The heat is here. Now you’ll hear me complain about the heat until the first crisp day of Fall. But this year, instead of mooching off of friends, I actually splurged on pool passes for myself, Maeve and Violet. I even bought a baby swim thing that essentially amounts to 15 feet of mesh material I’m supposed to know how to wrap around me to hold Violet so I can handle two kids in the pool. I don’t know how 15 feet of mesh is supposed to be comfortable in 95 degree weather, but the lady on the package looks happy.

As Memorial Day approaches, I’ve rounded up some Summer treats from my archives. You can find everything for this time of year up there in the Seasonal button, too. And if you need more Memorial Day ideas, check out this roundup of 22 food and party ideas over at my other blog.

Summer classics as cookies:

watermelon cookies, lemonade cookies, popsicle cookies, cookie ice cream cones.

Frozen stuff:

frozen yogurt pops, ice cream sandwich pops.

S’mores!

S’mores on a stick, s’mores pops, self-reflective s’mores.

Beach creatures:

Starfish cookies, crab and fish cupcake toppers, turtle cookies.

Get outside:

Baseball cookie pops, camping cookies, mini tennis cookies.

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One of the benefits of being a blogger of sweets is eating said sweets–in this case, chocolate cupcakes with buttercream frosting–at any time of the day. Another benefit? Joining a community of like-minded sweets makers and bloggers. Today I join 20 other bloggers as we craft cupcakes to match our bella cupcake couture cupcake wrappers. Hosted by Carrie Middlemiss from Bella Cupcake Couture and Betsy Eves, of JavaCupcake.com & Cupcakes Take the Cake, it’s a Cupcake Couture Blog Party to show you how good cupcakes can look, and how easy it is to make them wow. And there’s a giveaway. A giveaway of over 500 bucks worth of cool stuff!  To enter the GIVEAWAY, scroll to the end of this post.

Visit everyone to see what they did with their cupcake wrappers:

Bella Cupcake Couture

Chronicles of a Foodie

Crazy for Crust

Creative Food

Cupcakes Take the Cake

Diary of a Mad Hausfrau

Eat Your Heart Out

Haniela’s

Hoosier Homemade

In Katrina’s Kitchen

Inside BruCrew Life

Java Cupcake

Love From the Oven

Make Bake Celebrate

Not Just a Mommy

Sugar Daze

Sugar Swings! Serve Some

The Baked Equation

The Baking Cup

The Decorated Cookie

I got these colorful polka dots. I had a bunch of ideas to decorate the cupcakes in polka dots. Icing dots, sprinkle dots, candy dots, fondant dots. But I wanted to use the actual cupcake wrappers in the decorating. So I made these super-easy polka dot cupcake wrapper cupcake toppers. Just use cardstock in coordinating colors to any cupcake wrapper, or buy an extra set of cupcake wrappers and use those.

For the cupcakes, make your favorite recipe or just use store-bought cake mix. I then prepared my buttercream frosting, added a bit of white food coloring to brighten the frosting, and prepared a disposable decorating bag with a size “1M” tip. Pipe the frosting on top of the cupcake and let set a bit.

For the polka dot cupcake toppers…

you will need:*

cupcake wrappers and/or coordinating cardstock

scissors or a 1 1/2-inch circle punch

craft knife and mat

6-inch lollipop sticks

*Find the supplies in the craft store.

what to do:  Use the circle punch (or just trace a circle and cut out with scissors) to cut circles from extra cupcake wrappers and/or cardstock. With the craft knife, on a mat, cut a small “X” in the middle of a circle. Thread the lollipop stick through the “X” and repeat with more circles. Insert the topper into the cupcake.

More TIPS: To make the backdrop, I just cut out larger circles from the cardstock and glued to white paper. I also cut out circles to place on top of these cupcake stands.

And now… THE GIVEAWAY!!!

Look at all this cupcake coolness you can win from these great sponsors:

Thanks to our amazing Prize Pack sponsors for their generous donations! Please, visit their websites to see more of their fabulous products!

Cupcake Stand

Java Cupcake

Lil’ Punkin Creations

Sweets & Treats Boutique

To enter to WIN this Prize Pack, simply fill out the entry form below.

Contest opens May 21st at 07:00 am PST and closes May 27th at 11:59 pm PST. One winner will be chosen and announced within 24 hours of the contest ending. Winner will be contacted via email to claim their prize.

This contest is open to residents of the USA and Europe only.

Feel free to share (nicely)! While my blog's photographs and text are protected by copyright, I do allow (and encourage) you to share ONE photograph with credit to "the decorated cookie" and link to this blog post. PLEASE don't reprint any part of the blog post and PLEASE don't post a photo without credit. Thank you!

I rarely sew. When I do, the results tend to be comical. Picture uneven hems, knots where there shouldn’t be knots, and thread stuck in the sewing machine. But a few stitches I can handle. And, I just re-took up needlepoint, which I find much more manageable than creating fashion or awe-inspiring home decor.

These stitched yarn monogram cupcake toppers are well within my range of do-able, because they are that easy to make. Use these to personalize cupcakes or to spell out a message. Or to write whatever your heart desires.

to make yarn monogram cupcake toppers…

you will need:

yarn

tapestry or embroidery needle

cardstock with a good thickness

white mailing labels

scissors

pencil

lollipop sticks

 cupcakes

what to do:

First, cut the cardstock to the size topper you want. I made rectangles 1 1/2 inches by 2 inches. Lightly sketch a letter in pencil. Thread the tapestry needle with the yarn and sew on the paper to cover the pencil. TIP: It helps to poke holes along the letter first where you want to sew. When the letter is finished, cut a piece of mailing label to cover the ends and attach the lollipop stick on the back. Stick in a cupcake and serve.

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Feel free to share (nicely)! While my blog's photographs and text are protected by copyright, I do allow (and encourage) you to share ONE photograph with credit to "the decorated cookie" and link to this blog post. PLEASE don't reprint any part of the blog post and PLEASE don't post a photo without credit. Thank you!

This is another one of those “whipped up with leftover icing” things. I’m not crazy about my piped designs, for which I blame my kids. Ugh, they always need stuff like dinner and formula. Point being, I really did whip these up. Too quickly. I may revisit the flower thing the next time I have leftover icing. But the beauty is, you can make your own, way better flowers.

to make royal icing flowers

you will need:*

royal icing

food coloring

disposable decorating bags

couplers

decorating tips, sizes “3″ and “4″

rubber bands

baking tray

wax paper

*Find the decorating bags, couplers and tips in the craft store. You’ll need one of each for each color you choose. For food coloring, I suggest Americolor Soft Gel Pastes (Electric Green, Electric Pink, Electric Purple, Egg Yellow and Orange used here).

step one: prepare your icing according to the recipe. Divide and tint your preferred colors. Prepare decorating bags with couplers and tips, fill with your colors and close tightly with rubber bands.

step two: pipe your designs. Line a baking tray with wax paper. Pipe small flowers, 1 to 2 inches tall. Let the icing dry very well, overnight.

step three: top your cupcakes. Carefully pull the flower off of the wax paper and gently insert into the cupcakes right after they are frostd (see below).

to make field of grass cupcakes

you will need:*

cupcakes

frosting

green food coloring

disposable decorating bag

size 233 tip

rubber band

*Find the decorating bag and tip in the craft store. Number 233 is also known as the “grass tip.”

step one: make your cupcakes and frosting. Prepare cupcakes and frosting. If you’re using store-bought frosting, you may need to thicken it with powdered sugar so it holds its shape. Tint green (I used Americolor’s Electric Green). Prepare the decorating bag with the tip, fill with frosting and close with a rubber band.

step two: frost your cupcakes. Holding the decorating bag vertically over the cupcake, squeeze and pull up while squeezing. Repeat to cover the cupcake. Immediately insert the flower toppers.

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Feel free to share (nicely)! While my blog's photographs and text are protected by copyright, I do allow (and encourage) you to share ONE photograph with credit to "the decorated cookie" and link to this blog post. PLEASE don't reprint any part of the blog post and PLEASE don't post a photo without credit. Thank you!

Geez, I’ve done a lot for Spring in the past few years. Which is funny since I much prefer Winter. I know, I know, I’m the lone person out there for whom this is true. But snow is so dang pretty, I never tire of it. Just wish we actually got some this year. And I’m the type who doesn’t want the cold to end, I want to wear sweatshirts and sit in front of a fire. And the world is just quieter in winter, and gosh I like the quiet. And… enough longing for Winter. I need to psych myself up for Spring. Above are vegetable garden cookies. Ha, as if I actually “garden.”  As always, you’ll find everything seasonal in the Seasonal button up there, but below I’m linking to a few of my favorites.

I noticed a few themes in the collection. Each one is pretty predictable.

Cherry blossoms, of course, since I live in Washington DC and all. Cherry blossom cookies, painted cookies in cones, cherry blossom marshmallows, painted cherry blossom cookies.

Birds!   Bluebird brownie pops, poured sugar birdie cookies, painted birdhouse cookies, chicken (or hen?) cake pops.

Bugs! Bug marshmallow pops, butterfly cookies, bug topper printable on Oreo Cakester petits fours, bug cookies, easy Starburst dragonfly toppers, fondant bugs.

And of course, flowers.  Felt flower cupcake toppers, gerbera daisy cookie pops, carnation cookie pops, bite-size daisy cookies, how to make a flower cookie arrangement, springtime marshmallows.

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Feel free to share (nicely)! While my blog's photographs and text are protected by copyright, I do allow (and encourage) you to share ONE photograph with credit to "the decorated cookie" and link to this blog post. PLEASE don't reprint any part of the blog post and PLEASE don't post a photo without credit. Thank you!