Baby Shower: Celebrating the Upcoming Arrival of My Nephew!

Only a few more weeks until our nephew arrives (due date: April 5)!  We honored the mom-to-be, Scott's sister, on Sunday with a baby shower.

 

One part of our gift... I love how soft and cute baby clothes are. 
And how well-priced they are at Marshall's :)

And it even has cuffs to keep the baby from scratching himself!

It was so fun to see J's baby bump and check out all the new gear and gifts.  This baby is going to be totally set!  And of course, we had to serve tons of food....

As one of the shower hosts, I supplied some of the desserts for the "sweets" table.  Plus, I couldn't resist making a little banner for the celebration.

Along with the no-bake cake batter truffles, which I first tried out for Scott's birthday (this time dipped in white and blue candy coating), I made a multi-layer ombre-colored cake, blueberry cheesecake bars, and (at the mom-to-be's request) a chocolate chip cheeseball.

Easy recipes and tasty too!  I made them all in the course of an afternoon, but just be aware that a couple of them require chilling time.

Cake Batter Truffles
from Chef in Training, originally from The Girl Who Ate Everything

Ombre Layer Cake
Inspired by all those pictures of rainbow/ombre-colored layer cakes on Pinterest and blogs!

Ingredients:
2 boxes of white cake mix (plus the required oil and eggs)
Food coloring
Buttercream icing (butter, powdered sugar, a couple splashes of milk)

I simply mixed up both boxes of white cake mix (each box makes two 8'' or 9'' layers of cake), divided the batter evenly and squeezed food coloring into each portion of batter. 

I used a bit more food coloring for each layer, so once they were stacked, the layers would range from darker blue to lighter blue.  (Because I used whole eggs rather than egg whites, the white cake was a little yellow to begin with... the lighter blue layers ended up kind of minty green, but at least mint is a pretty color!)

After the cake layers cooled, I evened them out a bit with a serrated knife, stacked them with some buttercream icing in between each layer, and topped it all off with a bunch of icing and a little banner.

To create the decorative banner for the cake, I used cord (in the jewelry-making section at Michael's), some blue cardstock and a couple of wooden skewers.  I folded the cardstock and cut triangles along the fold so that each piece was essentially a diamond folded in half.  I "hung" the first triangle over the cord, glued the points together, tied a tiny knot on each side of the triangle, and continued to add the other pieces.  To finish, I tied each end of the mini banner to a skewer and placed it on top of the cake.

Chocolate Chip Cheeseball
from Taste of Home (thanks, Mom!)

Prep time: 10 min + chilling
Chill time: 3 hours

Ingredients:

1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup butter, softened

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

3/4 cup confectioners' sugar

2 tablespoons brown sugar

3/4 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips

3/4 cup finely chopped pecans

Graham crackers

1) In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese, butter and vanilla until fluffy. Gradually add sugars; beat just until combined. Stir in chocolate chips. Cover and refrigerate for 2 hours.

2) Place cream cheese mixture on a large piece of plastic wrap; shape into a ball. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

3) Just before serving, roll cheese ball in pecans. Serve with graham crackers. Yield: 1 cheese ball (about 2 cups).

Blueberry Cheesecake Bars
from Betty Crocker

Ingredients:
1 pouch (1 lb 1.5 oz) Betty Crocker® oatmeal cookie mix
1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
1 egg
3 packages (8 oz each) cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup whipping cream
3 eggs
1 jar (10 oz) blueberry spreadable fruit
1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen (thawed and drained) whole blueberries

1) Heat oven to 350°F. Spray bottom and sides of 13x9-inch pan with cooking spray. In large bowl, beat cookie mix, butter and egg with electric mixer on low speed until soft dough forms. Press in bottom of pan.

2) Bake 15 minutes. Cool 10 minutes. Meanwhile, in another large bowl, beat cream cheese and sugar with mixer on medium speed until fluffy. Add whipping cream and eggs; beat on low speed until well blended.

 

3) Spread spreadable fruit over partially cooled crust. Sprinkle with blueberries. Pour cream cheese mixture evenly over blueberries, spreading gently to cover.

4) Bake 40 to 45 minutes or until center is set. Cool 30 minutes. Refrigerate at least 2 hours. For bars, cut into 7 rows by 4 rows. Store covered in refrigerator.