Baby Scott and Baby Born!

Last night we had a couples shower for our friends:

Kyle and Cece...and baby boy!

Jake and Felecia...and baby boy? or baby girl? Jake told us last night he felt like the moment you have a baby is one of the few huge surprises God gives us, so they're waiting to find out the sex. I don't think I could ever have the willpower!

We're so blessed to have both couples in our bible study group and as friends. We can't wait to meet their new family members.

It was a dinner shower, and the menu was all italian, so I tackled another TWD recipe that I've been dying to try - tiramisu cake. It's basically a dense vanilla cake soaked with a coffee syrup, but the best part is the whipped marscapone filling and frosting. Oh. My. Goodness.

Not my most beautiful cake (the marscapone frosting was pretty thin and I couldn't get a great smooth finish like I can with a solid buttercream), but I was very happy with the taste. When the cake came out of the oven I was worried - it didn't rise much and it was pretty dense. But after soaking it with the coffee syrup and letting the whole thing hang out in the fridge overnight I was glad it was the perfect density to stand up to the coffee syrup and to compliment the light airy frosting/filling.

I won't type out the whole recipe because I followed most of the instructions pretty explicitly. I topped with a dusting of cocoa powder (only a few hours before serving) a handful of chocolate covered espresso beans, and two little white royal icing flowers I had saved from a previous project.

Wilton Flowers

I took Lessons 1-3 from Course 2 all in one day last Saturday, and yesterday I FINALLY got around to making a batch of royal icing at home to play around and make a bunch of flowers.

For the most part they turned out so cute! This was my first time to make royal icing. Make sure that everything that will touch the icing (mixing bowl, beater, spatulas, icing bags, tips, couplers) are all completely grease free. I've been warned that any spot of grease can turn the entire batch of icing into liquid. I didn't soak my tips in vinegar or anything, just washed them in hot soapy water using the tip brush to make sure they were clean all the way through the tip. I used new disposable bags, since I can never seem to get all the grease off of the permanent bags.

I split one batch of royal icing into 4 colors (pink, dark pink, yellow-orange, and white) and had plenty leftover after making a few of each flower.

Here come the flowers:

These are primroses:
The one on the left has the correct star center. The petals are basically 5 little hearts.

The pansy:

The daisy:

The violets (basically the same as apple blossoms, just a little smaller and one less petal)

The apple blossoms: We also learned mums, victorian roses, rosettes, and daffodils. I don't think I beat my royal icing quite long enough because it was a little thin and I couldn't get any of those stiffer flowers to turn out last night. I'll post pictures when I do another batch.