Halloween Desserts

Halloween Desserts...need some ideas before Halloween on Wednesday, here's a peek at some cookies, cake pops, cupcakes and brownies I recently created for a party last weekend! I snapped a few behind the scenes shots as I was decorating the cookies and tombstones for the brownie graveyards! IHope you enjoy these Halloween treats!

I love how these brownie graveyards turned out! Thanks to my new Chicago Metallic Slice Solutions Brownie Pan, I was able to create uniform size brownies and didn't even have to cut them...the pan did all the work! Do you have one of these pans? If not I highly suggest getting one...add it to your Christmas list! Decorated with black fondant tombstones, a candy pumpkin and some green buttercream grass to complete the look.

Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Strawberry Cupcakes with Strawberry Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

Before I took the desserts to the customer, I set up a mini display in my back yard on the new Farm table my husband built for me! I came across this amazingly beautiful DIY Farm Table on the blog Our Vintage Home Love and immediately fell in love and said I need one of these for my dining room! I showed my husband the blog post with the instructions, gathered the list of supplies we needed and off to Lowe's we went. Within a few hours he had made this table! Lucky for us we had an old desk in our shed that we were able to use as the base, it just had to be painted white. So we bought the pine boards, wood stain and sanding paper for the top and probably spent less than $50 on this entire project! If you have never checked out Our Vintage Home Love before, it is an amazing site with a great story behind it and some awesome DIY inspiration! I think I seriously sat and clinked on every tab and just kept browsing and browsing for a few hours once I discovered their site! So know that you know a little about our table, let's get back to the sweet stuff!

Here's a few more pictures of all the finished Halloween treats! Hope you all have a fabulous Halloween!

Owl Cake Pops

Today I'm excited to share with you my latest adventures in cake pops! How cute are these little Owls? Ever since I ordered my copy of Bakerella's Cake Pops book when it first came out I have been dying for an excuse to make these adorable little creatures! Well lucky for me I finally got the chance this past weekend.

My college roommate, Laurie gave birth to a sweet baby boy Max two weeks ago and I sent her these along with some cute little baby outfits! She had shown me some owl fabric they picked out for Max's bedding and immediately I knew these owl pops would be the perfect treat once he was born!

I couldn't help myself and made some blue and brown cake balls to send too!

After wrapping them in about 10 pounds of bubble wrap I shipped them off and hopped for the best! I heard from Laurie today and she received the owls and they were still recognizable...thank you Mr./Mrs. Postman for the safe delivery!

Congratulations Laurie on your new little bundle of joy! Can't wait to meet him soon!

M&M Birthday

Welcome to what I'm going to officially call "Baby Week" here on the blog! This week is going to be filled with fun sweets that I have recently made or will be making later this week to celebrate: twin babies 1st birthday, a baby's birth, and a gender reveal party!

First up we have an "M&M" themed 1st birthday party for two of the cutest twin boys ever...Mack & Miles! How fitting is the M&M theme? If you're a long time follower of CIS then you probably remember I have made quite a few cakes and pops for these boys in the past....here, here and here. I was so excited when their mom and my great friend Kelly asked me to make the goodies for their 1st bday!

There were M&M cookie favors, M&M cake pops, and a chocolate birthday cake decorated with M&Ms. I love how everything came together to create a vibrant and cheery party! When I walked into Kelly's house it seriously looked like an M&M factory! She had an M&M table cloth, a huge apothecary jar filled with M&Ms, mini glass jars filled with M&Ms for favors, rainbow streamers everywhere, wooden signs with M&Ms, even M&M rainbow colored plates and cups...and I'm sure I'm forgetting something. I am kicking myself for not having my camera with me, but hoping she will share some pics from the party! Oh and the cutest part of all, she had bought M&M onesies for the boys to wear. One would be a red M&M and the other a yellow M&M! Oh I bet they looked so stinkin cute!

Happy 1st Birthday Mack & Miles! Thanks Kelly for asking me to be part of your boys special day!

Up next...some super sweet cake pops for my friend who had a little boy, Max a little over a week ago. I'm loving all these "M" little boy names!

Bumble Bee Baby Shower

This past weekend I was buzzing around like a busy bee in my kitchen. My good friend Kelly who I have mentioned here on CIS before was hosting a baby shower, instead of being the guest of honor herself as you may remember here. The theme was bumble bees, adorable! I had never decorated anything with the bee theme before so immediately I started envisioning yellow & black, polka dots and of course little bees everywhere. Kelly requested cupcakes and cake balls/pops and then some sugar cookie onesies and baby bottles for the favors.

Drawing inspiration from polka dot ribbon and cupcake liners I added some dots to the yellow onesie cookies. My first instinct was to decorate the cookies with black stripes so they would more closely resemble a bee, but after trying this on one cookie it quickly reminded me too much of Charlie Brown...so I scratched that idea and proceeded with polka dots.

I hope you enjoy all the pictures of the bumble bee sweets...I got a little carried away BEE cause everything was so cute! I have some exciting news at the bottom of the post too that I can't wait to share with you!

The bee cupcake toppers were made from yellow fondant rolled into an oval with two slivered almonds poked into the sides. The stripes and eyes were piped on using black royal icing. I used a round tip 1A to pipe on 4 swirls of icing to resemble a bee hive.

Bumble bee cake pops inspired by Bakerella.

Now for the EXCITING NEWS!!!

I am going to be a monthly blog contributor to Half Baked. If you have never heard of Half Baked before and you are as big of a cake lover as me...well I don't know where you have been! Half Baked is seriously my go to blog for cake inspiration! It is filled with some of the most gorgeous and unique cakes I have ever seen. Carrie, the founder and editor of Half Baked is a cake designer herself and also features some of the most talented cake vendors in the industry. Whether a cake for a birthday, shower or wedding, no matter the occasion I am always blown away by the creative cakes and decorating techniques seen on Half Baked! This blog is truly one of my all time favorites, and one I have been following for almost two years now. I am so honored that Carrie has chosen me to be part of her blog. My new gig will involve creating monthly cupcake recipes and photos to share with all her readers, and I can't wait! I am looking forward to sharing my first cupcake flavor later this month, so stayed tuned!

Have a great week!

Spring Cake Pops

Happy Monday! Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. Mine sure was jam packed will all sorts of fun stuff...starting with a 12 mile run at 5AM Saturday, followed by some cake baking (it was my attempt at this insanely rich and calorie packed cake), and then a crawfish boil couple's shower! Sunday we got on the road bright and early and headed to New Orleans for the day to see our nephew play soccer. While we were there we checked out a local sweet boutique, Sucre that was recommended by a friend. Can't wait to share some pics of those amazing desserts as well! So basically I've been on the go go go and this week only gets crazier!

I have meetings, last minute planning for the Bunny Chase 5K event I coordinate every year, a final consultation with the bride for this wedding cake, my family is coming in town on Thursday for Easter weekend and there is lots of cleaning to do before my mom comes to give my house the white glove test! So to hold you over for a little while, I'll leave you with a few photos of the Spring themed cake pops I made last week for some Bunco parties!

Go grab some yellow candy melts or any color for that matter, a jar of sprinkles and start dipping those cake balls!

Wouldn't these make the cutest addition to your Easter baskets this year!

Nike Shorts Inspired Cake Pops

I love finding inspiration for my baking endeavors in things around me everyday. Let's just say this wall of Nike shorts featured at our local Mobile outdoor store, McCoy Outdoor Co. is a runner's dream! One of my favorite pieces of clothing is Nike Shorts...I think I own the entire rainbow of colors as part of my running ensemble and tend to wear a pair almost daily. This store is always stocked full with a wide variety of shorts in the latest seasonal colors. And if you've been a long time follower of my blog then you know running marathons and the non-profit organization Team in Training are two of my greatest passions. Well last week McCoy Outdoor and Team in Training paired up to host a Ladies Night featuring local vendors! Since McCoy's is well known for their wall of Nike shorts, I thought it would be a fun treat to make some "Nike shorts" inspired cake pops courtesy of Crave. Indulge. Satisfy.

Oh the color combination of candy melts and sprinkles you can use to create this array of colors! So if you saw last week's post about candy melts, well here the secret has been revealed!

I think my favorite turned out to be the blue with the pink sprinkles! Hmmm now that I think about it I don't think I own this color combo of shorts either!

In case you are wondering, the cake inside was red velvet with cream cheese frosting. They were good, ok AMAZING...I may have sampled 1 or 2 or 3 before I took them to Ladies Night!

In addition to providing cake pops for the event, I was also promoting my new product, a runner's memorabilia book, RACEDAY. This is the perfect solution for all you runner's out there that like to keep your race bib#s, course maps, photos and statistics for all your 5K, 10K, half marathons and marathons. Much to my surprise, this morning I woke up to find that RACEDAY had been featured on Hadley Designs. Hadley is the amazing artist and graphic designer who designed the RACEDAY logo and helped bring my vision for this product to life. So rather than me go on and on about the product, go check out the details on Hadley's site and be sure to stay there a while and look at all of her amazing design work and design inspiration. I came across Hadley's website over 2 years ago when I was searching online for a local freelance designer. I was immediately drawn in by the design of her website and her portfolio and knew that her style was exactly what I was envisioning for my product. Hadley and I instantly meshed well together and had a blast designing the book. I am so pleased with how the final piece turned out and look forward to working with Hadley on more design projects in the future! Not only does Hadley do logo designs, she creates custom invitations and stationery, websites and even illustrates. She truly is the entire package when it comes to creativity! So go check out Hadley's blog and website and be sure to enter her giveaway for some Free Personalized Stationery while you're there! You better hurry because the deadline to enter is tomorrow!

Now back to the Nike shorts...I am loving some of these new colors and think I need to go grab a few more pairs to add to my wardrobe! I'll take a pair in orange and a pair in purple please!

So that's my story on Nike Shorts, cake pops and RACEDAY. I'd love for you to go check out RACEDAY on Facebook and become a fan!

Cake Pop Lovin!

Happy February! It's the month of LOVE so it's only fitting to kick it off with a few things I'm lovin' right now!

#1 - My blog redesign! Do you all like the new look? I figure with the new year it was time to give CIS a facelift, and I'm lovin the new colors, fonts and custom design feel! A big thank you to Marina at Penny Lane Designs for a fantastic job! If you are looking for a blog makeover, PLD is a great place to start! Marina's portfolio is full of a wide array of designs, colors, fonts and styles, you will be sure to find inspiration. Her turnaround time is great, she is a pleasure to work with and her pricing is so affordable! Go check PLD out!

#2 - Cake Pops! Can't go wrong with cake on a stick! Especially chocolate cake with pink & red sprinkles! I just got finished teaching 2 friends how to make cake pops and we had so much fun. I love being able to pass on the tips and tricks I have learned throughout my baking adventures!

# 3 - My Birthday month! I will be entering the last year of my 20s on the 15th! For the past two years I have run a half marathon on the actual day or weekend of my birthday and this year will be no different. I am heading to Jacksonville in two weekends to run the Breast Cancer Half Marathon. I am so thankful to be healthy and capable of running. I know some people think I'm crazy, but really there is nothing I like more than to run a race on my birthday. It's the present I give to myself, and a tradition I hope to continue for years to come! Plus after 13.1 miles I can indulge in as much birthday cake as I want!

Looking forward to a wonderful month full of sweets & treats and red & pink!

Tis the season for baking!

My kitchen is officially cleaned up and "closed" for Christmas baking this year! Whew! There has been more butter, sugar and flour in the last week than probably the last few months of my baking combined! But all the hours in the kitchen, rotating cookies in and out of the oven, icing cupcakes and doing the dirty work of washing dishes has been completely worth it! This is my absolute favorite time of the year to bake and I have enjoyed sharing my sweets with neighbors and friends and hosting holiday parties!

We are packing up and starting our 11 hour trip to KY tomorrow to visit my family for Christmas and I have promised Randolph that this year there will be absolutely positively NO BAKING while we are there! So lucky for you, I had a marathon week of baking last week that I have enough photos and recipes to share with you through the end of December!

Last week I made all the desserts for a launch party for my friend Stephanie's new catering business! Stephanie recently started Bella's Bistro to pursue her love of cooking. Her focus is on Italian cuisine and let me just say her lasagna is Amazing! She recently won first place in the Mama Mia cook off in Daphne, AL for her Eggplant Caponata. I tasted this last week at her premier event and it was delicious! So if you live in Mobile, Daphne or any neighboring cities in Alabama keep Bella's Bistro in mind for your holiday parties, weddings, baby showers, etc. You are going to love what her menu has to offer!

Since Stephanie's love is for cooking and not baking, she asked me if I would be interested in making the desserts! Of course my response was YES! She gave me complete freedom to do whatever desserts I wanted, the only thing was I needed to have enough to feed around 200 people! WOW 200 people, I don't think I have ever baked for that large of a crowd before! So I tied on my apron and rolled dough, cut out and iced sugar cookies like it was my full time job.

In addition to cookies, I made cupcakes (from this post) and cake pops and cranked out enough desserts for an army! Let's just say I went a little overboard and had lots of leftovers. Lucky for me I have neighbors who are always willing to take sweets off my hands!

So here's a look at all the desserts I made for the party. Check back the rest of the week as I will post recipes for everything! I'll let the pictures speak for themselves right now!

I'm not sure if I made enough cookies...what do you think???