Bridal Shower for Loo

Last night, I hosted a Bridal Shower for Miss Lucy and wanted to share a few DIY decorations and, of course, cupcakes with you.

First off, I made a "Bride to Be" banner to hang above the fireplace.

I printed out letters from Martha Stewart's website, then pasted those on decorative scrapbook paper that I picked up at a craft store.  Strung ribbon through the tops and Voila! a cute, budget friendly banner.

Next up, I made Martha Stewart's (just call me "mini-Martha") classic tissue poms.  I love love love these poms and had wanted to make some for my wedding but wasn't able to fit them in, so glad I finally got to use them here.

I stored them in my guest bedroom until the party, but didn't actually take a picture of them hung in the living room, so guest bedroom picture it is!  They were super simple and super cute.  

And now the star of the show....

Key Lime Cupcakes! Mmmm....

My first idea was to come up with a "Margarita Cupcake" since I was serving Mexican food at the shower, but the majority of cupcakes I came up with in my search used a box mix, so I nixed that idea and went with my own variation.

Result was perfect.  Spongy white cake with a hint of key lime and a key lime infused cream cheese icing all topped with a yellow fondant flower (?) or sun. 

I used the lemon cupcake recipe from here and then tweaked it a bit.

Key Lime Variation:

• I used the zest of 4 small key limes instead of the 2 lemons
• I couldn't find key lime extract so I still used the lemon extract from the original recipe
• For the frosting, I used the juice of 4 key limes and 1/4 tsp of lemon extract, 2 packages of cream cheese, 2 sticks butter, 1 bag of powdered sugar, 1 tsp vanilla
• For the color, I used Wilton's green and yellow gel dye 

Best Wishes, Lucy!