Simple Baby Shower

I hosted a baby shower for one of my coworkers and dear friends last week. It was a small get-together of close friends and fellow coworkers so it was held in a little cafe here in town. The cafe is already so quaint and perfect in and of it's self  so I didn't do any decorating but I adorned the tables with treats to snack on before, during, and after our meal. I also included chocolate covered pretzels for each guest as a thank you for attending.

I really appreciate the new trend of "build a library" showers because I'm not a fan of greeting cards but I am a fan of the message they can send; therefore, why not give a child a book that you loved so they can make new memories? After I knew I would hold a library shower I was in search of a vintage-y feeling invite to match the ambiance of the cafe the shower would be held in... Etsy to the rescue, once again! I came across lil Mop Top and had to have these invites! Jen was amazing and made sure every aspect of the invites were perfect, I'm positive I squealed when I got them in the mail. Jen also has a lil Mop Top blog, stop by and leave her some love!

I was in love with these invitations from "GO!"
They've been edited by me for privacy purposes.

Fancy two-bite brownies & mini red velvet cupcakes

Favors

"The Daddy Cake"

I'm starting a new trend for baby showers (at least the ones I host) in what I call "The Daddy Cake". Let's face it, we don't want men at our baby showers (any more than they want to attend any kind of shower) until it's time to haul everything home but I think it's nice to show appreciation to the father of this new bundle he helped make possible : )

Ceramic Egg Cartons Make Me Happy

...that's basically it. I bought two of these ceramic egg cartons at Ross this week for $2.50 each. I would have bought more but two is all they had. There is no name on them and I couldn't find a version like them when I checked eBay and Amazon.

I just love looking at them in my fridge or on my counter.

I was making EatingWell.com's vegetable fried rice when I took these pictures. The recipe is fantastic, a couple of my omissions include: the ginger & the hot red pepper sauce. I used less garlic and I will use less soy sauce next time (coming from a lover of soy sauce).

Fancy Two-Bite Brownies

Cheap & Easy!

I went to good 'ol Wal-Mart looking for a silicone brownie-pop maker I saw just last week, to my dismay it was nowhere to be found. Instead of the brownie-pop maker I settled for a mini muffin pan that makes a whopping 24 "muffins". I'm really happy that I couldn't find that flimsy silicone pan because this mini muffin pan makes a perfect little two-bite brownie, it makes twice as much as the other pan, and it cost half as much (right around $5)!

I chose the easy route for batter

Dollop 1 heaping Tbsp in each 

I had to adjust the bake time for the brownies to about 22 minutes. Just keep a close eye on them to make sure they don't burn. Remove the brownies as soon as you can insert a toothpick in the middle of one of the brownies in the middle of the pan and it comes out clean. 

During bake time you can melt almond bark and then add oil until you get the consistency you desire. Thanks to my friend Kristy for giving me that tip : )

I made my chocolate runny enough to drizzle easily

Let the brownies sit for a few minutes after removing them from the oven, then take them out of the pan and transfer them to a piece of wax paper on your counter. Now you can drizzle your chocolate over them or dunk their tops in the chocolate... I did a little bit of both.

If you were only going to do one kind of topping you could just put the brownies in the fridge for a little bit to harden the chocolate. Since I did some with vanilla topping on them as well, I used the freezer to harden the layer underneath quicker. The freezer worked fast but that also meant that the brownies got a little hard and had to thaw back out. I would just suggest to take them out of the fridge an hour or so before you plan on serving them so they aren't cold or hard. I plan on serving these at a party next weekend and since my husband (the pickiest person alive) likes them, I think they'll be a hit!