It's a Boy...It's a Girl?????

Baby bumps are everywhere right now! I literally know about 10 people pregnant with babies due between now and April! It is so fun to be surrounded by so many friends at different stages in their pregnancy and to watch their bellies grow! Andy while we are on the topics of babies...I have one more surprise to share with you...I am expecting too! I am 19 weeks!

The time has been going by so fast and next week we will be finding out the gender! I have been dying to share the news for some time now and even have a cute cookie idea planned to share too...so I hope to get to that next week after we find out if it's a boy or a girl! And I must admit that this is part of the reason for my lack of posts lately! From about 6-15 weeks I was very nauseous. Just the thought of anything sugary made me sick, especially all things cake! It was the weirdest thing and something I never imagined could happen to a sugar and cake lover like myself! I am slowly getting back into baking more but still have not really wanted to even eat a bite of cake or icing! This may be a good thing though so I don't pack on the extra pounds from sugar cravings during the pregnancy!

Its seems like one of the most popular cookies I make are onesies for baby showers. They are so much fun to design b/c you can customize them a million different ways. My cousin's wife Cassandra is due in January but they have decided not to find out the sex. So for her recent baby shower, I thought it would be fun to just stick to the traditional pink and blue colors and make some onesie and baby bottle cookies.

There are going to be lots more baby showers and probably onesie cookies in my near future! What are some of your favorite baby shower themes? I'd love to start brainstorming some new ideas for cookies, cupcakes or anything sweet!

Minnie & Mickey Mouse Cookies

Hope you're having a great week so far! Just wanted to pop in real quick and share some Minnie & Mickey Mouse cookies I made for a 2 year old's birthday party recently!

Up next...some baby shower cookie ideas!

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...

Superman Cookies

Happy Friday and Happy 1st Day of Fall! Today I'm sharing some SUPER cookies with you...inspired by Superman! A friend contacted me to make some cookies for her son's 1st birthday! The party theme was superheros with the birthday boy being Superman! Instead of the "S" for Superman in the center of each cookie she wanted a "C" for "Chase" the bday boy!

Introducing "Super Chase" cookies! I thought that was such a cute way to capture a theme that everyone would recognize but then personalize the cookies for the sweet birthday boy!

All the guests at the party were encouraged to come dressed as their favorite super hero! I saw the pictures and they were super cute! The mom, dad and birthday boy all dressed up as Superman with capes! I think the birthday boy had one SUPER 1st birthday!

Have a great weekend! On the baking agenda today...a pumpkin streusel cake! Welcome Fall!

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!

White Wedding Dessert Table

This past weekend two of my great friends Katie & Derek got married! I was honored when Katie asked me to create a dessert table for her special day. Her vision was to have a small cake, cupcakes and sugar cookies. She wanted to keep things clean and simple, with white being the focal color and a hint of green to accent. I love the Save the Date invites they sent out with the bicycle built for two! Katie and Derek first met a few years ago while training for a triathlon, so this announcement was so fitting for their special occasion.

Keeping with the white theme, I decorated sugar cookies using 3 types of white sprinkles: nonpareils, sugar crystals and pearls.

To add a touch of green I made some "mr. & mrs." cookies especially for the bride and groom.

Of course I had to create a few bicycle cookies to match their Save the Date!

Here are a few other special cookies I made only for the bride and groom so they could enjoy while honeymooning.

Katie's wanted to have a small cake for them to cut, inspired by i am baker's rose cake. I had so much fine trying this decorating technique using tip 1M.

The inside of the cake was yellow with chocolate icing in between the layers...the bride's favorite!

To match the cake, all the cupcakes were decorated with a rose on top. The cupcakes were all carrot cake.

Here's how everything came together on the dessert table. The bride's grandmother also made her signature almond pound cakes with a family recipe. And hiding under the dessert table are all the extra cupcakes and cookies to be refilled throughout the reception!

I just loved Katie's expression when she first saw the dessert table! I am thrilled that she was so happy with how everything turned out!

The look we were going for was similar to Amy Atlas' signature white dessert table.

Time to cut the cake...

Congratulations Katie & Derek! I wish you a lifetime of happiness! Thanks for asking me to be part of your special day!

Bachelorette Cookies

What do you get when you have a bachelorette party at the beach...yellow polka dot bikini cookies of course, and some pink ones too! I had first seen the idea for the itsy bitsie teenie weenie cookies at Bake at 350 last summer and thought they were adorable. These cookies were a yummy addition to my beach weekend with friends to celebrate the bride to be Katie! We spent a few days at Orange Beach, AL soaking up the sun during the day and singing and dancing at night! Good times were had by all the ladies, including wearing some flirty feathered masks to hide our identities, prancing around with a horse on a stick (don't even ask, long story...but it did get Katie and her 2 sistas on stage with the band!), and finishing off the night with a game of "run, jump, funny landing" which was a favorite game of the bride and her 2 sisters growing up! It was just an awesome weekend with wonderful friends!

And there was also a little lingerie shower thrown in too...so you know what that means...more cookies

These cookies were made all in good fun and I wanted to keep them tasteful. A friend had sent me a link to some lingerie cookies before titled "when men bake" and I thought they were hilarious. Never did I really think I would actually be making them. But when I knew we were having a lingerie shower I thought it would be the perfect occasion to use my heart shape cookie cutter for another purpose! I found the inspiration for the cookies I made here. Everyone got a kick out of these bra and panties cookies!

Only a few more weeks until Katie's wedding day and I'm in charge of the cake and dessert table! The vision is for a clean, elegant and white dessert table inspired by Amy Atlas and the wildly popular rose cake from i am baker. Can't wait to share pictures of her wedding day sweets with you soon!

Triple Berry Fruit Pizza

Fresh berries...my fridge is stocked full right now! YUM! Not only do I enjoy eating these luscious berries by the handful for a snack but I also like using them to garnish sweets! Growing up there was one go-to dessert we would make every summer...Fruit Pizza. Sugar cookie dough, cream cheese icing and fruit. It really doesn't get much simpler than that.

Our traditional fruit pizza was always in the shape of a rectangle and decorated with blueberries and strawberries to resemble the American Flag...does this sound familiar to anyone else? It seems like this was always our staple dessert for 4th of July weekend. It was so patriotic with the red, white and blue.

So with loads of fresh berries on hand, it was the perfect opportunity to make some Triple Berry Fruit Pizzas. This time around instead of one large pizza, I thought it would be more fun to create individual mini pizzas using a round cookie cutter. This would be such a fun dessert to make with the kids and a great way to encourage them to eat fruit too! Just slice up your favorite fruits and have them decorate away!

Triple Berry Fruit Pizzas
(makes 18 mini pizzas)

Ingredients:
-1 package Sugar cookie mix (or roll of refrigerated sugar cookie dough)
-1 (8 oz) package cream cheese, softened
-1/2 cup confectioner's sugar
-1 cup Cool Whip
-Fresh Fruit: strawberries, blueberries, raspberries (or whatever else you prefer)

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line cookie sheets with parchment paper.
  
• Prepare sugar cookie mix as package directs for roll out cookies.
  
• Roll out dough onto lightly floured surface and cut out mini pizzas using round cookie cutter. I used a 2 5/8" cutter.
• Place cookies on prepared cookie sheets and refrigerate for about 10-15 minutes to chill before baking. This will prevent the cookies from spreading when baking.
• Bake cookies for 10-12 minutes. Allow to cool completely before icing.
• In medium bowl mix together cream cheese, confectioner's sugar and Cool Whip until smooth.
  
• Spread icing on pizzas and decorate with desired fruit.
• Fruit pizzas are best enjoyed the day they are made. You can store in an air tight refrigerator for up to 2 days.
  

What fruit would you use to top your fruit pizza?