- - ayiMori - -

Smiles from our Snowman

This week's post seems to revolve around holiday parties. So I hope you don't mind! But even if you did, I don't think anyone would mind if I share a few recipes for delicious and fun holiday treats!

Below are a few of the treats that my friends and I prepared for our own holiday party this year!

{snowman cupcake}
I've given two recipes for our cupcakes that are pictured above. Why? Well because we like to mix and match to make sure everything comes out the best it can be! The first recipe is for the chocolate cake part, and the second recipe is for the cream cheese frosting.

After making both, we decorated our snowman with sugar crystal sprinkles, chocolate chips, and peach rings.

Cake
Frosting - although we tweaked this one until we thought it tasted delicious


{peppermint puppy chow}
I'm slowly starting to learn that puppy chow may be a treat that only midwesterner's know. So if you haven't tried it, I highly suggest it! However, for our holiday party we decided that peppermint was the best choice of flavor! It's quite an addicting treat - so we made an extra batch that we kept for ourselves and didn't put out to share!

Puppy Chow


{melting cookies}
Cookies are always a fan favorite! So why not have some holiday themed ones! I snagged this recipe from pinterest, so you definitely know there's a ton of different variations to it out there. But we decided to stick with the simple sugar cookies and snow people theme! However, I really liked the reindeer chocolate chip idea, so that may be making an appearance at next year's party!

Cookies

{apple cider}
And of course, to end the holidays you always need a warm drink! While hot chocolate is usually a go to, we had about 30 people over, and we had no idea how to make bulk hot chocolate for everyone. So instead we opted for slow cooker apple cider - which perfectly feed everyone in attendance. Think punch bowl, but with warm liquid.

The recipe we used from this actually came from a guy at Trader Joe's, and then we tweaked it a bit to our liking, so I'll just type it for you below. I highly recommend this, as I think this was the favorite of the night.

- 1 bottle apple juice
- 2 bottles apple cider, we used the Trader Joe's Honeycrisp apple cider
- 1 cup sugar
- Cinnamon sticks, or cinnamon to taste
- 750mL of vodka
- Spiced rum to taste, we used 6 oz and left the bottle out for people who wanted more
- 1 oz of bourbon

Add all ingredients besides vodka into slow cooker. If using cinnamon powder, stir into the mixture. Leave on high for 1 hour, then turn to low for the remaining time. We "cooked" ours for a total of 4 hours. Immediately before serving, add the vodka.

We let our guests serve themselves, so we also set up a "cider" bar next to the slow cooker. There was more cinnamon, vodka, rum, bourbon, and apple cider so they could customize the drink more to their liking.