beautiful birthday girl

a few weeks ago 'bbb' was asked to make special cupcakes for a very special someone. for ryan's great-grandma bam! bam had specific orders for chocolate upon chocolate cupcakes with more chocolate on top, and i was so excited to bake them for her and celebrate her birthday. i decided to make our milk chocolate cupcakes with semi-sweet chocolate ganache frosting and i topped each cupcake with a fondant flower. i made a 'bbb' cupcake display using brown embossed paper with blue polka dot ribbon and topped the display with white silk gerber daisies. it was beautiful just like the birthday girl!
bam is a very special lady in our family and we all got together to shower her with love on her special day. i felt honored to bake something yummy for this event. we love you bam!

{here is myself, ryan and bam with the cupcakes. (sorry, ryan is looking down trying to get my watch)}

'baby boy' baby food

i have to admit i was one of those mommas who started giving tastes of solid food to my baby at what is considered early... 4 months. it was just organic brown rice cereal at first to see if he liked it. he didn't really understand what was going on, but little by little he started to enjoy it. i knew from the get go i wanted to make ryan's baby food from scratch and i was excited to start cooking up yummy things for him to nosh on. now at 7 months ryan has eaten everything from mangos to beets. he loves everything except two things so far, papaya and apples! ryan eats 3 solid food meals a day and it is always so much fun to feed him and watch him learn how to taste, chew and swallow. he loves it! i have now given him a little time with his food so he can try and eat it himself. he grabs the food and squeezes it through his fingers and as he tries to get it in his mouth he gets it everywhere else as well.
our kitchen has become a platform of learning and entertaining for us. ryan loves his high chair and will sit in it and play, eat and watch me cook and bake. we often listen to music, sing songs and talk to each other while we are in the kitchen. there certainly is a lot of love in our kitchen which shows through our food we make and our desserts we bake!

i make ryan's food with my steamer and then puree it with my blender (seriously mommas don't spend money on a baby food maker! use those pots and pans you have!:)). i make it every monday and freeze the food in ice trays for the week. i also have freezer friendly containers that i store food in to grab quick when we are on the go! the containers are made from recycled materials and the bib pictured is made from organic cotton by Mimi the Sardine. go organic!

here is my son ryan...enjoying his food that is for sure!

**Annabel Karmel has some wonderful baby/toddler cookbooks! my favorite is 'Top 100 Baby Purees'. i also find wonderful organic feeding products at giggle.com. enjoy mommas!**

love in every bite

we have been pretty busy with family visiting from out of the country, road trips and my son ryan is teething leaving us with zero time. though teething can be grueling for both the baby and parent, dan and i are excited to see our baby boy grow right before our eyes! i am also happy to report that ryan has 6 teeth so far! go baby! soon he will be able to actually eat 'baby boy bakery' creations!
this past week we traveled to my cousin tracey's house to have a family dinner. i was asked to make something sweet to enjoy after dinner so i decided to make milk chocolate cupcakes with vanilla cream cheese frosting. they turned out great! ryan and i spent the afternoon making them and i had put red ribbon bows on top each one. i waited to take a picture of the cute cupcakes for when we arrived at my cousin's house. i had them all packed ready to go and of course we were rushing out the door, dan was carrying ryan and the diaper bag and i was carrying the cupcakes, a shopping bag full of baby clothes and a baby bjorn (to return to my cousin). then in one second the cupcakes were upside down on floor! i had accidentally dropped them. instantly i began to swear and freak out about the mess and the fact that we had no cupcakes for our family dinner. dan slowed me down and assured me it wasn't a big deal, we could just take the extra cupcakes with out the ribbon decor. it was a huge bummer, but dan was right. i grabbed the cupcakes with the ribbon, left the cream cheese mess and headed to our family dinner.
in the end everyone loved the cupcakes! lesson learned: it doesn't matter what they look like, as long as they taste good! i have to thank dan for being so great to me. he makes me realize the important things, and calms me down when i get too hyped up. here is a picture of dan and i back in college...and the only ribbon adorned cupcake that made it through the fall. i love you dan.

sweet surprise

 before my little family left for our weekend get-away to northern california i decided to bake some chocolate chip cookies for some friends (and keep some extras for the road trip!) while my son was taking a much needed nap i mixed up some cookie batter using my favorite organic brown sugar and pure vanilla extract. for the best tasting desserts i have found that you must do two things; the first is to use the most pure and (organic when possible) ingredients. the second is to let the cold ingredients (eggs etc.) come to room temperature prior to mixing. this ensures the batter be smooth, well incorporated and delish!

since launching my at home project/business 'baby boy bakery' i find it necessary to bake a lot of things that 'bbb' has to offer and share it with family and friends. in a way this is advertising and most importantly my sweet treats make people smile and that is the ultimate goal of 'bbb'. i decided to put the chocolate chip cookies in plastic containers with white tissue paper and tie it up with decorative ribbon. 'bbb' loves using ribbons! overall it was simple, yet the plastic containers were functional and my friends loved it!
to my friends,
i hope you enjoyed your yummy surprise. hopefully they made your day sweeter!
love, 'bbb'