baby shower cupcakes

Hello! If you’ve been following me on SweetsToImpress Instagram, you’ve seen pics here and there of the dessert party I created for my great-nephew’s Meet n’ Greet. I not only had the fun of making all the desserts for the table but I also made the decorations! I’ve been a very busy great-auntie for weeks but I was also very organized which was a tremendous help in not becoming too stressed to get-it-all-done. Since my niece had no preference for a particular theme, I decided on “rubber duckie bath time”.

Early on in the planning, I found all of my decoration supplies at Michaels Crafts Stores, from the apothecary vases to the ribbon, initials, scrapbook papers for the banner and rosettes, tiny clothes pins that I covered in washi tape, tissue paper for the pompoms, the polka dot table runner roll and the blue dotted paper serving trays. More about the decorations in a bit. Dessert first!

Now, what to bake! I wanted all bite sized served in these cute bath time cupcake wrappers by Wilton, except cookies and strawberries.

I’ve made these little bath time babies cupcakes before and was thrilled I could still find the retro-inspired baby decorations. You’ll find the DIY instructions on this post – Rubber Duckie Baby Shower Cupcakes

I mean seriously, how cute are these tiny baby bums?

Before I go any further, I have to admit I was taking photos while guests were coming in the door so some may not be picture perfect. I always think there will be plenty of time to snap away before the party starts but there never is. You’d think I’d learn by now. So with this in mind, here’s a extremely blown up image of the mini key lime pies with caramelized meringue swirls. At some point I’ll be writing a post just how to make these because they were the hit of the table.

Scattered around the table were these little rubber duckies that squeaked! Amazon again.

I also made mini mocha chocolate chip cheese cakes in a chocolate crumb crust covered in dark chocolate ganache! Again, sorry for the enlarged and out of focus photo, but here they are…! I found the royal icing duck decorations on Amazon and the paper serving trays at Michaels that were beyond perfect with the corners tied with ribbon.

The little blue candies are called Sixlets and they come in every color imaginable. I found these at Party City. Here’s what I originally bought them for… a vase filler!

But I didn’t want the expense of filling up the entire vase so I bought a slender glass vase (very inexpensive) to put inside the larger apothecary jar. This will also allow for me to add flowers to the decoration.

I painted the dowel white and twisted the blue and white grosgrain ribbon around it. I learned the dowel had to be thick enough to hold the weight of the banner. To stabilize the dowel, I added floral foam to the small interior vase. I pushed an entire foam brick into the smaller vase before I added it to the larger apothecary jar. You get one chance to insert the dowel in straight so there is only one hole and no wiggle room!

And what would a party be with cookies? “What does the duckie say?” “Mac…Mac…Mac!” These were filled with white chocolate vanilla bean ganache. Whipping the ganache when it has cooled will make the filling lighter and airy. The little royal icing decorations I found at my local cake decorating supply store. It saved me a lot of time not having to make the ducks myself but it is an expense, but worth it in my opinion when there was so much else to do.

And of course there be ducks! Lots and lots of duck cookies! They were put out on plates to eat…

… and baskets filled with a little signs for guests to “take a duckie home“ as party favors. We cello bagged up some but also displayed them loose with glassine paper bags on the table so guests could really feel free to take more than one home.