Baby Shower

It all started in July after J got married, when I would bug her all the time about having a baby. If she told me she was cleaning the house I told her she was nesting. If she told me she was craving something, I told her it was because she was pregnant. SO when I got a call around Halloween from J saying "So for the Halloween Party this year, we can go out and I'll be the DD" I started freaking out because I knew instantly what that meant! I was so happy for them and that I would get to be an honorary Auntie!! <3

As everyone knows, or can guess I love throwing parties! And I've done a few different occasions...birthday brunch, kids birthdays, Halloween, theme parties, cocktails parties, bridal showers and bachelorettes...but THIS was my very first Baby Shower. Let me just say.....it was great! It went really really well, and I attribute that to the great group of ladies who came out this afternoon to celebrate with Bestie J. Thank you all! =)

So here it is! A Polka Dot Shower For Baby Cash

Mini Vanilla Cakes

J's Request, lemon meringue cupcakes

Little treats

Took a page from the Glitter Book and made some labels for some of the food.

had some punch, iced tea, lemonade, sparkling wine (non-alcoholic of course) and ice water

Chocolate Sugar Cookies

The Treat Station! :)

 

 

 

 

 

Not the nicest picture but I just had to show the spread we had going!

Felt Garland I sewed for the occasion on a trip to Moms House

Pinwheels are just too cute to not include in a baby shower, and so easy

The wooden blocks were borrowed from my daughters toy box and held together with a dab of hot glue. Baby words were scattered around the party.

washcloth clothesline, easily made with twine and some clothespins.

Baby Shower Sign

 So cute! The wash cloth clothesline idea came from A's Onesie Decor!

Made a mini candy buffet, complete with candy soothers and cake pops to match the polka dot theme

Favor bags

Candy Soothers A made for the Mini Candy Buffet

Me J and A! The bestest besties a girl could have! xo

Baby Shower Sneak Peek

Yesterday Bestie A and I spent the day crafting for a very important Baby Shower! On Sunday afternoon we will be hosting our very first Baby Shower for Bestie J, shes due in June and we're soooo excited to meet the new little edition. A and I are very excited to be "aunties" we even got to go to the 3-D ultrasound with them when they found out they were having a little BOY!! 

Just wanted to give everyone a little sneak peek of what we spent our rainy Monday doing! 

Cutest things ever! Found these while searching for new decor ideas from Once Wed you can check out her tutorial here

Needed some pinwheels!

Pulled out the Glitter and rhinestones

J likes glitter!

 Menu Sample some of Mommy To Be's Favorites!

Tossed Salad

Ham and Cheese

Famous Spinach Dip

Ginger Cookies (of course)

Lemon Meringue Cupcakes

....and you know there will be some other surprises and LOTS more food.

 We got lots of other things done too... but I don't want to J to see it all before the shower! And then topped it all off with a nice little shopping spree, also for the shower! It was a very successful (and damp) Monday, poured rain absolutely all day long. So much for APRIL SHOWERS and MAY flowers....but its better than snow so Ill take it!

Check back Monday for the full blog post on the Blue, Green and Brown Baby Shower.

GIVEAWAY!!!

 First Off, just wanted to say Happy Mothers Day to all the Moms out there!! I had a great 3rd Mother's Day with Hubby and my Princess, if only the sun would have stayed out a little longer. Anyway!

In honor of the recent face lift courtesy of April M Designs   and the arrival of Spring Bre Entertains is hosting its first GIVEAWAY!! 

Seeing as most of the posts are concerning cupcakes and cupcake recipes I thought something to help you present those little works of art would be very fitting. I own one and I love it, it helps "fancy" up any cupcake...

 Wilton's Cupcakes 'N More Dessert Stand! 

and 

Wilton's Picket Fence Cupcake Wrappers! 

Cupcakes 'N More: Wilton says "The look is fresh and fun, featuring bold silver-coated wire spirals to securely hold each cupcake. The twisting, towering design is perfect for any setting-showers,kids' Birthdays, Weddings and Holidays"

 Comes with a set of 18, easy to use,Picket Fence Cupcake Wrappers. 

 

I've used mine for Birthday Cupcakes (of course)...

Not into cupcakes?  You can use the Dessert stand for many other things! Such as treat bags at a kids party, truffles or favors at any event!

...and Favors at a Bridal Shower!

18 Picket Fence Cupcake Wrappers

The Loot

There are a few different ways you can enter to win this Prize from 

Bre Entertains!

1. Become a Blog follower of Bre Entertains! Bottom right of this page, then leave a comment on this post saying you did so.

2. "like"  Bre Entertains on Facebook HERE, fresh off the press! Then come back and leave a comment saying you did so.

3. If you don't already, Follow me on Twitter! @breentertains  And Tweet to all your friends about the giveaway!
Tweet: Go Check out @breentertains first giveaway!www.breentertains.com
Then...well you get it...come back and leave a comment!! =D

Each comment you leave is an entry to the giveaway! The giveaway will run until May 24th, 2011 @ 9:00am! Then the winner will be chosen via Random.org and announced here on the blog! So be sure to check back!

*Contest is open to residents of US and Canada only

So get to it!!

Vanilla Cupcakes

FOUND ONE!!!! I finally have a good recipe for making vanilla/white cake! After trying a couple different recipes over about 2 months I finally found one that is moist, light and tastes good! 10 points if you can guess where I found it.... ole Martha never fails! So why didn't I start with her recipe for Yellow Buttermilk Cupcakes in the first place you ask? Well for some reason I had it in my head that I HAD tried it before and it didn't turn out, and who knows I might have before the time of the magical Kitchen Aid.

yellow buttermilk cupcakes, with cinnamon cream cheese filling and butter cream

Bre's Cupcake Tip!
 I have probably mentioned this in a blog post before, but just in case....Instead of running out and buying a liter of buttermilk that is just going to go bad in your fridge...you can use 1 c milk + 1 tbsp of vinegar or lemon juice, stir and let sit for 5 minutes. This is all I used to use when making cupcakes for us at home, has always worked fine for me.

Tomorrow night I am going to a friends place for a PartyLite Party so I made sure to make a dozen cupcakes in pretty liners. In order to make them a little more tempting I decided to try filling them with a Cinnamon Cream Cheese filling. I found the recipe in Wilton's "Cupcake Fun" magazine/book hubby picked up at Walmart for me for $6 or something. Its a pretty neat little magazine to flip through, I love that it has recipes and templates for different cupcake designs. Again the recipe is halved, I only had teeny cupcakes.

The wilton magazine

Cinnamon Cream Cheese Filling

4 oz Cream Cheese, softened

1/4 c icing sugar

1/4 tsp cinnamon

2 tbsp milk (I used 1 and a little bit)

refridgerate until ready to use.

Best Ever Ginger Cookies

These cookies are one of the 3 most popular foods among our group of friends! They are soooooo good (yes, that good) It all started a couple summers ago when my Sister-In-Law came to stay with us for the summer and babysit Miss Charlee so I could get out and get a part time job. While working at this job I met some nice people, but none as nice as Paula. She was that person that made going to work a bit better, and to top it all off she would always bake and bring the most delicious cookies to work. We became good friends and starting hanging out outside of work, still do. :) So this was the summer that I was getting married, and Bestie J threw  me a surprise shower. (<3) This surprise shower is where the best ever ginger cookies made their debut to the party world, and the parties would never be the same again! (We recently used them at our cocktail party)

So many people could have this recipe and not even know how delicious it is!! Its the "Quick Ginger Cookies" Recipe out of the Crosby's Molasses Cookbook. They are very quick so it makes this recipe that much better. 

Quick Ginger Cookies

3/4 c shortening

1 c sugar

1 egg

4 tbsp crosby's molasses

2 c Flour

2 tsp bk soda

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp cloves

2 tsp ginger

1/2 tsp salt

Cream wet ingredients in the bowl of your mixer. 

Combine all the dry ingredients in a separate bowl, add with the mixer on low until combine.

Roll the dough into balls, roll in white sugar and place on lined baking sheet

Press lightly with fork

Bake @ 350 for 8 minutes.

For the record the other 2 favorite foods in our group are Spinach Dip and Caesar Potatoes.

Cupcake Portfolio... Fondant

So today I spent the day in the kitchen....First thing this morning I tried out a new white cake recipe...fail! I think I figured out that the recipe calls for too much flour. They are fluffy and feel moist to the touch, then you bite into one....DRRRYYYYY! So anyway I took advantage of this cupcake failure! I made a batch of butter cream and a batch of fondant and went to work practicing decorating cupcakes. So ignore the cupcakes and focus on the decor!

Came up with a few different designs that I was happy with but I still need lots of practice, especially bows. 

 Bridal Shower or just a Girly Birthday

Probably use this for almost any occasion you were celebrating.

top view of Daisy Cupcake

Paired with another design to personalize for the occasion

Baby Shower; can be personalized for Boy or Girl

Baby shower, Outdoor Birthday

Buzz Buzz!

Another Bee, this was one of the first cupcakes I did today so its a little sloppy but the idea is still there. Could pair this with a lady bug cupcake and a cupcake caterpillar

 Tame Bachelorette Cupcakes or Diva Birthday

Charlee's Favorite! Ice Cream Cupcake could be used for any occasion this summer!

So today was a busy but productive day (in the cupcake aspect of my house) . Between baking, making icing and fondant, coloring icing and fondant 8 different colors and creating some cupcakes. Only to then clean up my huge mess, do a mini cupcake photo shoot, upload and edit the pictures and finally ....finally Blog about it all and be able to share it with you...Oh yes, all the while being a mom. =)  It was a good day in my kitchen!

Bre Entertains Gets a Little Facelift!

For the past couple weeks I've been working with April of aprilmdesigns to come up with a logo for my blog! This is what she came up with! I'm loving the update to the page, it makes it more ME and less Blogspot. She also designed the background to match my colors. If you have any graphic design needs be sure to check out her page.

Also this past week something really exciting happened, if you follow me on twitter you know that my friends John and Bestie J got me a domain name for my Birthday/Mother's Day!! I didn't realize how much of a geek I really was until they told me I had my own domain name!! VERY exciting! My dad is the biggest geek I know, and I always loved to make fun of him when he got excited over something "silly" like a program update or some weird site. Sorry Dad! I guess I get it honnestly.

I'm hoping to continue working on the site and adding some other details to it. It will all come together in time. My main focus was getting the logo done on the page, and that is now complete. Next goal getting  followers and my first giveaway!! Stay tuned!!