My son's baptism is this coming weekend and I've been wracking my brain trying to come up with the perfect menu. At first, I was thinking go easy, buy everything. Then I switched to the idea of save money, make it yourself. Now I've settled on buy some, make some.

What to make, and what to buy? I was going to buy a cake, then I thought it's a quick and easy bake, just pick up a mix and voila, its practically done for you. But then I realized the mixes probably have so many chemicals and preservatives in them, not to mention my arch rival white flour.

So I went online, hoping to find a mix at Whole Foods or Trader Joe's and instead I found a recipe for a natural yellow cake mix, and I had all the ingredients in the house.

I tweaked the original recipe some, mainly because I mixed it by hand instead of using a food processor or hand mixer (because the baby was napping in the next room). The results were pretty tasty. Here's what I came up with:

1 cup organic whole wheat pastry flour

1 cup organic whole wheat flour

1 1/2 cups sugar (or Splenda or a blend)

4 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

1/2 cup plus 2 Tbsp. butter

1/2 cup egg beaters (or 2 large eggs)

1 cup skim milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Mix the first five ingredients together in a bowl. In a larger bowl, cream the butter. Gradually add flour mixture to the butter, incorporating some of the milk as you go to make it easier to mix. Add the eggs, vanilla extract and remaining milk.

To make cupcakes, fill tins 2/3 way. Bake for 20-25 minutes. For a 9x13 cake, bake for 40-50 minutes. Or for 2 8-inch round pans, bake for 25-35 minutes.

Once the cupcakes were done, my taste-tester (the hubby) gave them a surprising thumbs up, considering they are whole wheat. (I would have probably made them with Splenda to cut carbs, but he's sensitive to it.) We decided they weren't quite worthy of chocolate icing, too "earthy" tasting for chocolate, so we settled on orange butter cream icing, made with 1/2 stick of butter, about 1 cup confectionery sugar, a few splashes of orange juice and about a teaspoon of orange zest.

This of course, was just the practice batch. Considering my sudden addiction to cupcakes, I'm thinking a full-sized cake might be safer to have in the house, because I won't be able to have "just one" before the party. And I can send guests home with leftovers.

Also on the menu, "finger sandwiches" on whole wheat from the Italian deli around the corner (yum!), a vegetable platter, a fruit bowl, a big salad, something gluten-free for the celiacs in my life (any suggestions?) and possibly home-made whole-wheat stromboli made with dough from Whole Foods.

Of course, most importantly, is it will be an afternoon with friends and family, and really, what could be better?