When you're planning a baby shower, you'll want to think about the beverages you'll be serving to your guests. All those activities and games, not to mention all the laughing and chatting that will be going on, will be sure to leave everyone extremely thirsty!
You should offer your guests a choice of things to drink, of course. From the usual soda and water, to mixed fruit juices, non-alcoholic wine to signature cocktails created just for the baby shower make up the myriad choices that you can make.
But of all the beverages that are served at a baby shower, punch is usually the drink of choice. It's easy to make since it's prepared in bulk, it's self-served so there's not so much fuss with that, and you can make it in flavors that will suit you perfectly. There's no other drink that can do that for you. And the best thing about it is trying out which recipes are best in those days before the baby shower.
Classic punch recipes revolve around the basic ingredients of a base of fruit juice, ice cream or sherbet, carbonated drinks like ginger ale or seltzer, and frozen fruits as garnish. What you mix together and in what quantities will make the punch all your own.
The punch can even be made to be color coordinated to the baby shower itself. Pink or blue punch is really sweet to look at and even more fun to drink. Though you can make other colors as well, like orange, red, yellow, purple, and even green!
To make a light pink punch, combine a pint of frozen strawberries, a cup of orange juice, four tablespoons of pure fruit strawberry jam in a blender. Process until completely smooth and refrigerate until time to serve. Just before putting it out, pass it through the blender again with two cups of ice cubes and two cups of plain seltzer or club soda. This recipe is good for four people.
A tropical punch to suit those balmy summer days can be concocted from a cup of mango nectar, a cup of frozen pureed mangoes, a cup of passion fruit juice, and a cup of ice-cold water. Puree everything together and add the juice of half a lime. Keep everything extremely cold until time to serve and pour into a punch bowl filled with ice cubes made from sweetened limeade. Garnish the punch with paper-thin slices of lime.
Why not make a fun blue punch for a bath or duck themed baby shower? Serve this in a clean baby bath tub (without the foam bottoms, please!) and have little rubber duckies floating in it.
Make up a mix of Hawaiian Punch with an equal part of a lemon-lime flavored soda. Or you could dissolve a package of blue raspberry Jell-o or Kool-Aid in the soda. Add a bottle of white juice (grape or cranberry) to the mix. After transferring the beverage to the mini bathtub, put scoops of Baskin and Robbins Blue Raspberry Sherbet or your favorite blue ice cream to float on top. It should slowly melt into the punch. Garnish with a rubber duckie or two.