Hannah Mae is WELL on her way!

My very dear friend, Emily, and her husband are expecting the first extra addition to their family within the month.  Miss Hannah Mae has been growing away for about 36 weeks, and is blessed to be joining a pretty spectacular family.

*BEAUTIFUL Photos are copyright of KB-McElmurry Photography*

Now, this dear friend of mine married into the Marines and is currently stationed in North Carolina.  Of course, we had to devise a plan to get her home to Arkansas for a shower of love and PRESENTS. :)  Not only did I get to play a key role in the transportation part of the plan, *Which will be discussed in a post to come*, but I also had the pleasure of being in charge of sweet treats for the shower.  YAY!

I was extra excited to get baking, because Emily requested something I have never made - whoopie pies.  Ever heard of a whoopie pie??  I had not.  I have been told that they are a bit of a northern tradition.  Hannah's daddy is from Maine and LOVES them, so I hear.  Well, a quick google search gave me the general idea of what a whoopie pie is, which set me on a recipe search.

I chose two recipes and smashed them into one product.
First I chose a red velvet recipe for the cookie/cake part of the pies.  You can find it here at Better Homes and Gardens:
Red Velvet Whoopie Pies
Once I chose red velvet, what other kind of filling could I choose besides a sweet cream cheese filling?!?!  So, I pressed on in my search and settled on this yummy filling from Martha Stewart:
Pumpkin Whoopie Pies with Cream Cheese Filling

Not only where these little guys just adorable, but they were also VERY YUMMY!  I was very happy with the texture and flavors of both parts.  These are a bit more work than simple cookies or cupcakes, but not horribly complicated.  Especially if you bake fairly often.  Em loved them and I'm sure Hannah was delighted, as well. :)

As with just about any baby shower, we were a bit unsure about how many people would show up for the festivities.  Well, if you've been around my family at Thanksgiving or Christmas, you will know that we firmly believe it is better to have leftovers for a week than to run out at the party.  Em and I decided that we should also have some cupcakes.  BUT, I didn't stop at cupcakes.  If you read my last post, you know that I'm on a decorated sugar cookie kick.  Sooo....we had some of those, too.

These cupcakes are some that I wanted to try for a while.  LOW FAT!  From skinnytaste.com:

Pumpkin Cupcakes with Pumpkin Spiced Cream Cheese Frosting

AND I finally got up the nerve to concentrate and really try my hand at a 

houndstooth design with Royal Icing.  Not to brag, but I LOVED IT!!!

Yes, Miss Hannah's baby shower was quite a success!  Everything was beautiful and tasty, and this sweet little family received some much needed items....and a few FUN things, too!  

If all goes as planned, my next post will center around my road trip to North Carolina with Em to get all of these gifts home and work on Miss Hannah's nursery.  It was an adventure, for sure, and provided some really great time spent with a beautiful friend.  Congratulations, again, to Tim and Emily for the sweet little blessing who will be stealing their hearts and a lot of their sleep very soon. :)