Cloud Frosting and Baby Announcement!

When we shared this photo on Facebook, my husband's comment was "bring on the hormones!" No kidding. Wow- another girl. Here we go. We should have expected it. My family has girls. The fact that I have a boy at all is somewhat shocking.

Our doctor had to be a bit discrete while telling us since the kids were in the room and we all had said we think and hope it's a boy. Oops. Of course, every ultrasound I've ever been in (4) I had been wishing for exactly the opposite of what they tell me it is. With Isabella I had wanted a boy. I wanted to name him Ryan Shawn. With Jeremiah, Jeremy and I were hoping for a girl. We were going to name her Scarlett. With Olivia we were rooting for a boy. No name picked out. I guess we knew better. And with this one, it happened all over again. Who knows what we would have named this baby had it been a boy (we currently were liking Maddox a lot) but now we need to start shifting our minds to more feminine names. Sigh. I'm extremely happy for a healthy baby, obviously, but I was really hoping that once, just once, we could all just hoot and holler upon hearing the gender right away instead of having to adjust to the news.  Do you know how annoying that is? I kind of want to have another one after this and try again for that. I'm just kidding. Kind of...



I am super excited about naming another girl though! I love girl names. My top two favorites up till now have been Emily and Kate - but Jeremy is not thrilled with either - so it's not going to happen. Plus, I'd really like to name this baby something other than what's in the top five most popular girl names, (Emily always is, and I can imagine Kate will be working it's way up because of the Dutchess) especially since my other two girls are already in that category. Something a bit different, sweet, and very girly. That seems to be my aim. But we'll see. I also like cool names like Brooklynn. And the meaning of names means a lot to us, so that will definitely play a major factor in deciding.



I love being pregnant. I'm on cloud 9, which is why I choose cloud frosting for this post and gender reveal picture. It was too perfect. This frosting is like a cross between marshmallow and whipped cream. It's light and airy and pipes up beautifully. I can be used for cupcakes or cakes. I prefer to eat this frosting within an hour of making it because I like it really soft and wet almost. It's heavenly - hence the cloud name. But many people prefer it as it stiffens up and becomes more like spongy marshmallow texture. I tinted a portion of my frosting blue and pink for the picture, but the other were white. I prefer the clean softness of it. This frosting goes with any flavor cake - chocolate, pumpkin, vanilla, strawberry, you name it.



You don't even need a piping tip to create this look. Just snip off the end of a piping bag or ziplock bag and press down in the center of your cupcake and squeeze in one continuous motion. You'll get a beautiful mound. Continue squeezing very lightly as you pull up to create the peak.

Cloud Frosting
adapted from Martha Stewart
frosts 24 cupcakes or 1 cake

• • 2 1/2 cups sugar
  • 6 large egg whites, room temperature
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
  • 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
• • Make the frosting: In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine sugar, egg whites, water, and cream of tartar. Whisk until foamy. Set bowl over a pan of barely simmering water and whisk until sugar is dissolved and mixture is warm to the touch, about 3 to 5 minutes. Transfer bowl to stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment. Beat on high speed until frosting forms stiff peaks, about 12 to 16 minutes (mine only took about 6 minutes). Add vanilla and beat until combined.

  Frost cake or pipe onto cupcakes immediately and serve asap for fluffy, soft frosting. Serve 2-3 hours later for more marshmallow like frosting (sticky and spongy).