Another Baby Girl Shower

 Some dear friends of ours, who started the adoption process around the same time as my husband and I, had gotten word that they would be welcoming a little girl to their home.  The mother to be is from England, where they apparently don't throw showers.  While she has been in the US for a few years, she had yet to attend one.  We were so excited to throw her the best shower ever!  She was going to be blogging about it, and we wanted to make sure that our friends across the pond saw a really nice shower.  There was a lot of really beautiful food served at this event.  I was, of course, in charge of the sweets.  We decided on cookies and petits fours (a term I did not know until we were planning this shower - apparently a fancy way of saying small cake). 

 I had seen a Martha Stewart episode once where she hung some cookies from a tree branch.  Which inspired me to make the cookies into ornaments (before I baked them I cut a hole in each one using my smallest circle cookie cutter).  I now know that it is pretty difficult to get a perfect circle cookie, let alone a few dozen of them.  They were now a delicious treat that dually served as decoration.  Have I mentioned I love brush embroidery? I used a Martha Stewart sugar cookie recipe.  Used a thin consistency royal icing (white) to cover them.  Once that was dry, I came back and piped/painted the flowers on.  We wanted to keep the colors very pale, but I think these would look really pretty with some bolder colors.

I also used a Martha Stweart petits fours recipe.  Have I mentioned that I am truly inspired by that woman?  The difference?  I covered mine in chocolate rather than a glaze.  Unfortunately, I did not know that you have to use an oil based color for chocolate.  Lesson learned!  The chocolate was really lumpy and caused a bit of a meltdown as I tried to cover these little guys with a smooth coat.  Have I mentioned that I'm a bit of a perfectionist?  I also made the little apple blossoms to go on top.  They were a huge hit.  Lots of work, but worth it!