Party.

It was party time in the M-P household today. Up until now we've had a super, super quiet Christmas, with no visitors and almost no reason to leave the house for the last week. Which has been nice in a lot of ways. But also on occasion a little dull for the youngest member of the family.
Unfortunately we weren't able to get together with the cousins this year and with the way that Christmas day fell, friends have been  away and nursery is closed, so Bella has been stuck with just Mummy and Daddy for company for a week now.
Which meant that although I hadn't taken in to account just how sore and tired I would be at this stage of the pregnancy, I was still extremely relieved that I had arranged to have a small party today. Because it was just what we all needed to shift the post Christmas malaise and get us all ready for jumping back to reality next week, with work and nursery etc.
Because I am so uncomfortable, I tried to keep it simple and just made a couple of homemade soups, roasted a chicken for sandwiches, cooked some sausage rolls and made up a plate of cheese and ham. For pudding I intended to bake some stuffed apples with vanilla ice cream but at the last minute decided to accept defeat, and we just had the biscuits that I made last night (Bella felt very cheated to discover that I'd been baking biscuits without her!).
The cupcakes that you see in the picture are a big new venture for us. Because of Bella's severe egg allergy, we have avoided make any kind of cake in the past. But whilst we were food shopping yesterday Bella pointed to one of those lurid pink boxes of cupcake mix and declared that we had to buy some. We explained, as we always do that you need to make it with egg so it was a no go, but Bella insisted that we buy it for her friends to have, even though she knew she couldn't have any. Which of course broke our cold, hard hearts and meant that we finally broke out the egg replacer this morning and baked us some egg free cupcakes.
Egg free cupcakes that my daughter is now eating for dinner. Hmmm.

You know it's a good party when you get to sit on the kitchen floor with your friends and eat a huge Pyrex dish of ginger biscuits and the grown ups don't even notice!

Comments

[Ali]

Are those the little Habitat silicone cupcake cases? I got some for Christmas, but haven't given them a test drive yet. How did they work out?

Your buffet looks most festive. Glad you had fun.

[LauraJ]

sitting on the floor eating cookies from a pyrex dish with friends IN your underwear no less. Now that's a great way to spend a day!!

[qalballah]

Totally dig that doody washing machine she's got

[Jane Weston]

Looks like it was a good time for all!
I regularly use an egg replacer in cakes, muffins and pancake batter as both my husband and I are allergic to eggs. Before my DH met me he had never had anything close to a cake for his birthday...and now I make egg free cakes for all our birthdays....I suspect that may be why he asked me to marry him! :o)
TTFN

[tammyCA]

Awww...you have such a delightful, smart & thoughtful little girl...so happy there is an egg replacement so she can have her cupcakes. That is a darling pic of their party. :)
Great news that your husband is doing much better & that you & baby are healthy...Have a wonderful New Year's and get some rest - it won't be long now for the little one's debut...I feel very excited for you because I know from reading here what heartache you've had to get to this point...joy awaits! :)

[lazylol]

Yum lovely pink cupcakes and dressing up - that is what I call a party!

[Ravenhill]

What a sweet party!

[liz r.]

That scene is pink, pink, pink! Looks like a lovely party, and good for Bella for wanting to share with her friends (and good for you for bending the rules a bit).

[Kathe Kramer]

You have been such a trooper with all these holiday posts. I want you to know they are like CANDY to me. And because, you have hardly missed a beat, I will allow you a little slack when that dear baby sister arrives for Bella. Thank you for sharing all your loveliness. Happy New Year!

[LeeAnn]

I have a friend with an egg allergy too. Every year I make her some fabulous cherry scones with (pink)sugar on top. I lived in Ireland one summer and fell in love with their light, crumbly but slightly sweetened pastry. I tried 6 different recipes and finally tweaked the last recipe 4 times before I got the closest thing to my Ireland breakfast tea time treat. And it has no eggs. If you'd like the recipe, let me know.

[Beth]

Manda, don't you have a little tutorial on making those wool/felt wreaths like the one in the above picture? I bought a yummy wool blanket at Goodwill today, and am not sure if I'm supposed to wash it or not, etc.
I'm kinda new to your blog, and it is so lovely! Thank you for all you share~
Blessings,
Beth

[Jennifer]

What a thoughtful little girl you have, Manda.

And, good golly - there's a lot of pink in that photo!

Joy!

[Kristy]

Tell Bella to save some for us!!!
I'm back online...eventually...the ntl guy woke me up at 8am.I was not a pretty site in one of Paddys old shirts and bed head but I was desperate to get back.Do you think I have a problem?!

[sue]

They all look so cute together. I think you may have to buy some more egg replacer so she can have some more cupcakes to eat.

[Tracy]

Allergic to eggs, eh? My cousin, also. I don't know if you miss or make cookies in your household due to it, but I have a pretty awesome eggless ginger chocolate chip cookie recipe if you are at all interested, that I still make every so often for myself.

[Christina]

Hia:)

I know this is kind of late commenting on this post but I thought if there even was a chance you read it; it would be worth it:)I feel so sorry for Bella and her egg allergy :( but thought I would recommend a great cupcake book. All the recipes I have tried so far have been delicious...dangerously, even (for my waist anyways), it is called "Vegan cupcakes take over the world". All recipes are obviously vegan so no eggs (or butter or honey). I am not vegan myself (a veggie though) but I "go" vegan for Lent every year, and I came across this book last year trying to find a treat for someone's birthday (which I as well as my egg allergic friends could dig into). Pure success! Noone noticed they were vegan and I dare say I have never tasted any cupcakes that were that good before... Anyway, thought I would share this with you, hoping Bella would be getting more pink(or not)-frosted treats;)

I hope you and yours are well.

All my best,
Christina (in Norway)

[Cara]

Hi there

I came to this post a little late too but I wanted to recommend the vegan cupcake book which I see Christina above me has already mentioned! It really is a great book - very pretty and full of pictures (not often the case with vegan cookery books!). Oh, and the recipes are good too!

So glad that you're back at home and doing better - I'm very impressed, too, that Jim managed some emergency blogging - good for him!

Cara x