I find myself savoring every moment of this pregnancy because the journey to get here was super emotional. It took a lot of prayer and there was heartbreak along the way, but God is so good and these little kicks I’m feeling these days + my growing bump are a constant reminder that this baby is a gift from Him. I could not be more thankful and honored to get to do this!

Being pregnant during this coronavirus pandemic has been pretty wild. I’m definitely missing being surrounded by all my people during such a special time, but thanks to all the Zoom and FaceTime chats I’m having I still feel very connected. I’ve also gotten to spend a ton of quality time with my husband before we become a family of three and it’s nice to have extra time at home for all this nesting I’m about to do. Still, it would be nice to get away for a babymoon before this kid gets here. If not I guess we’ll have to make it a newborn-moon! It doesn’t sound nearly as restful, but worth it to bask in the sun and stick my toes in the sand somewhere tropical. 

I’m 21 weeks now and thankfully, this pregnancy has been pretty easy so far. In the beginning I mainly felt like a bottomless pit of hunger and only got nauseous when I didn’t eat every hour and a half. The only things I could not stand were the sight/taste/thought of sour cream and the smell of taco seasoning. Other than being too tired to move by 8pm and having to pee 24/7 I felt pretty good (which was also terrifying, cause those early symptoms felt like such reassurance). Now that I’m a little over halfway there, I still wake up a ton at night but I’m experiencing some more of the fun stuff: good hair, a reasonably sized bump, a little more energy, vivid dreams every night, and baby kicks that keep getting stronger and stronger.  

Biggest cravings so far: peanut butter toast every single day, Special K cereal (has to be the one with strawberries), spicy Indian food, cheeseburgers, any kind of Italian food, and Reser’s bean and cheese burritos (which is weird because I hadn’t even thought about those things in like fifteen years). Oddly enough, I am preferring salty/spicy/savory things over sweets these days.

We found out the gender last week and wanted to come up with a fun way to tell all of you. So naturally, I made myself a gender reveal cake!

Without further ado, it’s a…

BOY! 

And the crazy thing is, I had this super strong feeling that we were having a son weeks before we found out. I did have a few vivid dreams that I was having a girl in the beginning, and an overwhelming majority of our friends guessed it would be a girl, but after I hit the second trimester I was just convinced it was a boy. I couldn’t shake the feeling. So when the ultrasound tech said he was a boy I was mind blown that the feeling was true! We are so elated to be having a son! And just look at his cute little profile:

I’m already so obsessed with this boy and can’t wait to be his mama! Already dreaming of his birthday cakes but trying not to think too far ahead because I hear time goes fast. In the meantime, I’m savoring every moment of this pregnancy and grateful to be healthy during this crazy time in the world. Hope you’re all safe and healthy out there and thank you for celebrating sweet boy with us! 

And one last thing: If you’re wondering about the details of how I created my gender reveal cake, here’s the tutorial for the buttercream piping technique I used. The color palette for the frosting is Americolor Electric Blue and Fuschia, mixed in a few different shades and combined for the purple color. I tinted the cake batter with Americolor Electric Blue to get that pretty shade for the cake inside.

If you’re expecting and want to make your own gender reveal cake, feel free to steal this idea or check out the tutorial for these sprinkle filled gender reveal cupcakes. Be sure to tag @sugarandsparrowco on Instagram if you do – I’d love to celebrate with you!

The post Baby on the Way + Gender Reveal Cake appeared first on Sugar & Sparrow.

A few weeks ago, I got to help celebrate a super special moment in my friend’s life: revealing the gender of her sweet little baby to come! I can’t tell you how exciting it was to help celebrate and be part of the big surprise. Gender reveal parties are so much fun and I’ve seen tons of creative ways to make the big reveal even more spectacular. I wanted to translate that excitement into cupcake form, and lucky for me, SprinklePop just released a new line of Solid Sprinkle Mixes that were the perfect color to represent either gender!

In anticipation of the email I was going to get regarding which color to fill these cupcakes with, I ordered both the Light Pink and Light Blue sprinkle mixes. I got to use the Light Pink (it’s a girl!) inside the cupcakes, but ended up topping them with both colors.  

Side note: SprinklePop’s Solid Sprinkle Mixes come in 22 different colors! They’re all super beautiful and I can’t wait to order some of the other hues. Each mix contains a few different sprinkle shapes, so you get really cool texture in a monochromatic color palette. Gorgeous.

After filling the cupcakes with these pretty pink sprinkles, I topped them with some vanilla buttercream piping and a few sprinkles from each bottle. They definitely look like a mystery on the outside, and when cut open the pink (or blue!) sprinkles tumble out like a pinata. So much fun!

I’ve seen other ways to create gender reveal cupcakes (tinting buttercream filling or baking the color into the cupcake itself), but the sprinkle approach is hands-down my favorite! The best part about SprinklePop sprinkles is they actually taste good. If you’re gonna have a mouth full of sprinkles, they’ve got to be yummy!

You Will Need

• Baked cupcakes
• Piping tip or other circular device to cut a hole in the cupcake
• SprinklePop sprinkles in Light Pink or Light Blue
• Neutral-colored buttercream for frosting the cupcakes.
• Wilton piping tips: 1M, 4B, and 104 (optional)

Step 1: Make Room For Your Sprinkles

In order to fill the cupcakes with sprinkles, you’ll need to create some space within your baked cupcakes. To do so, I use the bottom of a large piping tip. You can use anything with a sharp, circular opening that’s about an inch in diameter.

Press the piping tip (bottom first) into the cupcake and the middle should come right out. You now have a nice cavity within the cupcake for filling with sprinkles!

Step 2: Fill With Sprinkles

Choose either pink or blue SprinklePop sprinkles to fill the center of the cupcake with, and pour them in until they’re flush with the top.

Continue until all of the cupcakes are filled.

Step 3: Frost The Cupcakes

Using a neutral-colored buttercream (I’ve gone with this classic vanilla buttercream recipe), frost the tops of the cupcakes to cover up your sprinkle cavity. The design I’ve created involves piping an off-centered rosette with Wilton tip 1M, then piping a squiggle (for lack of a better word!) with Wilton tip 104 next to the rosette. For the remainder of the cupcake, I’ve piped a few open stars with Wilton Tip 4B.

I finished the cupcake design with a few sprinkles in each color (to keep it a big surprise!), but you can decorate your cupcakes any way you like. As long as you go with a gender neutral design on top, you’re good to go! Now all that’s left to do is prepare yourself to be part of one of the most special moments ever.

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