UPDATE! Congratulations to Stacy! Her comment was randomly drawn to win the book. Thank you to all for participating! Check back next week for another great giveaway.

I’m also feeling rather lame in my party ambitions after reading the fabulous list of themes you’ve all either hosted or hope to one day host. Mermaids, poodles, princesses, ladybugs, pirates, dragons and skulls. Gardens and tea and chocolate and bubbles. Fish, baseball, Monopoly, owls, bunnies and vintage robots.  Jane Austen and Downtown Abbey. Luau, travel, masquerade, sassy diva, rock star, popping out baby shower, Broadway, milk and cookies, cowgirl and pink zebras. Glow in the dark, superhero, camping, lego, ninja, candyland and Star Trek. Hot air balloons, sprinkles and polka dots. Cats and dogs and bees. Seinfeld, World of Warcraft (my husband would appreciate that), Alice in Wonderland, Dr. Seuss, Harry Potter, Eloise and Wizard of Oz. Lemons and strawberry and sushi.  Or a 1950s ice cream shoppe,  1950s housewife, roaring ‘20s or (my decade of choice) ‘80s. Sheesh, I better up my game!!

I just got a second copy of Amy Atlas’s crazy fantastic book, Sweet Designs: Bake It, Craft It, Style It, and since I give and give and give, I’m giving it to one of you. If you don’t already have this 300-plus page book o’ party design fabulousness from dessert stylist pro Amy Atlas, then I’m guessing it’s on your wish list.

Want to learn more about what’s inside? I yak on at length about Sweet Designs in this review HERE.

And here’s one more glimpse, at a yummy recipe for Strawberry Truffles, found on p. 153, part of the oh-so-pretty-in-pink “Darling Dots” party. I whipped up a batch in no time. Easy, quick, tasty and make-ahead. So perfect for a dessert table.

how to make Strawberry Truffles

from  Sweet Designs: Bake It, Craft It, Style It, by Amy Atlas, Hyperion Books 2012, p. 153

2 2/3 cups white chocolate chips, melted

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, cut into 1/4-inch pieces, softened

1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons strawberry preserves

1 cup pink sanding sugar or pink dusting sugar

1. Stir the softened butter and strawberry preserves into the melted chocolate until combined. Cover in plastic wrap and chill until firm enough to scoop, about 1 hour. (Note by me: I accidentally fell asleep and chilled mine for 4 hours, but I just let the mixture sit at room temp until easily scoopable.)

2. Scoop flat tablespoons of the truffle mixture and, using your hands, roll the truffles into balls. Place on the baking sheet and chill again until firm.

3. Put the sanding sugar on a dinner plate. Roll the chilled truffles in the sugar. Arrange the truffles in a bowl and place on the table.

Makes about 30.

And now… THE GIVEAWAY!!

For a chance to win a copy of Sweet Designs by Amy Atlas,

leave a comment here before Thursday, May 17, midnight EST

telling me a party theme (any!) you’ve thrown or want to throw.

For a 2nd entry (optional!), follow me on facebook OR twitter OR pinterest, your choice, and come back and leave a comment telling me.

If you already follow me on all three, mom, you can’t enter. (Or for the other person who follows me on all three, just leave a 2nd comment saying you already follow me so you get your 2nd chance, too.)

Winner chosen by random.org.

Winner has 48 hours to respond before another winner is drawn.

Contest worldwide.

CONTEST NOW CLOSED.

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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!

Copyright Sweet Designs: Bake It, Craft It, Style It, Hyperion Books 2012

Photography by Johnny Miller.

You heard me mention Amy Atlas’s book last week… Well, today is the official launch date of Sweet Designs: Bake It, Craft It, Style It! I got my preview copy last week and fell instantly in love. This book is simply stunning, beautifully arranged and  highly useful.

From the introduction, Amy warmly welcomes us into her world with family tales of her childhood affinity for sweets. She deftly describes what she does: “Combining confection, crafts, and creative direction.” Her innovative approach changed how we see the dessert’s role in entertaining. Amy’s skillful weaving of personal story and practical how-tos  to create awe-inspiring presentations renders the dessert table much greater than the sum of sweets.

The first section, “Sweet Basics,” forms the building blocks of creative dessert tables so you can design your own. The section includes basic recipes–cakes, cookies, brownies, icing and more–and important techniques, such as flooding cookies with icing, frosting cakes, working with fondant, and assembling a tiered cake. You’ll learn how to craft the table decorations and make your own packaging (for example, custom candy wrappers and bags, drink flags, and tags). The section also covers how to buy and use candy, and it provides practical advice on how to display your sweets, such as the high value of easy-to-make  tray liners.

The book then presents 14 specific party themes in their entirety, with recipes for every dessert, resources for supplies, and instructions for the crafts involved. Further, each party opens with a quip, explanation and story that lends even more meaning to the intent and virtue of the theme. For example, a yellow and white table for Spring is inspired by Coco Chanel’s “elegance through simplicity and refinement.” Or a bright orange zigzag table derived from a cashmere scarf of long ago leads to meringue sandwiches, pleated pedestal skirts and rickracked ramekins. The colorful display of marshmallow dice, a candy checkerboard and domino streamers speaks to Amy’s game night with her family. I think I’ll have to try Vineyard Afternoon and the sangria on a stick.

Photograph above by Johnny Miller.

This bumble bee favor bag is part of the Honey, I Love You dessert table. You can find more amazing photos from this theme  HERE at Amy’s blog. Honey, “oozy, gooey and drool-worthy delicious,” presents so many possibilities for a dessert table, as Amy notes, and brings to mind “bees, hives, combs, wax,” all wonderfully represented in this eye candy of a display.

What I find so admirable about this book is that the perfection that is an Amy Atlas dessert table is made to feel attainable and doable. You can recreate the tables exactly as presented, mix and match, or simply use one little element. For example, I made pipe cleaner bees from the instructions on p. 184 using supplies in my daughter’s art bin. And I can now envision a field of daisy cookies with bees attached to the sticks.

Amy’s book, Sweet Designs: Bake It, Craft It, Style It,  is on the shelves TODAY!! Find it everywhere.

And by the way, to make daisy bee pops, I first made cookie pops with a daisy cutter. For tips on making cookie pops, click HERE. I then prepared my royal icing, divided and tinted white, yellow, turquoise, lime green and orange with my Americolor Soft Gel Pastes (Bright White, Egg Yellow, Turquoise, Electric Green and Orange). I piped a circle of yellow, then I outlined and piped to fill the petals in white. Between each petal I added a little squeeze-and-pull petal with a color of icing. For basic cookie decorating tips, click HERE. I attached Amy’s pipe cleaner bee to the sticks.

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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!

Copyright Sweet Designs: Bake It, Craft It, Style It, Hyperion Books 2012

Photography by Johnny Miller.

A tiny little morsel for you just to get you buzzing…  I know you know creative dessert table genius and sweets stylist Amy Atlas. Well, her long awaited book, Sweet Designs: Bake It, Craft It, Style It is almost here! Tuesday, to be precise. But you can preorder now and hardly have to wait at all.

My sneak peek copy is on its way! I’m pretty sure I’ll pour over each of the 384 pages, so come back and visit me next week when I  share even more from what promises to be an exciting book packed full of ideas for crafting and displaying sweets. And on a smaller scale, I’m just looking forward to the everyday inspirations, like these cute bumble bee favor bags. My mind is already buzzing with how I can use those fuzzy bees in other ways….  I know, I know, groan to the “buzz” puns.  But not to Sweet Designs!!

The countdown begins…

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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!

I’ve been a huge fan of Amy Atlas and her team over at Sweet Designs for ages upon ages, and I’m always thrilled when any of my work is featured on her blog. So I was over the moon that they are the first stop on my blog tour.

For a chance to win a copy of Sugarlicious and a prize pack that includes a Sugarlicious apron, oven mitt, spatula, Post-its, and a little recipe booklet,

CLICK HERE TO VISIT SWEET DESIGNS

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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!