Shower and Party Treats!

Frosted Chocolate-Buttermilk Cupcakes

Makes 12; Prep time: 20 minutes; Total time: 1 hour
Dutch-process cocoa powder has a more mellow flavor and darker color than regular cocoa powder; it is available at baking-supply stores and many supermarkets.

3/4 cup all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder, preferably Dutch-process
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
6 tablespoons buttermilk
1 large egg
1 large egg white

Light Cream-Cheese Icing

candy decorations (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 350°. Line standard 12-cup muffin tin (or 6-cup muffin tins) with paper liners. In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; set aside.

2. With an electric mixer, combine cocoa and 3 tablespoons hot water until a thick paste forms (this process intensifies the chocolate flavor). Add butter, buttermilk, egg, and egg white; beat until combined. Whisk in flour mixture until smooth.

3. Scoop (or spoon) batter into prepared tin(s). Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Transfer cupcakes to a wire rack to cool completely.

For the light cream-cheese icing:
With an electric mixer, beat 3 ounces softened reduced-fat cream cheese and 1 cup confectioners' sugar until light and fluffy. (To make without a mixer, sift sugar before stirring into cream cheese). Use an offset spatula or butter knife to spread icing over tops. Decorate as desired.

Per serving: 180 calories; 5.3 grams fat; 3.1 grams protein; 30.6 grams carbohydrates; 0.7 gram fiber

Note: Neat and clean: To divide evenly, use an ice-cream scoop to ladle the batter into the muffin cups. This also prevents drips.

Courtesy of MarthaStewart.com

Baby Shower Games

By Brooke Schuman
Let's face it, sometimes baby showers aren’t all that fun. So if you're planning a baby shower how do you make sure your guests as well as the mother to be, has a great time? You play fun baby shower games of course! Here are some fun games to play.

How Many Safety Pins?
This is an easy but fun game, everyone has a piece of paper and writes down how many safety pins they believe are in the baby bottle. The guest, who guesses closest to the number of safety pins in the baby bottle, wins a prize.

Dirty Diaper Surprise
When everyone arrives they pick a diaper, as soon as everyone sits down, everyone opens there diapers, the one who picked the dirty diaper wins a prize. Use some mustard to make the diaper look dirty.

Baby Raffle Ticket
A nice thing to do for the mother to be is holds a baby raffle, sell raffle tickets for a dollar each. The person who matches the raffle ticket number wins a prize, and the money from the raffle goes toward the new baby diaper fund.

Baby Art
Buy onsies and fabric markers. Put the onsies on a magazine or cardboard backing, and have your guests draw on one or write a special message, or some advice for the new baby. This way the child can wear these when he/she is born, and the mother to be can keep these as a memento, of her baby shower.

Pin the Pacifier on the Baby
Just like pin the tail on the donkey except with a baby instead of a donkey. You can buy little party favor pacifiers and try to get the pacifiers as close to the babies mouth as possible. Whoever gets the closest wins the prize.

Baby Trivia
Think up some pretty tough questions about babies. Ex. What causes Jaundice? Split into teams and ask each team a question, the team that gets the most questions right gets a prize at the end of the game.

Guess Who?
Ask everyone who is going to attend the baby shower to bring a picture of themselves as babies to the shower. Place all the pictures on a table and have everyone guess who is who when they were babies. Who ever gets the most right wins a prize.

Baby Charades
For this game you are going to need to make cards with baby items on it. Ex. A crib or a rattle etc. Write these down, Split everybody up into teams and then play the baby version of charades. Have one person on a team pick a card but not show it to anyone, have that player go up to the drawing board and draw that item. It gets really funny because not everyone is good at drawing. Team with the most points at the end gets a prize.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Brooke_Schuman