Baby Shower Fun!

Our friends Jake & Alana are about to have their first little baby, and I got to host a baby shower for them. It was a wonderful party - their friends were all really great, the weather was perfect, and we got to celebrate our anticipation of our future little friend. Oh, and also the food was great!

The theme of the shower was Children's Books - so everyone gave them a book instead of a card. To go along with the theme, I printed out little mini "books" on cardstock and taped them to toothpicks to decorate the mini cupcakes. I made the Vanilla Agave cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, and our awesome friend Sophia made Raspberry-Lemon Buttercream Frosting, which was magically delicious. Sophia is so good at putting on the frosting too, don't they look amazing?

UPDATE

Wow, years later, this is the blog post that I continue to get the most emails about. Everyone wants to know how I made these little books for the cupcake toppers and if I will send them the file I used. That file is long-gone. I just searched Google images for "children's books," and then copied the images I liked and pasted them into a Word document. I pasted them in columns, with blank space for the "back cover" on the left. Then I printed them on plain cardstock. Printed 'em out, and used a paper cutter to trim them. Fold them in half, and use tape to affix them to toothpicks. That's the process in a nutshell! Good luck! 

Here are the name tags I made

... and these were some of the little cards to write down the descriptions of the foods. I also made garlands of little mini book covers, and also of various characters from kids books. They both turned out super cute, but I didn't get a good picture of them.

Assorted crackers from Trader Joe's along with a big bowl of the Mediterranean Cucumber & Cashew Dip from Veganomicon. That dip is so good, and everyone was loving it and asking about it... If you haven't tried it yet, I really recommend it.

It just wouldn't be a party without hummus and veggies now, would it?

Sophia made mini-chocolate chip cookies which everyone was raving about (yeah!), and I made some mini peanut butter-chocolate cookies. On the right are some toasted baguette slices with Sophia's White Bean Balsamic spread, cherry tomatoes & fresh parsley. As you can see, Sophia totally helped me out with this party big time. She is awesome.

Jake found a bunch of these delicious Afghan Bolani at Costco and we heated them up on the skillet. Half were stuffed with spinach, and the other half with pumpkin. I served them alongside a big batch of my Afghan Cilantro-Mint Sauce. They were both good, but those pumpkin bolani with the mint sauce were pretty much a match made in heaven. SO GOOD.

Alana made her favorite Mushroom Pinwheels with Puff Pastry, which were a big sensation as always. Mr. Vegan Eats and Treats was going around telling everyone that he had licked them all so that he could have them all to himself, but this still didn't stop other people from eating them! ha!

Alana definitely wanted some pie at her party (smart girl!), so I made the Double Chocolate Strawberry Pie from Vegan Diner. HELLO! This pie was so easy to make and was so crazy delicious, I will most definitely make it again, and again, and again. Yumtown.

Gratuitous Doggie Shot!

Jake was serving up some tasty mixed drinks for people, and I guess it turns out that our little Snoopy likes the mojitos. He stole someone's empty cup out from under their seat and then ran around prancing like a fool with his cup full of smooshed mint leaves. Quite a rascal, that little guy!