Dessert Table: Farewell to Fall

Well, today's the last day of November, and we can bid Fall a fond farewell with this seasonal dessert display. So many of you loved the pie-in-a-jar concept, so I know you'll love the little pumpkin pies in jars in the last image. Mini apple pies and cupcakes round out this sweet assortment.

Although this inspirational shoot has a decidedly autumnal feel, think about incorporating these easy-to-make treats (or a wintery variation) in your upcoming festivities. Cupcakes and mini pies are simple enough to make yourself, while the effort alone will score you bonus points with your guests.

Source: (Innove Events via Style Me Pretty)

Candy Wreath Roundup II

Last year, I shared these great candy wreaths for an easy decor idea. This year, Parents magazine featured even more candy-licious wreaths. Using a Styrofoam wreath and hot glue, you can make one of these lovelies in just a few minutes. So, here's the second candy wreath roundup!

If this rainbow-y wreath isn't your style, select gumdrops in one shade. Green would be traditional, white a tad more modern, and purple completely unexpected.

One big bag of wint-o-green Lifesavers easily transforms the wreath. Want to go a step further? Wrap the wreath in a solid color ribbon before applying the candy to eliminate the Styrofoam peekaboo act seen here.

This traditionally-hued peppermint wreath veers from boring to mod by incorporating the signature stripe patterned candy.

We haven't put up a wreath, yet. Perhaps I'll come up with a candy-coated design to share. So, which wreath is your favorite? One from this year's roundup, or one of last year's creations?

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope you're all going to be surrounded by those you love today, whether that's a huge, rowdy crowd of family or a small, intimate group of friends. I know many of you don't have the day off, so in case you're busy at work I hope you'll take a few minutes to enjoy this collection of Thanksgiving goodies from around the blogosphere.

I love these Thanksgiving fondant toppers via Somewhere Splendid.
This fruit cake apple pie via Form V Artisan is an interesting concept.
Take a peek at what Aran Goyoaga is baking up for the holidays.
If you have an ice cream maker, you have to try Lottie + Doof's pear sorbet.
Honey & Jam's chocolate pecan pie recipe is worth filing away for next year.

I hope you have the best holiday weekend! See you again on Monday.

image Souder Photography via Style Me Pretty

Dessert Table: Sweet Breakfast

Even though everyone's looking forward to a feast tomorrow for dinner, there's no rule that you can't start the day off with a festive breakfast.

The Hostess with the Mostess featured this City Cradle shoot. Little white pumpkins filled with pancakes are perfect for the early risers, while bundt cakes are a great snack for the college students who sleep until noon.

Think you'll be too busy to make pancakes in the morning? Make your batter the night before.

Have a great Thanksgiving everyone! Eat an extra piece of pie for me. 

images via Carly Taylor

Recipe: Harvest Pumpkin Trifle

Thanksgiving is just two days away, and the clock is ticking. Perhaps you've procrastinated, and haven't even planned your dessert. Maybe you just want to throw your family a sweet curve ball.

This Harvest Pumpkin Trifle from Better Homes and Gardens is incredibly easy to make, especially if you use some inexpensive store-bought sweets.

A trifle is an English dessert made of layers of spongecake or pound cake, pudding or custard, and fruit. Buy a pre-made pound cake, whip up a batch of your favorite pudding, and you're more than halfway done.

Everyone loves single-serving desserts, because they seem so personal and time-consuming. Fool 'em all with these easy-to-layer personalized treats.

Beautiful Bottle Printables

Imagine my delighted surprise when I discovered that Jillian of Jillian Event Design created another floral-infused edible display to go along with this whoopie pie dessert table that I shared with you last week. With Thanksgiving right around the corner, this apple cider printable is a great low-key, low-cost way to dress up each place setting.

You can choose the aqua labels or the red ones to best compliment your holiday decor. If you're looking for a different style, check out the labels editor Maddy Hague designed for our recent Nonpareil Magazine collaboration. You can download them from the current issue (pg 35) in brown, orange, or fuschia.

If apple cider's not your thing, simple remove the label of any bottled drink and replace with your own custom label.

DIY: Pie in a Jar

Fall is definitely the time for pies, but as there's only so many different ways to jazz up a pie crust. This Green Wedding Shoes pie in a jar project is a really fresh spin on a classic dessert.

 

Check out this easy tutorial on Green Wedding Shoes to DIY your own pies.

Those heart crust toppers are a really great finishing touch. If the hearts are a little too cute for your Thanksgiving spread, use leaf cookie cutters instead. (image via Delish)

If you haven't already solidified your Thanksgiving dessert plans, use this weekend to grab your ingredients and jars. Happy shopping!

Dessert Table: Pretty in Pink

I've been working on a dessert table for my daughter's birthday that incorporates a few different shades of pink, including a muted shade and a very intense shade. I'm balancing all of that girly-ness with some more masculine hues, but I'm still in a very pink state of mind.

When I came across this dessert table shot by Kristin Vining on Style Me Pretty yesterday, it was the perfect pink overload I wanted to enjoy vicariously.

Simple sweets like yogurt pretzels, pink foil-wrapped Hershey's kisses, and rock candy make this table a DIY dream.

Bags of cotton candy are a fun, unexpected favor, but a towering pink cake is the real showstopper.

I love a monochromatic design like this, whether the chosen color is pink or some other color. Simply sticking with one color immediately unifies a design and makes the display very cohesive.

Cupcake Liner Tree

A few months ago, I received the special 15th anniversary issue of Martha Stewart Weddings and this gorgeous cake greeted me. I'm still amazed by cake guru Syvlia Weinstock's delicate handiwork.

No matter how hard I try, I'll never be skilled enough to recreate something even close to this. I've come to terms with that reality, because Twig & Thistle and Paper Crave have the perfect solution to create the same look. Cupcake liners! That's right. Kathleen used dark brown liners to create this easy holiday decor tree.

Kristen of Paper Crave designed a more Chistmas-y tree and provided an easy tutorial so you can make your own.

Even though these trees aren't edible, they still have the same delicate wow factor that Sylvia's cake possessed. In fact, this might be even more stunning, because you can group several of them on a side table or buffet as a focal point. Wanna kick it up a notch? Mix up the liner colors you use to create trees to match your holiday theme. Matte pink and white wrappers mixed with metallic gold ones would be a perfect accent to a home with a pink tree and gold ornaments.

Ready for another simple cupcake liner craft? Check out this cupcake liner banner.

Mad For Madeleines

I've recently become slightly obsessed with madeleines. Traditionally, madeleine cookies have a cakey texture and a buttery flavor. However, more bakers are concocting interesting flavor combos to give the timeless treat a new twist.

These orange and brown butter madeleines on Cannelle et Vanille have a simple recipe and are lovely when dusted with powdered sugar.

Mad Mac offers madeleines in several flavors, like chocolate and pistachio.

A special mold gives the cookies their signature shell shape, no special talents required.

Martha Stewart uses madeleines to dress up a simple, frosted cake. Each guest's slice of cake would have a wonderful little cookie with it. Anytime I'm given two desserts in one, I'm a happy woman.

Lemon curd filling adds another layer of flavor to these buttery madeleines.

If you're not quite ready to tackle baking some madeleines from scratch, buy a small batch from a local bakery to sample. I've even seen them recently at Target. You can also use store-bougth madeleines and your favorite frosting to make sandwiches cookies like the ones above.

Have you seen madeleines popping up in bakeries around your town?

Reader Design: Pumpkin Whoopie Pies

Friday, I shared this whoopie pie dessert table with you. Sweet Tooth reader Rowaida saw the post and  sent me a few pictures from her Halloween dessert table, which also features pumpkin whoopie pies.

Rowaida added candy, cake ball pops, and cupcakes to her whoopie pie display. She selected ceramic and glass vessels to vary the heights of each treat.

Be sure to visit Rowaida's Flickr gallery to see step-by-step tutorials as she bakes all of these treats creates the dessert table.

Thank you for sharing your design, Rowaida. I hope that you'll upload them to the Shauna Younge Dessert Tables Facebook fan page for us all to see.

Dessert Table: A Gourd-geous Whoopie Pie Feast

I'm a big fan of whoopie pies. Anytime you can sandwich inventive frostings between two layers of moist, flavorful cake, I'm on board.

Like macarons, whoopie pie flavor options are nearly endless. You can find or make whoopies in tons of cake-y flavors like carrot, double chocolate, or pumpkin. Of course, you could try traditional vanilla if that's your preference. The options don't end there. You can also fill the soft sandwich cookies with all kinds of delicious frostings, like mint chocolate chip, chai tea, or coconut. Again, you could stick with traditional chocolate or vanilla buttercream.

When I saw this whoopie display yesterday on 100 Layer Cake, I knew I had to share it with you. You'll recognize the bureau trend that I wrote about here and here. Along with the trendy table, the stylist also added lush flowers, caramel and sunshine-hued gourds, and birch bark stumps to create a gorgeous Fall backdrop for pumpkin whoopie pies.

Simple brown bag favors are dressed up with custom flavor labels.

Want a little more whoopie goodness for your Friday? Check out some of the dessert tables I've designed using whoopie pies. I selected giant apple spice ones for this Autumn dessert table, and custom chocolate ones for this Alice in Wonderland dessert table for Nonpariel Magazine. These custom lavender vanilla ones were a big hit a MN Bride Magazine's Best of 2010 gala.

So tell me, have you tried whoopie pies? What flavor were they?

Image 1 (The LDS Grandparent Place), Image 2 (Scott Clark Photo)

Sweet Technology: Martha Stewart Cookie App

When my mom asked me for gift suggestions for my toddler's upcoming birthday, I said, "I'm pretty sure she wants an iPad." My mom's reply? "Well, you better ask her what's second on her wish list."

I knew the chance of Mom falling for that poorly-constructed ploy was pretty thin, but I figured it was worth a try if it meant getting my hands on an iPad. Just when I'd gotten over that rejection, Martha Stewart launched an iPad cookies app. The crew at The Kitchn recently featured these screen shots of the app in action.

 

Martha's app organizes cookies in categories that make it easy to find the right one. You can view recipes for cookies that ship well, cookies for an adult palate, or chewy varieties.

You can also create a shopping list for the necessary ingredients, watch Martha's video tutorials, and use the app's cook timer.

Martha Stewart Living blogger, Jennifer Aaronson even let her son get in on the action. It's so simple that even a kid can have fun narrowing down the selection and following the instructions.

While I probably won't be pitching my printed versions of Martha's cookie recipes any time soon, this app makes me covet an iPad even more than I did before. I wonder if Granny will fall for the "Baby Wants an iPad" ploy. It's worth a try.

So tell me, would you use the cookies app or do you prefer good ole fashioned recipe books?

Fresh Palette: Thanksgiving

If you remember this Valentine's dessert table or this Fall dessert table I designed, then you know I like to use unexpected color palettes for holidays and seasons. This year, I think a fresh red and purple palette is perfect for Thanksgiving. So, here are a few images that are great inspirational starting points.

A small table or bench is a great place to display pre-dinner snacks like cheeses, crackers, grapes, and glasses of cider. That will keep hungry guests satisfied while you put the finishing touches on the main course. It will also eliminate the dreaded, "Is it ready yet? I'm starving."

Pomegranates are in season and are the best shade of deep red. Set one on each guest's plate with a handwritten greeting on a little slip of paper.

Who says you have to have turkey at Thanksgiving? If you're in the mood for a no-mess, stress-free holiday, consider Chinese takeout. Served your favorite dishes on beautiful china, rather than paper boxes, to infuse a more formal feel.

Are you planning a traditional Thanksgiving with turkey and stuffing or do you put a different spin on the holiday?

Image 1 (Country Living), Image 2 (Martha Stewart), Image 3 (Randi Brookman Harris)

O Canada!: Bread Pudding Favors

Event designer Jennifer Bergman created this elegant, rustic tablescape for an inspirational photo shoot. With photos from Eternal Reflections and styling help from Pink Polka Wedding Design, the team created a fabulous mix of natural elements and modern accents.

You can see that balance reflected beautifully in the group's bread pudding Thank You favors. Sitting atop a glass tabletop and fine china, the homemade dessert adds a homey touch to the luxe floral, lace, and pearl accents that intertwine across the display.

 

Although this display is set up as a couple's sweetheart table, the masterful mix of glass, pearls, lace, birch bark, and florals could easily inspire a dessert table's design.

Images (Style Me Pretty)