This Weekend I Hosted a Baby Shower

This adorable little lady is my cousin, Emily.

And if you were around as a reader during the early days of ItMattersToCariss, then you remember a particularly dark period of years in my life where "food was king and I was the slave."

Don't recall those days?

Let's not re-live them.

But Emily was right there with me in the dark.  Not as a fellow slave... more of a Harriet Tubman if you will.  For whatever reason, I allowed her in when I was shutting everyone else out.  She was my confidant and will forever be especially dear to me because she helped me find a way out of my misery.

And now that you're sufficiently depressed (I have that effect on people) let's talk about something more joyous.  Sweet, wonderful Emily is about to give birth to a little girl!  And with any luck, the blessed event will coincide with Superman's birthday... September 7th!

We had a fantastic time throwing her a baby shower.  There were 8 hostesses from our class at church, and each one did such a great job!  

My mother-in-law even made the trip in!  It was so good to see her (as well as a few of my aunts and cousins.)

And of course I was BEYOND excited about the cake I'd been planning since... I don't know... two weeks post-conception.  Emily had specifically requested a white cake with raspberry filling.  I've never been big on white cake myself so I made sure to do some digging for the perfect recipe.  And I found it!  Tune in to Pretty/Hungry soon for the recipe.

But I couldn't leave it at that!  I decided it would be nice to include a chocolate option, and made flower cupcakes as well.  But I took it a step further this time and created a delicate color variation in my icing to mimic the kind you see in real petals.  (And of course, you'll be seeing this too on Pretty/Hungry.)

Here are a few of the Flower Close-Ups.

And of course the cake.

We ALSO found out this very same day that another member of our class at church has a little bun in the oven as well.  Can you guess which person in this picture it is???