Christmas Cupcakes

Well, after all of those cookies I just couldn't help myself - I had to make some Christmas cupcakes!  These were actually an order from the Executive Director of my "day job" as a thank you to those businesses that provided so much support to our tiny non-profit throughout the 2011 calendar year. 

I knew I was going to be exhausted and wasn't going to want to do a lot of decorations, plus when giving thank you gifts from your business you typically don't want to get too secular.  I suggested my famous "Ashley" cupcake - Devil's Food cupcake, but instead of vanilla buttercream I made peppermint buttercream. I crushed up some candy canes to add a delightful Holiday topping, just right for this time of the year!

First you start with the dry ingredients: baking soda, baking powder, flour, and I always use Hershey's Special Dark cocoa for this recipe.  It makes the cupcakes darker and more rich, in my opinion.

 Don't forget the butter, salt and sugar!

 The cupcake recipe is from this amazing cupcakes book - I would be nothing without Martha!

 Eggs, hot water, sour cream (secret moisturizer of cupcakes) and some yummy new vanilla Marlo got me from Penzeys. It's super strong, but I double-checked - my Costco vanilla is the same strength.  :)

 I saw this bumper sticker on Marlo's fridge on Saturday morning, and it was in my Christmas gift Saturday night!!!  I just LOVE it.  It's now on my fridge, too!

 Here are the candy canes that I crushed up - I have a huge box of these leftover from an experiment-gone-wrong last year, so I need to think of other creative "stuff" to do with them!

 And here are the cupcakes!  I made 96 cupcakes.  Holy smokes!!!!

 I hope everyone enjoyed them!  I gave a few to my own friends as well.  xoxo!

The Culmination

Well, after making no-bakes I had to get ready for the Holiday Party that my husband and I hosted on Dec 17th, so out came all of the frozen balls of goodness!

 Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip.

 Chocolate Chip.

 Cherry Chocolate Chip

 Here they are!  If you look closely you'll see 11 different kinds of cookies.  The only kind that didn't make it to the Holiday Party was the Cinnamon Blobs, since they didn't turn out and I only made about 12 of them total.

Days Nine, Ten, Eleven and Twelve!

Okay, I guess I cheated a little bit.  I made 4 different kinds of no-bake cookies.  But this was A LOT of baking to try to do, and I really, really love these no-bakes!!!

Special K Bars:

 Crush up some special K cereal.

 Boil sugar and light Karo syrup.  Add in some peanut butter.  And then the cereal.

 Spread in a well-greased pan (these get very sticky).

 Melt some chocolate chips and butterscotch chips, spread on top!

 Let harden - don't put in the fridge!!!!

*These are delicious!!!

SCOTCHEROOS:

 These call for corn flakes, but since I use the Special K for the other recipe I just use Special K.

 And peanuts!

 And butterscotch chips!  And peanut butter!

 Melt the chips and peanut butter, mix with cereal and peanuts, and drop onto waxed paper.

Chill until ready - these are oh, so tasty!!

CHOCOLATE NESTS:

 Chow mien noodles and peanuts.

 Melt chocolate chips and butterscotch chips in the microwave and mix! Drop on waxed paper and chill in fridge.

CLASSIC NO-BAKES:

 I needed quick-cooking oats for this recipe and Steve was so nice and went to the store for me.  I was also out of waxed paper so he got some of that for me, too.

 Melt butter, sugar, peanut butter and cocoa together, mix in the vanilla and oats.

 Drop and let harden!

 These are so good!  Unfortunately, I only got one of them because someone (named Brian) took them ALL home after the party.  LOL.  (He was welcome to do so, I am just kidding.)

All in all, these no bakes are some of my favorite holiday treats!

Day Eight: Frosted Sugar Cookies

It's not Christmas without frosted sugar cookies, right?  This year, I googled a recipe that was a roll-out cookie dough recipe that used Cream of Tartar.  My grandmother's cookie recipe is the best, but it's a drop sugar cookie recipe and I always end up adding all of this extra flour, so I decided to try a new recipe this year.  I also decided to make my "signature" butter cream instead of royal icing or any other type of frosting.

 Another recipe that calls for powdered sugar instead of granulated.

 Gotta soften that butter up!

 Mix the dry ingredients first, set aside.

 Other "stuff."

 Flour up that baking mat.

  I actually had to add a lot of flour to this recipe in order to get it to roll out as well.

 Ready for the oven!

 So yummy all baked and fresh!  My friend Beckie recently reminded me that our first Christmas in NC we made sugar cookies like these and kept wondering if they were done since they don't really get browned!  So funny.

 Cooling and ready for the frosting.

 I could go all "Martha" on these, but some things are just left classic.  I think I made them cute, but not over-the-top!  I used a lot of my cupcake decor on these cookies.

 And a Michigan State stocking, too!

Merry Christmas!!!

By the way - Steve said that these cookies were his favorite sugar cookies ever!