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!

Chocolate & Peanut Butter Cupcakes with Halloween Candy Bark

Halloween is quickly approaching, so you know what that means...it's time to stock up on candy! There are a few Halloween candy staples that I must keep in my stash the entire month of October, which include Reese Pieces, Reese Cups, Peanut M&Ms and Butterfinger! YUM! As you can see the common theme with all these candies seems to be peanuts & peanut butter! So I had the idea to create a fabulous Halloween Candy bark to use a decoration on top of some chocolate and peanut butter cupcakes! This recipe was definitely created for all you chocolate and peanut butter lovers out there!

I love the pops or orange and yellow in the Halloween bark! I'm sharing the recipe for the cupcakes, candy bark and even a super cute way to individually package up these cupcakes for all your trick-or-treaters over at Half Baked!  So head on over and check it out! Definitely look around a bit while you are there too and drool over her fabulous Fresh Apple Donuts!

I've got a few more candy themed recipe ideas up my sleeve, so check back soon! What's your favorite Halloween Candy!

Happy Friday!

Tropical Pineapple Cupcakes

Before we officially say goodbye to summer, and head into the fall baking season I wanted to share with you one more tropical recipe that you can enjoy as we savor these last few weeks of beach weather! I had intended to post this sooner so you may have already seen the recipe over on Half Baked. We were out of town over Labor Day weekend visiting family, came home to our air conditioner not working and then little Sam got sick, so it's been a rocky start these first few days of September! So anyways, here are my Pineapple & Coconut cupcakes with cream cheese frosting and dried pineapple flowers on top! Enjoy these last few days of summer!

Check back soon for some fun cookie posts up next!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes

For all you cookie dough lovers out there, this recipe is for you! Jam packed with lots of cookie dough inside and out these cupcakes won't disappoint. Moist chocolate cupcakes with a ball of chocolate chip cookie dough hidden inside. Definitely a nice surprise once you take a bite through the first layer of cookie dough in the frosting!

The recipe is over at Half Baked so be sure to check it out.

So go grab a bag of chocolate chips and put this on your baking to do list for the weekend!

Enjoy!

Navy & Pink Wedding Sweets

Earlier this month my good friend Molly got married. My obsession for baking and cake decorating all started a few years ago after Molly and I took our first Wilton Cake Decorating class together! Since then I've enjoyed developing new recipes and trying new decorating techniques. For Molly's wedding shower I created some fondant monogram cupcake toppers in her wedding colors of pink & navy to showcase her soon to be new last name "Spain".

Molly had asked me soon after she became engaged if I would make her wedding cake and cupcakes for her special day since she knew how much I enjoyed baking. After thinking long and hard about taking on this huge commitment, I had to turn her down though. The reason being b/c by the time her wedding rolled around I would be 37-weeks pregnant and not sure of how I would feel baking and decorating. Or would the little one make an early arrival and leave me in the hospital in labor during the weekend of her wedding...what a nightmare that would have been! So instead of baking I told Molly I would help with decorating her wedding sweets!

Molly came up with the idea of cupcake flags to top her cupcakes, so I found some fun pink & navy paper stock and she supplied 10 different words and phrases that she wanted included on the flags.

I made 100 cupcake flags to embellish their wedding cupcakes.

In addition to the flags Molly wanted me to add some navy fondant petals around the tiers of her wedding cake. She had a local bakery in Mobile bake her wedding cake and then I added the finishing touches. I was a little nervous about doing this at first, after arriving to the reception location and seeing a beautifully decorated white wedding cake standing tall, was afraid to touch it. I made sure with Molly's mom and sister-in-law before I started adding the fondant petals that Molly really wanted me to add these decorations. I have never added decorations to a cake that someone else baked before so I was a little worried I would mess something up.

The petals turned out fine though, just like the picture Molly had supplied for me to reference. And lucky for me, I got to see a sneak peak of the bride before the ceremony while I was there decorating!

Here's a picture of me with my 37 week pregnant belly and the beautiful bride to be, Molly!

Congratulations Molly & Keith! Wishing you a lifetime of happiness!

Chocolate Mint Oreo Cupcakes

One of my all time favorite cookies are Oreos! Who doesn't love these chocolate sandwich cream-filled cookies? The variety of flavors sure have come a long way since I was a little kid! One of my new favorite flavors is the Cool Mint. So here's to enjoying one amazing cookie inside of a delicious cupcake jam-packed with chocolate and mint! Head on over to Half Baked to check out the recipe for these Chocolate Mint Oreo Cupcakes!

Did you know this month Oreo celebrates it's 100th birthday! What is your favorite Oreo cookie flavor?

Ombre Red Velvet Cupcakes

Valentine's Day is quickly approaching and I've got the perfect sweet for you to share with your loved ones this year! Decorated with ruffles in shades of pink to red, these are a fancy version of your typical Red Velvet Cupcakes. I've also swapped out the traditional cream cheese icing for a white chocolate buttercream which I think you are going to LOVE! These are absolutely delicious and a must make for your sweetie!

I have been dying to try the ombre technique ever since I came across these stunning cakes over at Half Baked last year. I knew February would be the perfect month to have some fun with various shades of icing and my piping tips!

Although the various shades and layer upon layer of icing may appear a bit intimidating these cupcakes really are super easy to make! I'm sharing the recipe and all the tools & tips you will need to recreate this decorating technique over at Half Baked!

I hope you enjoy this recipe! Have you ever decorated something sweet with the ombre technique...I'd love to hear all about it!

XOXO

Italian Cream "Snowball" Cupcakes

Happy New Year! WOW it has been a LONG time since I have posted, and I am so sorry! Things were a little hectic with the holidays, work, traveling and family during the month of December so my baking adventures were very sparse...unlike past years! I am happy to finally be back on the blog today to share with you a new cupcake recipe for Italian Cream "Snowball" cupcakes!

I did get to experience one crazy snow day while visiting my family in KY a few weeks ago...lets just say the roads were covered in ice and I got stuck on a hill and couldn't get up it for about 30 minutes. I do not miss the the snowy cold weather at all...boy am I glad to be back in Mobile where the temps are in the mid 60-70s during the winter!

I had a great time making these cupcakes in KY with family a few times over the holidays. Head on over to Half Baked for the recipe. You have gotta try these fluffy little cakes packed full of coconut and walnuts and topped with cream cheese frosting! It's a family recipe and one that we absolutely love!

Wishing you all a wonderful 2012!

Hot Chocolate Cupcakes with Peppermint Buttercream

It's the most wonderful time of the year! This is my absolute favorite month to bake! Cookies, candies, pies and cakes are all on my baking to do list this holiday season! To start things off I've creates a new recipe for Hot Chocolate Cupcakes with Peppermint Buttercream! This quite possibly is one of my all time favorite cupcakes!

Chocolate and Peppermint are an amazing flavor combination. Topped off with some homemade peppermint bark, these cupcakes are sure to be one festive treat at your holiday party this year! I will certainly be making them again to share with family and friends in the coming weeks.

Head on over to Half Baked for the cupcake and peppermint bark recipes! Wishing you all a wonderful holiday filled will all sorts of yummy sweets!

Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cinnamon Cream Cheese

Happy November! I can't believe Thanksgiving is just around the corner! To get you ready for the big turkey day feast I'm excited to share a delicious cupcake recipe featuring pumpkin as the star ingredient! You have gotta add these Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting to your holiday baking this year!

The recipe for these fall cupcakes is posted over at Half Baked so go check it out!

Hope you all have a wonderful November! I'm so thankful to have such great followers of CIS!

Birthday Cupcakes with Cookies on Top

Happy Monday! Sorry there have been a lack of posts lately...things have been a little hectic these days, but I'm trying to get back into a regular routine of posting again, so please bare with me! I've been doing a lot of baking for customers lately so I've got some fun things to share throughout the week!

First up are some birthday cupcakes topped with sugar cookies and X box fondant toppers. Tracy, one of my loyal customers was the brains behind the idea of cookie toppers for her husband's birthday cupcakes...I mean why not have two sweat treats all in one! Loved this idea, and will definitely be making cookie toppers again!

Red Velvet cupcakes w/ cream cheese frosting, topped with white iced sugar cookies and "32" for the birthday age.

Strawberry cupcakes w/ strawberry cream cheese frosting, topped with red iced sugar cookies and "ML" for the birthday boy's initials.

Two special cupcakes were topped with black fondant X box controllers, one of the recipient's favorite hobbies.

When it comes to more masculine designs I sure am glad to have my husband around. I have to give him about 90% of the credit for creating these controllers! I gave him a picture to reference and he went to town molding the shape...pretty good huh! All I did was supervise and make the colored buttons!

Hope you enjoyed this birthday cupcake & cookie collection!
More birthday treats coming soon...