Bake Me Away: Rehearsal Dinner Dessert Decisions

I'm not sure why, but when it comes to providing dessert for functions, I tend to go full force. I get super excited because, as I have mentioned before, I absolutely love to bake. Naturally, when there is an opportunity to do so, I jump at the chance. Of course, I wasn't going to take on the challenge of baking our wedding cake because I'm still such a novice baker, and I am really particular about how I want the cake to look. I knew that I couldn't produce what a professional could, so I chose to leave that to them.

But, when it comes to providing desserts for things like the bridal shower, bachelorette, and rehearsal dinner, I go for it! I baked a few test recipes for the bridal shower and my lovely coworkers and Mr. Sundae were able to reap the sweet benefits :) Thankfully, all enjoyed, which led me to try my hand at a few more recipes for the rehearsal dinner.

I've contemplated what dessert to provide at the dinner for a few weeks now. I've gone back and forth between cake, cupcakes, Italian cookies, pasticiotti, and cannolis. No matter what I was deciding between, I wanted there to be some sort of Italian element, because my family is Italian, and Mr. Sundae loves that (and Italian food). That's also why I chose the restaurant that I did (Francesca's Cucina).

I've been searching for recipes and have narrowed down the dessert options to:

Option 1:
Cannoli
Pasticiotti
Italian cookies

Option 2:
Cannoli cupcakes
Spumoni cupcakes

I did a test recipe for the cannoli cupcakes, and was quite satisfied. This coming weekend, Mr. Sundae and I are planning to tackle the cannolis. They are expected to be quite the labor of love, but we'll be doing it together :)

Here's a photo of the final cannoli cupcakes. I had to redo both the cannoli filling and the frosting, but thankfully the second time around, both turned out great.

Cannoli cupcakes: Personal photo

Cannoli cupcakes: Personal Photo

So hive, which option do you think I should go with? Should I scrap these two all together and just do a cake? Or, should I choose between the two options, and if so...which? Also, are you DIY'ing any elements for your shower and/or rehearsal dinner?