I was the Cakerer for a baby shower my friend Lauren was hosting?  

And how I said I was looking forward to being part of an event that was incorporating a much-loved brand Laura Ashley...?

Well....

I was pretty chuffed last week to see that little old me was on the Laura Ashley blog (well not me exactly, but my baked goods and cake bunting were!!). 

Lauren wrote a great "How To" guide on pulling together a baby shower in true Laura Ashley style, and included in this were the cakes and treats I made for the event. 

Hop on over to the Laura Ashley blog and see how well it all came together!

A whale of a good time at Baby W's Shower

I was thrilled when I found out we'd be coming to New York for August because among many other exciting reasons,  it meant I would be able to attend the baby shower for Baby Williams. I'm not sure if you've picked up on this or not, but I bloomin' well  LOVE baby showers! (haha you said what I did there..). 

I love everything about them. I love the decorations, the cake, the gifts, the food, the exchange of mummy wisdom, the excitement of the blooming mum-to-be, the themes, and the chance to pamper and spoil the mama before she starts the exciting chapter of parenthood.

I was excited when my friend Julie, as a hostess, asked if I'd like to help make a cake for the shower, given that Mama Mandi can't eat gluten either. I was thrilled and knew the perfect cake would be the Flourless Almond and Orange cake, and so gladly accepted. I offered to make a few little decorations to contribute to the nautical themed shower as well, which placated my crafty needs that haven't been able to indulge in much craftiness in our home away from home here in Manhattan. 

My photos are only quick iPhone snaps, so apologies for some grainyness here and there!!! 

Julie and I made and "dressed" two cakes for the shower. 

There was the main Orange and Almond Cake, frosted with a cream cheese frosting. 

And then the diaper/nappy cake. Julie had done all the hard work of rolling and assembling all the diapers, and I got to just swan in and dress it up a little with some nautical ribbons/rope that I found at Mood this past week. 

I loved that we drank our mimosa's out of named mason jars, topped off with nautical paper straws of course!

Susan, Cristen and Julie spent the weekend preparing all of the savoury delights, 98% of which were gluten free! Mandi and I loved being able to have plateful (after plateful) of delicious food that wasn't going to make us sick! They made gorgeous turkey meatballs, chicken salad boats, brussel sprout salad, veggies with hummus and fruit salad. 

And what did I contribute to this smorgasbord of heavenly food..... something fun to eat them with!!! Little whale and flag food picks!

We all had a chance to guess the birth date of Baby W, with the winner getting first babysitting honours, and anyone who guessed OVER her due date, promptly scratched off the Christmas Card list! I loved Susan's handiwork and kind of want to make one of these boards for household notices!!

I made some of my Confetti-filled balloons to dot around the room, and these ones were filled with navy stripe and baby blue to fit the theme. I thought about putting teeny tiny whale confetti to put inside each balloon, but then it would have felt odd stuffing tadpoles inside latex!

I had fun making a little bunting for Baby W, which we had positioned along the front wall to set the scene.

If you follow my Instagram feed, you'll have seen these amazing soaps that Julie ordered on Etsy. They were so cute, smelled utterly divine and I just loved the special touch,  "from Amanda's shower to yours". The soaps themselves were from Possum Hollow Farm Soap and the little whale canvas pouches were from A Southern Flair. I wish I could post a "scratch & sniff" panel so you could smell them!!

I had Baby M spend the day with her Daddy at the boy's BBQ, as she has a way of captivating everyone's attention, and I wanted Baby W to be the focus of his own shower! But when the boys returned at the end of the shower, she was a pig in mud playing with all of the helium balloons! I so wish I had my proper camera to take some decent photos of her! Perhaps I will have to do this again one day, shame! 

It was such an incredible baby shower, these girls sure know how to host a party. I hope Mandi has a relaxed final month of pregnancy and I can't wait to hear all about Baby W when he arrives, on September 24th, which was my guess date!! 

Mini Lemon Shortbread Pavlova

Or, Lemon Meringue Shooters I guess you could call them!

Recently I was the cakerer for a sweet baby shower and made these as the 4th dessert to accompany the Almond & Orange cake, Ombre White Chocolate mudcakes, and Anzac Blondies. 

There are three components to assemble these Lemon Shortbread Pavlova's and yep you guessed it, they are 1) lemon curd 2) crushed shortbread biscuits and 3) itty bitty pavlova's. 

The first component - Lemon Curd

Have you heard the thing about curd.... it is delicious! I have always been put of a curd because curd to me doesn't sound all that appetising. But, I am so happy that I overcame my prejudice against curd  because it is actually darn tasty! Not that I can eat citrus, so it isn't much of a breakthrough for me, but still, a little teaspoon of it here and there isn't going to kill me!!

I used the Donna Hay Modern Classics 2 recipe for Lemon Curd and it worked perfectly and was really simple to make.  

Ingredients

1/2 cup of lemon juice

100g butter

1/2 cup of sugar

1 whole egg

3 egg yolks

Method:

1. Place the lemon juice and butter in a saucepan over low heat and stir until the butter has melted. 

2. Whisk the sugar and eggs (whole + yolks) into the butter. 

3. Stir constantly over medium heat until the mixture starts to thicken (about 5 minutes)

The second component - Shortbread base

This is even more simple to make, possibly the most simple thing to make in the kitchen!! Crush whichever biscuits you like (and by biscuits I mean cookies) with melted butter. Done. 

The third component - Pavlova/meringue/cream

Pavlova is an Australian (New Zealand - - depends who you are but there's a bitter feud between our two nations over who first created the pav) dessert that is basically a huge meringue, baked and topped with seasonal fruit and cream. I've been making a lot of Pav's lately, I always forget how easy they are to make! But yet, when we had one of Mr M's friends' over for dinner one night and he was beyond excited about dessert, he reminded me the importance of a gentle fold, something he was never able to achieve, and thus could never make this lighter-than-air dessert!

(Full Pavlova recipe)

Ingredients

3 egg whites

1 cup of sugar

3/4 t cornflour

1 t vanilla

1 t white vinegar

Method:

1. If you have a stand mixer you will find this an easy peasy dessert! You need to beat the egg whites for a few minutes until they start getting white and fluffy. 

2. Start adding in the sugar, bit by bit and beat well in between. You need to beat until stiff peaks form - this means that when you dip a spoon finger in to the fluffiness, you should be able to lift and a peak will be created! It's fun to do!

3. Slowly and very gently fold in the vanilla, cornflour and vinegar. Gently, you don't want to take all of the air out of the eggwhites. 

4. For these shooters, I traced the top of the shot glasses on the piece of baking paper and piped little mounds to fill each circle. 

5. These mini ones were baked for 15 minutes on a low oven. For the full pav instructions, follow this link. 

Assemble by placing the shortbread base in first, then some lemon, repeat and place each pavlova/meringue or alternatively whipped cream, on top! 

I really loved how these turned out. I tried each component separately and they were all delicious, so I can only imagine how tasty it was all in one mouthful!! I think it is a striking dessert for an event or dinner party and something you can mostly prepare a bit ahead of time. 

Flourless Orange & Almond Cake (GF)

I used this cake as the main cake at the Baby Shower I cakered for a few weeks ago, and have made it a few times in the past but now that I am gluten intolerant, will be making it a whole lot more, I had forgotten how much I like it!!

The recipe is from a cake decorating book called Planet Cake.

The recipe makes a monster-sized batch of cupcakes or large two round cakes. The most time consuming part is preparing the oranges, however it can be a very useful hour or so to do other things too, like feed a hungry little toddler!!

Start off with 2 to 3 oranges and clean their skin well. Put them in a large saucepan with enough water to cover them. Put a small plate on top of the oranges to keep them submerged in the water (otherwise they float) and bring the water to the boil. Reduce the heat and let the oranges simmer for an hour. After this time, they should be quite soft to touch. 

Drain the water and let them rest until they are cool enough to handle. Cut each orange into quarters, remove the pips, then puree in a blender or food processor.

Meanwhile, beat 8 eggs (yep, EIGHT) with 420g of sugar and 1 teaspoon of baking powder. 

Beat for about 5 minutes until the mixture is quite pale and very fluffy. 

Slowly beat in 420g of almond meal and then 420g of the orange puree. The mixture is supposed to be quite runny as it is a very moist cake, however it still needs to resemble cake mixture, so add more almond meal if you need. 

Pour into the tins and bake in 180 degree over (350F) for 1 hour 30 minutes until golden brown and a skewer poked into the centre comes out clean. Cool completely in the tin.

I think the icing that best suits this cake is a cream cheese frosting. Mix a few tablespoons of butter and a few tablespoons of cream cheese with as much icing sugar as is needed to make a nice thick icing. 

Baby Shower Cakerer

(Okay, just in case you are worried due to my very Royal-inspired week thus far, no, I did not throw The Duchess of Cambridge a baby shower, I'm not that coo coo!!). 

My friend Lauren asked me a few weeks back if I would be interested in making a cake for a baby shower she was hosting for a friend of hers, and without hesitation I said yes! I had met the mama-to-be a few times and so was really excited to be doing some baking to celebrate the imminent arrival of her little girl! Plus, when Lauren hosts, she pulls together some pretty awesome people, and I for one was thrilled to bits to be the cakerer alongside the likes of tableware supplied by Laura Ashley. 

I started planning right away and luckily for me, there was already a theme (you know I love my themes!!). So, everything was to go with a general theme of yellow and grey. Knowing the mama-to-be works in children's book publishing, I thought of a few little ways of personalising the sweets in her honour.

Order One: A cake

I decided to make an Orange & Almond cake, because it would handle being made the day before, wouldn't dry out in the hot weather, and because it was in line with the theme colours! 

Recipe HERE

Order two: Small side cakes

Lauren and I had pinned the same exact idea on Pinterest! We both loved the idea of mini-ombre cakes, but with yellow of course. I used my trusty White Chocolate Mudcake recipe for this, which again, would be best made a day or two in advance and would be sweet enough on its own without all the icing that is usually on cakes. I baked four separate mudcakes, each a varying shade of yellow, and was happy with how they came out. Yellow is a tricky one for ombre, but I think it looked sweet. 

Order 3: Salted Caramel Anzac-Blondies

Being a group of Americans, it was no surprise that this was requested!! It's sweet, gooey, chewy and perfect for one who is soon to be due-y!! Haha oh dear. 

Order 4: Anything else I liked

Well, this one was a tricky one! The ideas just kept flowing and flowing, but I had to think of what would make sense with the other flavours, be easily transportable, and something that would withstand the heatwave that we were in. 

I decided to create Mini Lemon Shortbread Pavlova's.  

I loved how these turned out, and love that I can make them gluten free easily too. I used shortbread for the base, made lemon curd for the first time, and baked mini pavlova's for the tops! I think they looked gorgeous and out of everything, was a bit envious that I wouldn't get to have one!!

And then there were the little extras! 

Confetti-filled balloons

meg-made Confetti-Balloons on Etsy. I've also done them here and here.

Neither of us got a good photo of the yellow and grey confetti-filled balloons, but my darling husband spent two hours inflating every balloon and then hanging off the ceiling trying to tape them up. The heat combined with the high ceilings made his job difficult, but they looked beautiful scattered all over the ceiling (you'll have to take my word for it) and I was so grateful for him for staying and helping me out! He subs as sous chef often enough at home, and now can throw in balloon-tape-attachmenterer too).

Book Heart Picks

Browsing through Pinterest I saw these adorable heart food picks and knew immediately that I wanted to make some too!!

I went to our little antique store down the road and bought an appropriate old classic penguin book. It felt a little wrong cutting it up, but it was worth it when I saw the finished product. I think the vintage look of the texts compliments the modernness of the ombre cakes, and together is sweet, and yet personal. 

The bunting!

I was a bit chuffed actually with the little bunting I made. I resized some pictures of children's book covers and placed them on the front of some page inserts from the antique book I purchased. I then attached them all by needle and thread to some skewers, and finished with grey polkadot bows. 

Thanks for sharing some of your photos Lauren (meg-made-AK), I was in a mad rush to clean up and get my tired little girl out the door before the guest of honour arrived, and so my photos were pretty shoddy! 

From all reports, Grace had a wonderful shower and was well and truly pampered by all the girls! I can't wait to hear all about her little girl in a few weeks, good luck Grace!!!