Cake Inspired Birthday Cookies

Today's post is dedicated to my amazing sister Emily! It's her birthday today and I wanted to make her some "cake inspired" cookies to show her how much I love and appreciate her! This past year she became an aunt or "Auntie Em" as we now call her to our little boy Sam! Let's just say we are so blessed to have her in our lives and Sam is one lucky little boy to have her as an aunt! I am not kidding when I say probably about 90% of his wardrobe for the first almost 8 months of his life has been bought for him by her! Emily is constantly sending me text messages during her lunch break of new outfits she has bought for Sam! And if she comes across one that has something to do with "aunt" on the front, well of course she is putting it in her shopping cart! So today, although we are 725 miles apart, I wanted to send her some birthday love in the form of cookies! Lucky for her, my mom (our mom) is down here visiting us right now and flying home today to hand deliver these special cookies!

The theme for these cookies came to me from our numerous conversations we have had about cakes we come across online from other bloggers that we absolutely love and that she always tells me, "you should try this sometime"! The common themes for most cakes that grab our attention these days consist of ruffles, ombre, or sprinkles! So what better way to celebrate the birthday girl than with some of her favorite cake trends replicated on cookies!

So first up is the "ruffle" cookie and "ombre"! If you are a long time follower of my blog you may remember my Valentine's ombre cupcakes here, with the recipe and tutorial posted on Half Baked here. Using a decorating tip #104 and varying shades of turquoise I created these ombre ruffle cookies! I used a crusting buttercream icing instead of royal icing for these cookies so that I could get the texture I wanted when creating the ruffles.

Every birthday needs sprinkles am I right? Rainbow non pareils are my absolute favorite! I love the crunch you get when you bite into the cookie! I think my sister is pretty fond of rainbow sprinkles too. Afterall, here is what she requested for her birthday two years ago! Today she is celebrating the big "29"! Enjoy the last year in your 20s Emily!

And finally another "ombre" cookie using a technique I have been dying to try ever since spotting these cookies on The Sweet Adventures of Sugarbelle. All you need is a can of Wilton Color Mist and a piece of paper to spray the cookies in varying shades! Let's just say this took a little trial and error at first to get a feel for the spray can, but I finally got the technique down! Still need more practice though! Step-by-step photos are over on The Sweet Adventures of Sugarbelle so check it out!

I think these cake inspired birthday cookies turned out pretty cute and I can't wait for her to see them in person! I have also already taste tested them, and they are pretty yummy!

Happy Birthday Auntie Em! Hope you have a great day and enjoy your cookies! We will see you next month for Christmas! Sam can't wait to give his auntie a big hug and kiss!

The Lorax - 1st Birthday

I recently got to work on a super fun 1st birthday cake for my friend Jamie's little boy Jonah! The theme was The Lorax. I have not read the book or seen the movie, but Jamie pointed me in the right direction with what she was looking for! She wanted a smash cake for Jonah decorated in orange with yellow polka dots and then a larger cake covered in trufulla trees for the guests to enjoy! Each layer of the larger cake was dyed a different color...orange, yellow and green and then frosted in blue buttercream. Fondant truffula trees lined the outside of the cake. For a little something special, I used black and white striped paper straws to resemble the trunks of the truffula trees and then added puffs of cotton candy on top. I really love how both of these cakes came together and the fun color palette I got to work with. It was so much fun to see little Jonah dig into his smash cake! He was a little hesitant at first, but once his fingers hit the icing, it was all over and orange buttercream was everywhere! Hope you enjoy these pictures of Jonah's birthday cakes.

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!

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.