Thumb Print Cookies for Santa

Christmas is only a week away...do you have your shopping done? Or more importantly the cookies planned that you will leave out for Santa this year? Thumb prints are one of my favorite holiday cookies and are super simple to make. I made them earlier this month for a sweet swap and have also taken them to several holiday parties. If you are pressed for time and need a quick treat, and better yet one that doesn't require a ton of ingredients or even getting out the mixer then this cookie is the perfect solution! Any they are super yummy too!

The cookies require four ingredients: melted butter, all-purpose flour, confectioner's sugar and salt all mixed together and rolled into balls.

Then just simply place your "thumb" in the middle of each cookie to create a space for the icing you will add after baking.

Thumb prints ready for the oven! Literally you can make up these cookies in about five minutes. This is a perfect recipe to get your kids involved in the kitchen for some holiday baking fun. They will love making Santa a special batch of cookies.

Once the cookies cool mix some confectioner's sugar and milk and tint your favorite colors and ice the center of the cookies!

Thumb Print Cookies
(makes 3 dozen)

For the cookies:
-1/2 lb unsalted butter, melted
-2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
-3/4 cups confectioner's sugar
-1/4 tsp salt

In a large bowl combine all ingredients and mix well. Roll into balls and place on cookie sheet. Thumb print the center of each cookie. Bake at 350 degrees for 12 minutes. Add icing when cool.

For the icing:
-2 cups confectioner's sugar
-4 Tbsp milk
-food coloring

Combine confectioner's sugar and enough milk until thick pouring consistency. Add food coloring to tint desired colors. Add icing to cookies.



What are some of your favorite cookies to leave for Santa?

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Truffles

Whew! It was a busy weekend full of lots of baking and Christmas parties! But I must admit I loved every minute of it! Baking is one of my absolute favorite things to do this time of year. So many great recipes to share with friends and family. This weekend was packed with parties so I wanted to prepare sweets that wouldn't require a lot of time in the kitchen. One of my favorite go to recipes that doesn't require any baking and that everyone always loves is Cookie Dough Truffles.

I discovered this recipe a few years ago from Paula Deen and have loved it ever since. I mean who doesn't love an excuse to eat cookie dough right? And this recipe doesn't have raw eggs in them like chocolate chip cookie batter does, so that means you can keep popping truffle after truffle into your mouth!

Right after I finished preparing these truffles for a Christmas party on Friday night, I sat down for a few minutes to watch some Food Network and who else was on but Paula Deen...and what was she making...these exact same Cookie Dough Truffles. The timing couldn't have been any more perfect! Any what's even funnier is that one of the girls who came to the party had just watched the very same episode and had said "I sure do wish I had some of those cookie dough truffles". Well little did she know a few hours later I would be bringing them to the party for her to enjoy!

So if you are looking for a super simple, no bake dessert that is sure to be a crowd favorite this holiday then you must give these Cookie Dough Truffles a try! I followed Paula's recipe and just swapped out the pecans for a 1/2 cup of white chocolate chips! I loved the combination of the semi-sweet and white chips! YUM!

Hope you enjoy these! Up next is one of my favorite cookie recipes!

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!

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving! Hope you all have a wonderful and safe holiday with family and friends! I'm so thankful for all my loyal blog followers!

Enjoy some turkey too! Gobble Gobble....

Pink, Orange & Green Baby Shower Cookies

Here's a look at some cookies I recently made for baby shower favors. My sister's good friend is expecting her first baby on Dec 5th, a little girl. They picked out some fun fabrics with stripes and polka dots for the nursery in pinks, orange and green so we thought it would be fun to decorate cookies to fit the color scheme.

Baby shower cookies are some of my favorites to decorate so of course I documented the process with lots of pictures....


This was by far the biggest batch of cookies I have ever decorated at one time.
40 onesies....40 bottles...40 monograms for baby Harper
5 1/2 hours later my hand was very cramped after all that piping...

but I was thrilled with how they turned out!

The cookies were carefully packaged and wrapped in layers of bubble wrap to be shipped 725 miles to KY for the shower! Two huge boxes of cookies later I dropped them off at the post office and said a few prayers for the safe journey of these cookies! As it turns out all but 2 arrived safely...and the 2 that cracked my sister was happy to sample so it all worked out in the end!

The mother to be loved the cookies and so did all the shower guests! Congratulations Ashley on your little girl that is on the way!

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!

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...

Apple Cupcakes with Caramel Buttercream

We are getting in the Halloween spirit here at CIS. Several bags of candy has already been purchased...Snickers, Reese Cups, candy corn and one of my all time favorites Caramel Apple Pops! If you haven't tried those green apple lollipops covered in a shell of caramel you are missing out. They are the perfect combination of sour and sweet! In my book apples and caramel go hand in hand this time of year, so I've created a special treat that you are sure to enjoy, Caramel Apple Cupcakes!

If you are planning a Halloween party this year, these Caramel Apple Cupcakes with assorted toppings are a must have on your dessert spread. Hop on over to Half Baked for the recipe! And while you're there check out some of their other adorable ideas for decorating Halloween sweets here, here and here.

Happy October!

Fondant Animal Cupcake Toppers

Lately I've been getting a lot of requests for kid themed birthday or baby shower parties! I must admit these are some of my favorite events to bake and decorate for. There are just so many cute ideas out there and inspiration can come from anywhere, a t-shirt, invitation, toy, fabric, etc. I created these fondant animal cupcake toppers for a boy themed baby shower inspired by the bedding for the nursery. I am thrilled with how the entire collection turned out.

Mr. Elephant...my favorite!

Here's Mr. Monkey! (or a bear according to my husband)

The Lion (or tiger, again according to my husband)

Mr. Giraffe...these are my next favorite!

And finally the Zebra!

I also made monogram "G" toppers for the babies name "Gage".

In addition to chocolate and vanilla cupcakes I made a small carrot cake for the mother-to-be to take home and share with her hubby after the baby shower!

Hope you enjoyed this fondant animal collection!