paste this code in your theme’s functions.php file
function custom_query_shortcode($atts) {
// EXAMPLE USAGE:
// [loop_shortcode the_query="showposts=100&post_type=page&post_parent=453"]
// Defaults
extract(shortcode_atts(array(
"the_query" => ''
), $atts));
// de-funkify query
$the_query = preg_replace('~�*([0-9a-f]+);~ei', 'chr(hexdec("\\1"))', $the_query);
$the_query = preg_replace('~�*([0-9]+);~e', 'chr(\\1)', $the_query);
// query is made
query_posts($the_query);
// Reset and setup variables
$output="";
$temp_title="";
$temp_link = '';
$temp_ex = '';
$temp_content="";
$temp_thumb = '';
$temp_id = '';
// the loop
if (have_posts()) : while (have_posts()) : the_post();
$temp_id = $post->ID;
$temp_title = get_the_title($post->ID);
$temp_link = get_permalink($post->ID);
$temp_content = get_the_content($post->ID);
//$temp_ex = get_the_excerpt();
if ( has_post_thumbnail() ) {
$temp_thumb = get_the_post_thumbnail($post->ID);
} else {
$temp_thumb = "" ;
}
// output all findings -
$output .= "<div class="post-$temp_id" id='post-$temp_id'>
<h3 class="entry-title">
<a title="$temp_title" rel="bookmark" href="https://wordpress.stackexchange.com/questions/7046/$temp_link">$temp_title</a>
</h3><!--BEGIN .entry-content-->
<div class="entry-content">
<div class="theExrp">
<p>
<a href="https://wordpress.stackexchange.com/questions/7046/$temp_link">
$temp_thumb
</a>
</p>
<p>$temp_content
</p>
</div>
<div><a class="more-link" href="https://wordpress.stackexchange.com/questions/7046/$temp_link">read more...</a></div><!--END .entry-content-->
</div><!--END .hentry-->
</div>";
endwhile; else:
$output .= "not found.";
endif;
wp_reset_query();
return $output;
}
add_shortcode("loop_shortcode", "custom_query_shortcode");
then edit your home page and add this shortcode to show the two latest posts:
[loop_shortcode the_query="posts_per_page=2&orderby=date&order=DESC"]
and if you want to select the category the paste this short code:
[loop_shortcode the_query="cat=CHANGETHIS&posts_per_page=2&orderby=date&order=DESC"]
and replace the CHANGETHIS with your category id or name.