Gingerbread cake, Cookies and Christmas Cupcakes

On Thanksgiving we made some gingerbread cookies. You can see my son Dev wanted his gingerbread girl "anatomically correct". lol 

Sadly, his gingerbread cookie's anatomy melted flat in the oven. So sad......
You can see the box that I purchased to make these little houses. The gingerbread was a boxed mix from Costco that came with 4 pouches. One pouch said it would make 12 cookies and we had about 18 cookies. They were chewy and delicious! 

But this gingerbread brownie is one thing that is absolutely wonderful and delicious.....

Not quite as cute as the gingerbread houses and cookies turned out...but much more tasty! 

We made the boxed gingerbread houses from the kit with 4 little houses inside. Each of my granddaughters got one to make.....

It's a really fun and creative activity to do for a Christmas party or family dinner in December....everybody got into it! 

I loved the ideas I read on Crystal and Company's website. She makes cupcakes toppers out of candy. Her link is HERE for cute pirate cupcakes tutorial. I do a pirate party every year so I am copying her idea for sure.

There are so many cute things to put on top using candy, toothpick toppers, sprinkles, designing an animal face with candy, and making stripes and polka dot designs with candy and edible things.


Here are a few that I loved.

Cute Cupcake Toppers from Current Catalog

                      

This cute Christmas set of toppers is from Currentcatalog.com, a stationery store online. It is only 99cents! My classroom Christmas party will be more fun with the kids being able to choose their own cute toppers for the cupcakes they decorate. And look how easy! The link for these cute toppers is HERE at Current.

Free Cupcake Topper Printables

      

Another cute topper with some FREE PRINTABLES I found at Bake it Pretty blog HERE. She occasionally has a free printable for all kinds of holiday stuff. All you need here is a color printer to make some really cute cupcakes!

Cute Reindeer Cupcakes for Christmas Day!

The Amateur Gourmet has a tutorial on making these cute reindeer cupcakes with curly pretzels and M &Ms. I think kids could totally do these and have a great time at a winter party. All you need is chocolate cupcakes and frosting and vanilla wafers and some little candies.  The rest is so easy!  Katy's tutorial is HERE at Amateur Gourmet.

Tips for Melting Candy Wafers for Decorating Cupcakes......

1.Use a double boiler.
2. Use low heat.
3. Don't boil it too fast or it turns to a ball.
4. Stir pretty regularly.
5. If you use a piping bag, let the melted candy cool for 10 minutes so it doesn't burn your hands as you pipe
6. Once molds are filled put them in the fridge to harden, or between color layers.

Have fun making Christmas cupcakes..... Here's my latest yummy obsession...Gingerbread men and Gingerbread Cake!

Gingerbread Cake with YUMMY cream cheese ICING! 

Finished gingerbread cake....

Finished cake with cream cheese icing....

I got this DIVINE recipe from Jaime Cooks it Up. She is a true master in the kitchen. I loved these decadent and easy bars so check it out if you want the recipe. It's easy and it is HERE at her website.

Cut up and added some cute picks...

The icing is my favorite....cream cheese mixed with butter and powdered sugar. It makes anything taste better I think.

Delicious! 

 It was soooo rich and yummy. It would make a great addition to any Holiday dessert bar.