Thanks for the new pan, Mom!

I baked these pineapple "cakes" in my new dessert shell pan. I will never serve another plain store bought shell again. I really like the combination of pineapple, coconut and blueberry and I also used one to show off the first sugar paste flower I ever made. I have a feeling I will be using this pan a lot.

S'mores on a Stick

I love s'mores. What I love even more than the warm, gooey marshmallow, melted chocolate and subtle snap of mildly sweet graham crackers are the feelings they evoke of friends and family, summer and a simpler time. Also, what can be better than a warm dessert that does not require a recipe and only has three ingredients? I am not the only one who loves s'mores. When I was speaking to a maid of honor who was planning a bridal shower she mentioned that the bride to be also loves s'mores and she would like to work them into the dessert buffet we were planning. Could be tough considering your typical bridal shower does not have a campfire. The next best option would have to be a spin on the traditional s'more in a less messy, more refined way. I have coated marshmallows before and even coated mini marshmallows with chocolate and graham cracker crumbs but needed an elegant presentation for a bridal shower. To go along with the champagne cake on a stick and the oreo truffles on a stick that were also on the dessert buffet, I decided to add a stick to marshmallows that had been dipped in melted chocolate and covered in graham cracker crumbs.


In case you were wondering, I used Kraft marshmallows for these. I purchased both Kraft and a store brand and found that, while both tasted very good, the Kraft marshmallows were more dense, which made them ideal for inserting the stick

More Summer Inspiration

Now that it is officially summer, I thought I would share more summer inspiration with these luau pictures from a recent event at a local school's last day. The thoughtful principal provided her staff with a dessert buffet including pina colada cake pops, white chocolate macadamia cookies, dipped nutter butters decorated like flip flops and bright cupcakes.

Hello Summer

A few of his favorite things

I was delighted to be able to make a few things for a very special guy on his birthday. What makes him so special is that he makes someone I love very happy. Butter, sugar, and flour just doesn't seem to quite cut it.

Among the items on the birthday boy's list of favorite things is Guinness Draught. Instead of tackling one of the many chocolate stout cupcake recipes out there I simply replaced the water in a devil's food chocolate cake mix recipe with Guinness. I figured the Guinness company would not be too upset that I pirated one of their images for these cupcakes since I did use their product in the recipe. Unfortunately, I was unable to attend the party where these were served but I hear they went over pretty well.
As for the cookies, he is a guy so no matter what they may say, these cookie designs are on most men's list of favorite things.

Inked

I am getting a little obsessed with my Kopykake frosting sheets and edible ink.