Nursery basics and some baking

We had family out for the blessing and since my mom was driving, I offered to return her surger. Borrowing it has been fantastic but made Michael think that I need one of my own (not necessarily a bad thing). He couldn't keep a secret so he gave a surger for Christmas. In October. I was able to whip out the babies Halloween costume (to come) and a crib cover. The baby has been teething on the edge of his crib and while I don't care about the damage, the idea of him essentially eating paint was less than ideal so I made a quick cover out of flannel. I FINALLY made some changing pad covers, previously we were using disposable sheets and it was just silly. I also cut out the alphabet with my cameo and made a garland to decorate the nursery. I'll have to sneak a picture tomorrow.

My birthday was the weekend before the baby blessing so we celebrated with all the family in town. Of course I wouldn't let anyone BUY me a cake so I made some boston creme cupcakes (yellow cake, center cut out and filled with vanilla bean pastry creme and topped with chocolate). I found them to be very tasty. For the baby blessing I made chocolate oatmeal bars, apple cinnamon rolls and gluten free chocolate brownies. 

First, the apple cinnamon rolls are divine. We had tons of apples from our backyard but they are only really good for baking so I was searching for recipes. I haven't been terribly successful with cinnamon rolls in the past but I followed the recipe near exact (for the filling I just cooked the apples a little in some sugar and butter and then did the usual butter, brown sugar, cinnamon and apples for the filling). The caramel icing is essential, and this coming from someone that doesn't usually care for icing. I made a batch for neighbors and they were so good that I made another batch for the party.

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2013/12/caramel-apple-sweet-rolls/

Second, when most people think of gluten free baking, usually the idea of fancy flours and ingredients come to mind but this recipe for gluten free chocolate cake/brownies is seriously the easiest thing on the face of the earth. There is minimal room for messing it up and it's one bowl (for me anyway. I melt the butter and chocolate in the microwave and then add the eggs and dry ingredients). For the ganache I just melted some chocolate chips and cream together, super super simple. This is a tiny cake I made for a friend who is gluten free. It's so cute. 

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Flourless-Chocolate-Cake-14478