Candy Bar Cake

Halloween is only a few days away...have you been stocking up on all your candy for the trick-or-treaters? I must admit I haven't gone to the store to load up, but will definitely be making a trip this weekend to pick up some Butterfingers, M&M's, Reese's Cups and my all time favorite Snicker's! It has been way too long since I sank my teeth into the chocolate, caramel and nutty goodness of a Snicker's bar. Just thinking about grabbing a bag of this candy took me back to a few months ago when I made this Candy Bar Cake from the March, Chocolate Issue of Food Network Magazine. This is one of my favorite magazines to get in the mail each month because every recipe, especially the desserts always look amazing!

So when I saw the CHOCOLATE issue I was in heaven. While doing a quick flip through the pages I stumbled upon this cake and immediately I thought of a gigantic Snicker's Bar! So I gave the recipe a try and took it to a cookout with some friends and it was a huge hit! The best part about this recipe...there is NO BAKING involved. That's right, the base of the cake is pound cake! Now don't get me wrong I absolutely love to bake, but when you are in a pinch and need a quick, easy and delicious dessert you can't go wrong with this cake. It's all about combining a few key ingredients and layering them one on top of the other.

The base of the cake is pound cake, with a layer of chocolate buttercream, a layer of dulce de leche and salted peanuts and then the entire thing is coated in chocolate! YUM! So if you are looking to create a treat to impress your Halloween Party quests this year, you can't go wrong with this Candy Bar Cake! Check out the recipe here!

Cake Art Party Store

I recently had the opportunity to visit Cake Art Party Store. Ever heard of it before? Well if you know Bakerella, the Queen of Cake Pops then I'm sure you have seen her mention this a time or two or three on her blog! This is her go to shop for all things caking, baking and decorating! On a recent trip back to Mobile from Clemson, SC I convinced my amazing husband to veer off the interstate a few miles and stop in this baker's paradise! We couldn't have timed this trip any more perfectly because we literally were driving down the interstate through Atlanta and Cake Art popped in my head b/c I knew it was somewhere close by. I quickly searched for it on my iphone and what do you know we were within 10 minutes of the store! I nicely begged my husband to let us stop (keep in mind this is after he had already agreed to let me stop at IKEA in Atlanta too...isn't he great!), as this was probably the one and only time I would ever get to shop where Bakerella does! He agreed and we rolled into the parking lot right as the doors were opening for the day! Actually, I take that back, it would have been even more perfect if I had walked into the store and seen Bakerella in there shopping herself! I think I must have just missed her by a few days, based on her most recent Halloween post of all the goodies she grabbed at Cake Art!

So of course as I entered this amazing store of cake pans, cookie cutters, fondant, sprinkles, and so much more, I obviously had to get out my camera and take a few photos as I walked up and down every aisle in awe of the wide variety of products they had available! We definitely don't have anything quite like this in Mobile.

The Halloween section hit me in the face first! Oh the possibilities of the scary, creepy and spooky Halloween treats that could be created with all of this stuff! I quickly grabbed a 3 pack cookie cutter set, which included a tombstone that I needed for an upcoming project and headed on to the next isle.

Cake boards...

and cake separator plates and pillars! Look at all those sizes available!

Fondant in every color of the rainbow! I would love to have this readily available to me, considering I am always tinting my own fondant colors by hand! This would be a huge time saver!

Oh look at all those piping bags!

And edible glitter and shimmer to make your sweets fancy!

An adorable mini cake pan in the shape of a popsicle! How cute...I didn't buy this, but now I'm wishing I had!

Cookie cutters! Can never have enough cookie cutters right? I snagged a pack of the 3-piece Ice Cream Cone set!

For the love of cake pans! Round, square, rectangle and all kinds of customized shapes!

Sprinkles, sprinkles and more sprinkles! Definitely threw a few bottles of these in my basket!

Sugar pearls! I wanted to grab a bag of every color, but I didn't!

The wall of color! Every color imaginable to use for tinting icings for cake and cookie decorating! Of course I grabbed an assorted box of AmeriColor since cookie decorating was in my near future!

I'm so glad I got to make a quick stop at Cake Art! Maybe someday I'll be lucky enough to stop there again and shop for a little bit longer! I was literally racing down the isles like a mad women snapping photos, grabbing goodies and trying to get out of there as quickly as possible while my husband was entertaining my 6 month old son!

Here's what I came away with from my shopping spree! Oh and I did by some Push Pop containers which I forgot to include in the photo! Luckily Cake Art sells everything online too so I can always order what I need for future baking projects and have it shipped directly to my door! Not nearly as fun as seeing everything in person but I guess it will have to do since they are 5 hours away from where I live!

Have you ever been to Cake Art? What is your favorite place to buy cake supplies?

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!

Polka Dot Inspired

I kind of have an obsession with all things baby right now! I can't believe my little boy is about to be 6 months old on the 25th of this month! Where has the time gone?  It has been so fun seeing him grow and learn each month. It seemed like just yesterday he was born, and now he is already able to sit up on his own and talks to us all the time in his sweet little baby language and laughs all the time at the silliest things! It definitely seems like this was the year for a bunch of our friends to have babies, which has been so fun because Sam has so many little friends that he will be able to grow up with.

We recently went to Charleston, SC to visit some of our friends who just had little girls so it was great to get to see Sam and them interact together. Of course I am a sucker for cute baby clothing, and especially little girl stuff. I think it's probably better that we had a little boy because I have seen way too many adorable girl outfits that I have wanted to buy lately adorned with ruffles and flowers and bright colors and patterns. On occasion I do scoop up a few little girl outfits for gifts for our friend's babies. When I saw these pale pink polka dot onesies I just couldn't pass them up. So I grabbed three of them and decided, hey why not make some cookies to match!

I love getting decorating inspiration from clothing...didn't these just turn out adorable?

Not only do I have an obsession with girl baby clothes, but also with cute gift packaging. On a recent trip to TJMaxx I seriously hit the jackpot and stumbled upon box after box of Martha Stewart treat boxes...stripes, polka dots, and these pale pink boxes you see here with the scalloped edges. So I loaded up my cart and now have a closet full of adorable packaging readily available for just the right occasion...as was the case here.

Seriously, does it get any cuter...pink and polka dots! I just love the way these sweet little gifts for our friends turned out.

Ice Cream Cone Cookies

Making Ice Cream Cone Cookies has been on my cookie "to do" list for a few years now! I can't believe summer is almost over and I have just baked up these adorable little cones for the first time! There were so many decorating and ice cream flavor ideas running through my mind on how I could ice these cookies. I decided not to be too ambitious and just stick to a few basic "flavor" ideas for this batch!

So vanilla and strawberry cones seemed to be the best choice and then I added some sprinkles on top for extra cuteness!

I packaged the cookies up and took them to Charleston, SC for our nieces and nephews when we went visit them over Labor Day weekend! The kids tore into these cookies in a matter of seconds, and crumbs started flying as they devoured them one by one!

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!

Unscramble the Cookies...

This past weekend I did a fun baking project...it involved cookies in the shapes of letters, brightly iced in lime green, turquoise and orange (the colors of Sam's nursery). There is a hidden message within these cookies...can you guess what it says?

I then boxed up the cookies in some cute Martha Stewart packaging, wrote a little note from Sam (he's only 5 months now...so I had to help him!) and sent them off with my sister on a flight instructing her to be extra careful with them! The cookies were to be opened and unscrambled by my dad, "aka...Gpaw" as a surprise for his....any guesses before you scroll down to the next picture?

60th Birthday! Since Sam and I couldn't be there to celebrate with him in person, I thought it would be fun to send him an edible birthday wish! I love how the cookies turned out, so fun and vibrant! I came up with the whole color scheme from the colors we used in Sam's nursery.

My dad and step mom actually made all of Sam's crib bedding, curtains, a quilt and pillows so I thought it would be fun to do the cookie photo shoot in the nursery surrounded by all the bright colors and fun patterns! It was quite the task trying to photograph this little guy, he's such a wiggler these days and is just starting to sit up on his own.

I love the way he is looking at the cookies in this picture. He is definitely going to be a little cookie monster if he's anything like his mama!

Sam's exhausted after the shoot! Time to relax!This is probably one of my all time favorite pictures of him to date!

I talked to my dad yesterday and he absolutely loved the cookies! My sister took a video of him trying to unscramble the message and she said it took him about 6 minutes to figure it out! I'm still waiting on her to send me the video to watch! So Emily if you're reading this...hurry up and send please!

Also, if you are wondering about this absolutely adorable outfit Sam has on, it was given to me as gift from Carrie @ Half Baked. If you are a long time follower of my blog you know that I contribute to Half Baked with a monthly cupcake recipe! So how fitting was it for Carrie to send me this cupcake onesie with Sam's name on it and it matches his nursery too! She also sent an adorable bib that has the turquoise chevron pattern on it and say's "Mommy's Little" and then a picture of a cupcake! Thanks again Carrie for such a thoughtful gift!