DIY Gold Typography Pumpkins for Thanksgiving

My neighbors already have their lights up. One of my best friends put up three, yes three, Christmas trees inside her house before Halloween. By now, she's probably put up her other four trees. I know it's tempting to bust out the winter-y holiday decorations, but I'm savoring the fall festivities. These DIY Gold Foil Typography Pumpkins are gonna wow my Turkey Day guests. Swing by Momtastic to check out how I decked out our Thanksgiving mantle.

DIY Halloween Care Package

Want to give a good spook to a far-away loved one? This Halloween care package from Lovely Indeed, is perfect. A skull garland to decorate the doorway, some candy corn pumpkins, and pretty wrapped candy is a fun way to celebrate the season.

images Lovely Indeed

Pumpkin Favor Bowls

So, you've got some little mini pumpkins left over that haven't passed their prime and you've definitely still got some candy on your hands. Why not combine the two in the sweetest way ever and use the pumpkins as little bowls.

What kid wouldn't love to get one of these next to their plate after dinner tonight? Feel free to only hollow out only a shallow depression in the pumpkin so you don't have to dole out a huge amount of candy.

image via Pinterest

Edible Fall Cupcake Toppers

We've barely said "goodbye" to Halloween, and we're already looking forward to Thanksgiving. I was cruising Etsy today and came across these edible fall-inspired cupcake toppers by Modern Luxe Events. A collection of leaves and acorns make even the plainest cupcakes autumnally smart.

You could also use leaf and acorn craft punches to create your own (non-edible) Fall toppers.

images via Modern Luxe Events

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)

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.

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 Totally Target Halloween

I'm so excited to share my latest dessert table with you today. I'm doubly thrilled, because Kathleen of Twig & Thistle is kindly featuring it on her blog, as well. You might remember these behind-the-scenes sneak peeks from a couple of weeks ago. Well, photog Emily Steffen's beautiful pics capture the table and the beautiful forest much better.

The Totally Target Halloween dessert table is just that. A dessert table designed using ingredients, supplies, dishware, and desserts that are all available right now at your local Super Target. Target is headquartered here in Minneapolis, so it has a pretty big presence in the area. But, it's also easy to find Target stores across the U.S., making this design a really affordable option for your Halloween bash.

Target's black cake stands make the perfect pedestals for two great cakes. You can use a favorite family recipe or a boxed mix to make both. Target's bat cookie cutters and black sparkly decorating icing (in the baking aisle) add flourish to this chocolate cake. Jumbo and mini marshmallows transform into cute ghosts when you add chocolate jimmies for the eyes for this vanilla cake.

I used these great jars to hold licorice and black raspberry gummies. Target's white and milk chocolate truffles and candy corn go along with the chocolate-covered rice crispy treat tombstones and chocolate-covered Oreos I made.

To display several of the treats, I wanted to create ceramic-looking platters. I used Target's black gift wrap to cover box lids and risers to mimic the reflective quality of traditional china. You can use books or any other flat surface to raise your treats to differing heights.

favor bags: Two brown paper lunch bags make great favor sacks. Simply shred one and place another un-shreeded bag inside of it. Fill the inner bag with lots of sweet treats, insert a stick, and tie the bag closed with twine or other natural-looking string or ribbon.

skull & bone chocolates: I couldn't find the perfect spooky chocolates, so I used Target's skull & bones ice cube trays as molds to make custom white chocolates.

cupcakes: These brain cupcakes were surprisingly easy to make using buttercream and a frosting tip. You can bake them from scratch using ingredients, a box mix, or pre-made cupcakes, all of which can be found at Super Target.

brownie pops: These brownie pops are incredibly simple. Bake your own brownies, buy a mix, or use Target's Market Pantry brownie bites from the bakery section. Roll a golf ball-sized portion into a ball, insert lollipop stick, and dip into melted white chocolate. I alternated the spider web flags I designed with ones that say "Boo!," "Beware," and "Howl" to add a finishing touch to each pop.

I also designed "Trick or Treat" wrappers to dress up standard chocolate bars. I painted Target's butter dish black to display the chocolate bars, while a gothic goblet housed black-speckled jelly beans.

Invite designer and budding stylist Bethany Hway created these invites, which are inspired by the chocolate bar wrappers I created. I love how well they coordinate with the bars and brownie pop labels without exactly mimicking them.

 

Thank you so much for sharing my design with your readers, Kathleen! Please head on over to Kathleen's blog, Twig & Thistle (one of my daily must-reads), to download the chocolate bar wrapper and brownie pop flags I designed. You can also download and print the invitation that Bethany Hway designed. Don't forget to stop by photog Emily Steffen's blog for even more photos from this shoot.

If you're visiting the Sweet Tooth blog from Twig & Thistle, thanks for stopping by. You can check out my other designs on my website or follow me on Twitter and Facebook.


*Target, Corp. in no way compensated me for this post. I am not now, nor have I ever been, employed by Target Corp. or any of its affiliates*

The Greatness of #FF

I love Twitter's Follow Fridays. In case you're not familiar with the tradition, every Friday on Twitter, tweeps (folks using Twitter) suggest other great tweeps for their followers to follow for the day. If their followers like the suggestion, they continue to follow but if not then they can un-follow them at the end of the day.

I love #ff (the Follow Friday hashtag used on Twitter), because it's a great way to discover talented people that your other talented friends and family are already following. This past Friday was no exception. My friend Bethany of b*spoke suggested that her followers follow her friend Lisa, and I'm glad I did. Check out some of the great things I found on Lisa's blog, all things jane.

These pumpkin surprise cookies are pumpkin flavored Hershey's kisses wrapped in cookie dough before baking. Genius and easy. What a fabulous combo.

These Neapolitan Delights are also supremely simple. Bits of angel food cake dipped in chocolate ganache.

From these recipes, you'd think Lisa is a baker. She's actually a designer and crafter who sells her handmade goods on Etsy. Be sure to check out Lisa's wares and visit her blog for some other fun projects.

If you haven't checked me out on Twitter, stop by and say "Hi!" I'm always checking in to answer questions and chit chat.