Super Secret Baby Shower

This is a post with a minimum of self, honest!

I did a lovely thing for a wonderful friend and her husband. He fronted the money (because I had failed so spectacuarly in the job finding) and I did most of the work. They love each other very much and work hard at their relationship. I have so much confidence in their ability to be parents and wanted to help them celebrate.


As a couple they have gone through a lot of pain and misery to bring their bundle of joy into the world. There are no pictures of (other) people here because I havent had chance to ask for permissions. However in updates I may add some more pictures in.

The big thing here is that the party was a surprise. All the ordering of supplies, booking the venue, hiring the china was a secret and normally it was things that my friend would be involved in. Was very odd being duplicitous.

Without further ado, some pictures of cakes, china and stuff!

a selection of nuts and seeds being toasted ready to be added to!

70% dark chocolate! nom! Also some lovely dried fruit was added.

It was poured into a tin and refrigerated to become this tasty rocky road :) Easiest bit of baking for the party.

Less successful were my exploding brownies which were tasty but lacked that good factor sadly. No idea what triggered the explosion.

The theme of the party was 'anarchic tea party' so I made tiny tiny scones :)

They were served with a selection of Jams and a lot of clotted cream!

I made my own salmon terrine which I served in sandwiches as well as tuna mayonaisse, egg mayonaisse and cucumber. All were made fresh that morning on brown and white bread. Veggie sandwiches are on one side and carnivorous sarnies on the other. The menu was based on tea at the Ritz hotel :)

My DH made the centrepiece cake which has double cream frosting and the inside is marbled blue and black. It weighed a ton!

Check it out next to the jam jar for a sense of scale!

I borrowed a tea urn for the occassion and had lots of kinds of lovely tea. I also rented vintage china and had great fun picking out all the different pieces. How kitsch, British and fabulous?

This is me looking rather plump unfortunately, handing out some of the presents. Our friends brought some lovely gifts for the expecting couple which actually surprised me because I told everyone gifts were optional! In the end there were so many I had to set up a table to put them on, oh and run home to fetch a tablecloth for it!

Another shot of my handmade mini scones, I was 'Very' proud of them! They are on a lovely platter made from bits of china glued together.

The beautiful coffee pot that I wish I could buy! There is something about good china that makes me all gooey inside.

This is the teapot I picked out for the guest of honour and she was very enamoured with it. The ruse for the party was that I was having an exhibition in the local community hall and was inviting guests. I actually went outside and play acted at being very stressed and unable to cope as she arrived.

She walked in and everyone yelled surprise but she just couldn't take in that her mother and best friend (who live in London) as well as other friends and colleagues were there.

It took a good ten minutes for it to sink in that this was a baby shower in her honour.

In all it was a solid two days of  baking all the cakes and icing them and such, plus a lot of secretive running around. I think it was entirely worth it and made me very happy. The only thing I am dissapointed with is the lack of photographs. I wish I had either borrowed a photographer or a couple of digi cameras to put on the table.

For good measure here is my DH looking absolutely gorgeous. Check out those brown eyes that I fell in love with nearly ten years ago. (only been together for three of those though, tis a long story) We are having a hard time at the moment with money, employment, the future directions we want to take. I want him, our cat and to make enough money from being creative to support us all.

Anyways, catch you all later and if you want me to organise you a tea party I would be absolutely delighted.