Monday, December 5, 2011

Chocolate Peppermint Cupcakes

The Chocolate Peppermint Cupcakes were a HIT!  
This is a quick and easy recipe you must try.

Ingredients:
Cake:
1 box Chocolate Devils Food Cake Mix
1 pkg York Peppermint Patties
Peppermint Butter cream Icing: 
2 sticks butter
Powdered Sugar
Peppermint Extract
Milk

Directions:

Make cake mix according to instructions on the box.  Fill cupcake liners about half full and then top with a York Peppermint Patty.  Now add remainder of batter on top of the Peppermint Patties. 
Bake according to cake mix instructions.  Remove from oven and let cook completely.

To make butter cream frosting combine softened butter and powdered sugar.  I start with one small box and then blend with hand mixer until it reaches desired consistency.  You can add a little milk to thin the icing if necessary or a little more powdered sugar to thicken it up more.  When you have the icing the way you want add a few drops of Peppermint extract.  Mix icing and taste, adding more extract if you want.  The icing should be minty but not overpowering.  Put icing in a large plastic zip-lock bag and cut off one corner.  Now you can easily pipe the icing onto your cooled cupcakes.  Garnish with crushed peppermint candy or maybe Andes Mints.  I also think I small candy cake placed in the top would be cute.  Make these soon - your holiday guests will surely be amazed and of course the kids (and spouse) will too!

Decorating for Christmas

This year for Christmas we decided to do clear lights on our tree - I love the way it looks, the photo from my phone does not do it justice.
I saw something similar to this for decorating a mantle on Pinterest so I decided to give it a try. I really LOVE the way it turned out...the red glitter ornaments and the apple green ornaments look great.
Lastly I wanted to share with you something I have done two years in a row now...an ADVENT Calendar.  I used metal tins and got magnets to put them on this black board I found at Michaels.  It is by far one of my daughter's favorite things about Christmas.  Inside each tin is a little Christmas themed gift or a paper for a special thing we will do that day.  These have included things such as Christmas earrings to a piece of paper saying we were going to make and decorate Christmas cookies.  A few of the best events from last year's Advent Calendar was watching A Christmas Story while eating popcorn and Christmas M&M's with the family and going to look at Christmas lights around town with a run to Starbucks.  Consider doing something like this for your children and making Christmas last the whole season.
I hope all of you are enjoying your Christmas season so far!