Sweet Red Velvet Treats

I woke up this morning to some wonderful news. My friend Nellie gave birth to a healthy baby boy, Deacon James. Because she gave birth at home, as planned, I wasn't sure how soon I would be able to visit her. But just in case it was sooner rather than later, I immediately started googling 'red velvet cake recipes'. I know she likes red velvet cake and I wanted to bring her a sweet treat to enjoy after such an exhausting, all natural labor.

After settling on a recipe to try and deciding on making cupcakes, my baking assistant and I donned our matching aprons and went to work, hoping to get it right. I have never made red velvet cake before. In fact, I don't particularly care for it. I've heard everyone rave about it so I once bought one at a bakery to see what all the fuss was about. I didn't understand what the big deal was. I'd much rather have a big old piece of chocolate cake any day.

When the cupcakes had cooled, Grace and I had to have a taste to make sure it was good enough to give as a gift. Oh. My. Goodness. I take back every bad thought I had about red velvet cake. This was much better than the red velvet cake I had before. Maybe I was just really hungry so anything would have tasted fantastic, but Grace and I each had our own cupcake. Then we split another one. And then when she wasn't looking, I devoured yet another one. I finally had to remind myself to stop eating them because they were supposed to be given to Nellie and her family.

Nellie called that afternoon and gave me the green light to come on over and meet Deacon. I hadn't made the icing yet because I didn't think we'd get to see him so soon. I ran around like a mad woman trying to make the icing and decorate the cupcakes. I kicked my assistant out of the kitchen and encouraged her to make a mess elsewhere. She chose to sit on top of the dining room table and empty out everything in her diaper bag.

Meeting Deacon James was every bit as wonderful as I thought it would be. He is such a sweet little thing! Grace didn't even notice there was a new baby at first. We had to point him out to her several times before she finally understood that there was something different about Nellie- the baby that was in her belly was now in her arms! Once she got it, she kept walking up and trying to take a peek at the baby and I even got shhhh'ed for talking while the baby was sleeping.

What a wonderful ending to our day. It's probably a good thing that Mike's away right now because I've got a bad case of baby fever with all these precious newborns!