{First off: we have a winner of last week's Teaching from Rest giveaway! Dana McGowen, you are the lucky one! Thanks for being our reader! And thank you, everyone, who entered, and to Sarah, for facilitating the giveaway! Dana, Auntie Leila will be emailing you shortly. (Or, if you don't hear from her shortly, assume that a baby has arrived and she's busy for the moment. 🙂 }
The Artist, Finnabee, and I have made it to the LMLD homestead and are settling in here in the good ole NorthEast! Thank you for the well wishes for our move! It went very smoothly, largely thanks to Bridget, who traveled down to DC in order to help me with the final days of packing and to keep Finnabee and me company on the car ride while The Artist drove the rental truck. She was clutch: our 10 hour trip would have felt a great deal longer without her cheering up the babe in the backseat!
As I mentioned a while ago in {bits & pieces}, before we started packing the apartment up in earnest, I had the chance to team up with Natasha in putting a baby shower together for Dino. Natasha organized the invitations and decor with her usual flair, and I prepared the space and food. We had a fun time hanging out with Suki's friends, who are up for a laugh and a few games (despite my scattered organization of the latter).
We took the “Dino” theme and ran with it.
I like having a seat of honor for the showeree:
I had put off the shower until the spring specifically so that I could make use of the balcony! There's only so much room in a two-bedroom apartment for hosting a group, so I was determined that I'd be able to use that space…
For the cake:
I made the cocoa devils food cake from the recipe found in Joy of Cooking. The recipe makes two cakes, which I made in advance and then split into four cakes with a long serrated knife while they were defrosting (making the cutting easier).
The frosting recipe (including homemade caramel, which is what I drizzled over the top) was drawn mostly from the recipe for Genoise Cake with Salted Caramel Whipped Cream Frosting and Caramelized Almonds from 10thKitchen.
In an attempt to produce a “prehistoric terrain” effect for the dinosaurs, I crumbled up pieces of Trader Joe's Chocolate Almond Laceys. I also sprinkled them throughout the layers of the cake.
The cake was a hit and I got a lot of compliments — but this is the kind of dessert I feel almost guilty receiving compliments for. After all, when a critical mass of butter, cream cheese, whipped cream, sugar, and cocoa has gone into something, it'd pretty much be a culinary crime for it to not come out tasty…
(I would share my recipe for the lemon cream puffs but, unfortunately, I don't know where I got it and I'm afraid I'd just be taking credit for someone else's work…!)
Now we're just looking forward to meeting the little Dino himself!
Tacy Williams Beck says
Too much cuteness! I love this!!
Trista says
Looks like a wonderful shower! Great job to the hostesses!
Susan (DE) says
Thank you so much for sharing! Fun and beautiful baby shower. And thank you SO much for giving us a glimpse of your beautiful baby girl!
corina says
The photos are really lovely! And your beatiful baby girl has grown so much! Thank you for sharing and wish you well on your new life in the LMLD homestead!
Leila says
Ah, I wish I could have been there. It looks so nice! You guys did an amazing job on the food and the decorations!
Elizabeth says
oh, that is just darling! God bless you and the baby to be born!!!
Mary says
I LOVE the decor. How wonderful and sweet. The cake look absolutely divine! My favorite photo though is of the sisters/sister-in-law/beautiful niece. Finnabee is growing up so fast! Everyone else looks beautiful. Come on Dino Saur…we are looking forward to meeting you!!
Cristina says
Beautiful baby shower!
Logan says
Wow I was so excited to spot a dear old friend of mine from college in that last photo! Sukie and Megan are friends!? It makes me feel like I almost know a celebrity– two degrees separation from Auntie Leila. 🙂 Sometimes the Catholic world is so small and funny.