Baby Shower for Morgan and her little dove Cora Elizabeth

One of my favorite things to do is plan a party and of course make food for that party. Every day there is a new reason to celebrate. This past Saturday was my wonderful friend, Morgan's baby shower for her baby girl on the way: Cora Elizabeth. I signed myself up right away to make a few savory and sweet items for the special day.

Morgan's friends did an incredible job, decorating, creating fun games and putting together some additional tasty treats. For Morgan's shower I wanted to take a large onion tart that I had made before and make tartlets. I wanted to do the same for a citrus cake I had made previously, make mini cupcakes. And what good is a baby shower without some onesie cookies...right? Here are my recipes below.

Caramelized Onion Tartlets with Manchego Cheese
3 pie crusts (premade or homemade)
2 medium/large yellow onions
3 pieces of cooked ham (or bacon or proscuitto)
1/2 cup fresh parsley
1/2 stick butter
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 cup manchego cheese
1 cup half & half
1 egg
salt
pepper

First you want to take your pie crusts and use a 3 inch biscuit cutter to cut out some circles. Grease you mini (or regular) muffin tin. Then put the pie circles inside so they look like mini tart shells. Bake these at 425 for about 15 minutes.

Next, heat up your pan or skillet and drop in the butter and oil. While that heats up, peel and thinly slice your onions. Place them in the skillet to caramelize, this will take about 15 or so minutes. Keep your heat to medium low because you don't want them to get crispy. Keep stirring every few minutes. Then chop up your ham (or bacon) add that to your onion mixture. You want to chop up your fresh parsley very finely and add that to the onion mixture as well. Add a bit of salt and pepper and mix around. Remove from heat and once your pie shells are cooled spoon the mixture into your mini shells.

Grate your manchego (you can also use gruyere) cheese and place about a spoonful on top of each tart. Then beat your egg and add in the half and half, add about a spoonful of that onto each tart (this creates your custard for the tart). Bake these at 350 for about 20 minutes. They will be a bubbling golden brown.

Lemon-Chiffon Cupcakes with Citrus Buttercream Icing

Lemon-Chiffon Cupcakes with Citrus Buttercream Icing
Topped with Candied Grapefruit and Cranberries
2 1/2 cups flour
1 1/3 cups sugar
1 Tbsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup vegetable oil
5 large eggs separated
3/4 cup orange-banana juice
3 Tbsp orange, grapefruit & lemon zest
1/2 tsp cream of tartar

Preheat oven to 350. Combine first four ingredients in your standing mixer, in the center add in egg yolks, oil and juice. Beat on a medium speed for 3-4 minutes until the mixture becomes smooth. Stir in zest. Remove from mixer into a large bowl. Clean mixing bowl and add in egg whites and cream of tartar, beat on high until you see stiff peaks (like whipped cream or meringue). Gently fold the egg whites into the batter. Spoon into your greased mini cupcake tin and bake for about 15 minutes. Let cool for 10 minutes before adding the icing.

Citrus Buttercream Icing
1/2 cup soft butter
3 Tbsp orange, grapefruit & lemon zest
2 cups powdered sugar
3 Tbsp fresh Meyer lemon juice

Beat the butter with the zest on medium speed, when the mixture becomes creamy start slowly adding in your powdered sugar (about 1/3 cup at a time). Then add in your fresh lemon juice. You will begin to see the consistency turn into a frosting. Apply to each cupcake.

Candied Grapefruit and Cranberries
1 grapefruit
1 1/2 cups fresh cranberries
1 cup sugar
3 cups water

Add water to a medium sized pot, put heat on medium and add in sugar. Stir until sugar has dissolved. Slice up grapefruit into small pieces (rind intact). Add in cranberries whole. Stir so the sugar water coats each piece of fruit. Let the water come to a gentle bubble. Occasionally stir the fruit around, keep in sugar water for about 30 minutes. This will remove the tartness from the berries and the sourness from the grapefruit rind. Use a piece of parchment paper or foil and spoon the fruit onto the paper to cool. After about 10 minutes check them, they should be sticky, like gummy candy. Place on top of your cupcakes for a unique, delicious topping.

Onesie Cream Cheese Sugar Cookies with  Orange Icing
1 cookie cutter (any shape)
3 1/4 cups flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
1 package of cream cheese
2 cups sugar
1 cup butter, softened
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsps vanilla
1 egg

In your standing mixer add in butter and cream cheese. Cream until smooth. Meanwhile add, flour, baking powder and salt together. Set aside. Add sugar into butter mixture, beat for about two minutes. Beat in egg and vanilla. On low speed, gradually add in flour mixture. Dough will be soft and sticky.


Divide dough in half, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least two hours. Preheat oven to 350 and grease cookie sheets. Once dough has chilled, roll out and use cookie cutter to cut out 1/4 inch thick cookies. Spread out about two inches apart and bake for about 12 minutes. Let cool before icing.

Orange Poured Fondant Icing (Naturally colored)
1 Tbsp milk
1/4 tsp of orange extract
3-5 tsp light corn syrup
1 1/3 cups confectioners sugar
1 Tbsp beet juice

In your standing mixer, add in milk, corn syrup and 1/3 a cup of confectioner sugar at a time. If you need to use more add more, if you need to add more milk to keep the icing smooth add a bit more. Add orange extract and beet juice. The beet juice is a natural way to color your icing instead of using chemical-laden dye. And you can't even taste it! Plus the color was perfect. Use immediately. When you apply to cookie the icing will dry pretty quickly so decorate right away.


The baby shower was a huge success! Delicious food and wonderful company. It is a precious time watching all my friends transform from beautiful women to beautiful mothers.




These recipes would be perfect for any party. Your guests will feel incredibly special and your guest of honor will feel showered with love. Enjoy! xo Lo