Ice cream cone cupcakes – I love the thought of serving ice cream in the summer, but keeping it from melting is such a challenge. Well not with these adorable cupcake ice cream cones from BrightIdeas.com; there is actually no ice cream involved, but don’t they look cool!

Here’s what you’ll need:

* 1 box (18.25 oz.) yellow cake mix
* 2 cups chopped SNICKERS® Bars
* 2 cans (16 oz. each) vanilla frosting
* 2 cups M&M’S® Brand Chocolate Candies
* 24 ice cream sugar cones
* Red food coloring
* Sprinkles
* 24 paper cupcake liners
* 2 12-cup standard size muffin tins

And here are the easy steps:

1. Prepare a yellow cake mix according to the package directions. Fold in SNICKERS® Bars before transferring the batter to cupcake paper-lined muffin tins. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 20 minutes. Cool completely.
2. Tint the frosting pink with a few drops of food coloring, set aside
3. Fill each sugar cone with 1 tablespoon of M&M’S® Brand Chocolate Candies.
4. Remove the paper liners from the cupcakes. Top the cones with the cupcakes, and cover with pink frosting. Decorate with M&M’S® Brand Chocolate Candies and sprinkles.

Life Preserver Cookies – I thought these were fun, especially if you’re planning a pool party. You can find them at sugarbowlcreations.com.

Snow cones – Okay, so this just made me think of summer when I was a kid {plus it’s from Southern Living Magazine… remember, I’m southern!}. You can read the complete article with recipes here.

Fruit popsicles – And last but not least, let’s keep it healthy when we can. Let’s face it, kids, especially when not given a choice, will love these popsicles made of real fruit just as much as they would a fudge pop. Read all the facts at rd.com.

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Giveaway – we’re hosting a giveaway on Hostess With The Mostess right now. It started yesterday (over 250 comments so far!) and runs through next Tuesday.

http://www.hostessblog.com/2009/05/surprise-giveaway-the-celebration-shoppe/

This cake idea is a beautiful way to shower your bride-to-be with something sweet. And if you’re not comfortable with tiers, this would also be very pretty as a one tier. Here’s what you’ll need:

* 2 white cake mixes
* 2 cans white icing {cream cheese is my favorite!}
* Edible flowers (e.g., day lilies)
* Sugar cookie dough {a roll/stick from the grocery works just fine; no need to make this difficult}
* Gel food coloring
* Icing tips
* Resealable bags (freezer weight are best)
* Tip connectors
* Cake cookie cutter {scroll down the page for a cake cookie cutter and diamond ring cookie cutter}
* Two 8″ round cake pans
* One 6″ springform cake pan
* 10″ pedestal cake plate
* Freezer paper
* (Note: You could also go with 10″ and 8″ pans depending on the number of people you’re planning to serve.)

My advice, bake your cookies and decorate them a few days before the event so that you don’t feel rushed. As a matter of fact, you can bake your shapes and freeze them (without icing) up to a month in advance.  As for decorating your cookies, I’m not going to go into great length in this post, but if you’re not familiar with flooding cookies or baking sugar cookies for that matter, make sure and check out previous posts with my tips on how to make sugar cookies keep their shape and my tips on flooding cookies.

As for the cake:

1. Bake your cakes and allow them to cool completely before starting the icing process.
2. Place freezer paper on your cake plate in two or three sections that you can easily remove after icing your cakes. This will keep your cake plate tidy.
3. Place your first 8″ cake on your cake plate, ice the top and stack on your second 8″ cake. Now apply a thin crumb coat to the entire cake. Repeat this with your 6″ cake and allow both to set before icing your top coat. This will keep cake crumbs from appearing in your beautiful icing work.
4. This cake has a very smooth icing, not fondant, but a skilled hand at a smooth coat. If you want this effect, use an icing spatula and work in one direction with even strokes. But, you could also have a more whimsical effect with your icing and it would look just as beautiful. Don’t be afraid to make this cake your own.
5. Once iced, embellish your cake with your sugar cookies. If your icing has set, just use a fresh dollop as glue to hold your cookies in place.
6. You could further embellish with edible flowers or you could even pipe on your own.

Remember, don’t be afraid to be creative. Happy baking!

That said, I came across Hello! Cupcake last summer when I was specifically looking for a movie theme cupcake to share on my blog. I was not only pleasantly surprised by their designs, but at how easy to follow their instructions were and how easy to find the ingredients were.

Whether you’re a veteran baker or just starting out, this book is really worth giving a read. Happy baking!