Last year I was asked by Houzz.com to put together a Hanukkah dessert table. It was, of course, my pleasure, and a year later I am still really happy with how it all came together! I hope you'll enjoy too, and pin away...

Tutorial for creating this light-up sign is here.

To see more elements, keep reading!

This sprinkle station is for decorating your own donuts! The olive oil bottles are filled with honey and sweetened condensed milk, which gets poured on top of the donut, and then the sprinkles go on top. Scoops are in our shop! 

I made these cookies just by punching a small circle out of the center of the cookie before baking. Striped straws are always fun!

Oh, here's the decorated donut I was talking about before! With one of our celebratory forks! 

These were all things I baked and little elements I put together. I had so much fun creating the blue ombre tray of cupcakes, and it was pretty quick. 

There is pudding inside of those little "menorah" glasses!

Ok, that's it! Hope you have lots of great ides and have fun this year at your Thanksgivukkah, I mean Hanukkah, celebration! (If you are looking for more on Thanksgivukkah, see our post about ideas for a Handmade Thanksgivukkah, and also visit our Thanksgivukkah Pinterest board, we have lots of fun things going on over there!)

Strawberry Pretzel Jello Salad - yes, it's SALAD!

Image courtesy Lulu The Baker

Crunchy/creamy/salty/sweet in one dish? Strawberry Pretzel Jello "Salad" is a little bit different, and totally delish. You will literally not be able to put your bowl down. Literally.

We have been working our way through a tray of it for the past few days - hey, it's salad and therefore healthy, right? - and now it's all gone, I feel bereft.

If you're a fan of salty and sweet together, visit Lulu The Baker and see how she makes this awesome salad.

Fall Toppings

Ok so it's not quite Fall yet, but we're ready for it! While we're dreaming of pumpkins and falling leaves, and still enjoying the heat, let's enjoy some Fall flavors on PUMPKIN ICE CREAM! Get an awesome recipe for the Pumpkin ice cream on Sweetest Occasion's blog. Those top two pictures? They're also from Sweetest Occasion. We really like what they've put together!

Typography Cotton Candy

I am the parent who lets their kids get cotton candy at baseball games, then discretely eats 1/2 of the bag. Why do I love it? It's yummy, and looks just so sweet in it's pretty pastel colors... you could almost say cotton candy just speaks to me. And now it's actually does!

Typography cotton candy starts with edible wafer paper, the kind use to make cupcake tattoos, which can be purchased at local bakeshops and online. Since wafer paper dissolves in water, to color it I applied a light coat of Wilton's spray on food coloring. The spray works great because it colors the paper without making it too wet.

You can use a stencil for the letters, if you want to make them exact. I can imagine whimsical tables full of monogrammed cotton candy for birthday parties and weddings. (I want to go to those parties!) I cut mine free hand so that I could play with different shapes and find what I liked best.

Attaching the letters or graphics to your cotton candy isn't be difficult, but it night be a little tricky. The only thing needed to attach the wafer paper is a little moisture. Depending on the moisture in the air, the wafer paper may just stick to the cotton candy. If it doesn't stick on its own, you can dip your finger in a little water and dab it on the cotton candy. Just take care not to use more than just the slightest bit of water or it will cause your pretty cotton candy to bead up!

That's all there is to it... now, go and fancy up your cotton candy and make your party a little prettier.

Frozen Custard: sooooo good!

Rich, gooey, sweet and delicious - frozen custard is the taste of summer evenings here in the mid-west. Made with more eggs yolks than traditional ice cream so it's thicker, it's often swirled with flavorings and toppings for a truly indulgent treat.

St. Louis is blessed with quite a number of great local frozen custard shops. Ted Drewe's is one of the most famous; our favorite is Fritz's - we love to order the 'Turtle Concrete', ultra-thick custard that's swirled with caramel and chopped pecans. It's so dense you can turn the cup upside down and it won't shift!

Have you tried it? What's your favorite flavor combination?

Image courtesy of Food Network

A little bit of what you fancy …

Sometimes you just need a little something - like a single scoop of yummy ice cream. But just because it’s just you doesn’t mean it can’t still be an occasion. Take care of the details and make your ‘me’ time seriously special.

Ingredients:

Striped ice cream spoon

Gourmet mint choc-chip ice cream

Sprinkles

Sunshine

Treat yourself to gorgeous!

Rimmed Ice Cream Cones

To kick off Summer time, we thought we'd kick up some ice cream cones! Hey, we rim a margarita glass with salt, why not rim an ice cream cone too?

We love sweets, but also the salty and sweet combo, so we found a fun way to add those flavors to your ice cream cone without making your own ice cream!

You'll want to get some supplies together, set out your various toppings in bowls and use our scoops to dish out your ingredients. Don't forget ice cream spoons for anyone who prefers a bowl. need some caramel as the base. We used dulce de leche from World Market at the glue to hold our toppings on. It's thick and doesn't run, you can spread it on with a knife.

 Fun, fruity mini-marshmallows look so pretty and will make the kids happy.

Have fun creating your own cone rims! Licorice may not appeal to everyone, but it looks great and hey, I like it!

For the gourmet crowd, we crsiped some prosciutto. It's a little more delicate than bacon, and tastes great with the caramel and strawberry ice cream!

And here are the salty options. Pretzel cones are my favorite, but they're hard to find in the grocery store. Make your own! And while you're busy crushing pretzels, why not crush some potato chips too? (It takes amazing, I promise!) For the purists, we through in the original inspiration, a salted caramel rim.

Have fun!

Cupcakes For Breakfast?

Happy April Fool's Day! We like treats better than tricks....

This cupcake toast, topped with nutella, cream cheese and candy coated sunflower seeds was created for Cupcake Project and photographed by J. Pollack Photo for April Fool's Day.

Eat, Drink & Have S'more

With our new vintage-designed ice cream cups debuting in Wintertime, we've been playing a lot with the idea of seasonality. Sucre Shop designer Lindsay put together this dreamy hot cocoa & ice cream combo which makes me go running for s'more toppings! The idea is that the same toppings are delish on cocoa and ice cream. Brilliant! The best part? We are giving you the free printable so you can put this little shin-dig together on your own. Here's how we did it:

Download your PDFS files here: Mini-signs // Large sign // Gift tags

After gathering out toppings and some mason jars, we filled them up and used our reversible tags to address them to our friends.

(Awwww, thanks Lindsay!)

Ice cream is ready to go, topped with your favorite seasonal treats.

Don't forget the cocoa!

Save room for s'more!

Ice cream cups, scoops & ice cream spoons from Sucre Shop
Styling by Lindsay Reams and Brooke Pratt
Printable designs by Lindsay Reams
Photography by Bernalla Gooseberry Photo Love/Beth Grebe