New Holiday Traditions

Our Holiday this year is a little different since we are not spending it in our home, but I still want it to be special and create special memories for our kiddos. In the past, I've been hit and miss about about doing everything I planned on for the Holidays. As soon as its December 1, time flies until Christmas. I decided to make a list of New Holiday Traditions, that I want to do every year with my kids. Here's My List 

1. Wrapping Presents Prettier
I love wrapping presents, some years I go 'wrapping crazy' other years simple and lots of gift bags. I recently bought some adorable handmade gift tags from esty seller Kerry of Halle Handmade who is also the blogger behind First Time Fancy. I adore the handmade & hand painted chalk board gift tags, they are so sweet!! I really love the 'Special Delivery Tag.' The tags have inspired me to take extra time this year and wrap each present with love & I love that I can re-use them :)

2. Gingerbread House
Last year we attempted to DIY a Gingerbread, it tastes delicious but the house its self was a hot sizzling mess it looked like and abandoned gingerbread crack house This year I decided a kit was the way to go, we picked up a gingerbread from Target on sale for $8 bucks. I think they are on sale until Sat, so stop in there if your planning on making one this year. I'm sure I'll buy some extra candy to make the house extra cute.  

{ via William Sonoma } 

3. DIY Advent Calendar
I've wanted to make a DIY Advent Caledar for a while, with so many cute ideas out there, it was hard to narrow it down to one idea. I loved the little white muslin bag advent calender, they can be filed with treats for the kiddos or an ornament to hang on the tree. Since we are going with a small tree this year, I've decided treats will be perfect. I ordered my little muslin bags off Amazon.com and when they arrive, I'll blog about this little Holiday Project. I'm crossing my fingers they arrive by Dec First 

4. Holiday Cards 
Last year we started the tradition of taking our own Holiday pictures for our holiday cards. Over the weekend we took some DIY family pictures. I'll share our Holiday cards soon. Here's one of my favorite pictures, I took on Saturday. 

5. Making an ornament with the kids

I plan on buying some clear glass ornaments and filing the inside with pretty paint, should be fun and easy project. 

6. Make Holiday Cookies and Decorate them!
I haven't made homemade decorative sugar cookies in while, because they are so labor intensive. Way too many steps involved, so I plan on breaking up the steps as recommend on various cookie blogs. I adore these darling cookies from Martha Stewart, they are so cute. I know won't come out half as cute, but that's ok I'm looking forward to creating those memories and wathcing my oldest help my frost the cookies.

(via Martha Stewart)

7. Holiday Drinks 
I can't wait to make & enjoy hot caramel apple cider, hot cocoa and white chocolate mocha and of course adult Holiday drinks.
8. Homemade Peppermint Bark
We made homemade peppermint bark last year, and I'm looking forward to making more. Boy is it addicting! I also came across a yummy peppermint bark brownie recipe and I'm can't wait to make it. Here's my recipe. 

9. Watch Holiday Movies
I shared our favorite Holiday movies last year, I can't wait to snuggle up with some blankets and one of the above mentioned drinks and watch the movies again. I can't wait to watch The Family Man, one of my favorites

(via IMDB)

10. Holiday Baking for Family & Friends
I plan to do lots of baking this Holiday season and thought it would be nice to give family and friends mini loafs of: pumpkin, sweet potato, zucchini and walnut bread. I love these paper liners I found via Amazon I love the idea of wrapping these up and giving them to family and friends along with the recipe. 

It's going to be a fun & busy Holiday season and I can't wait to checking off items on our New Holiday Traditions list. I'll blog about our New Holiday Traditions as we do them. 

What are some of your family Holiday Traditions? Have you started any new ones this year?

Holiday Cupcakes

Hi Everyone, I hope you all had thankful and special Thanksgiving with your families and friends!! It's crazy, I let almost a month go by without blogging. I really miss blogging and will have lots and lots to blog about in the coming months as our house is re-built. Until then, I will do my best to keeping blogging. The four day weekend was such a must for me :) I was able to take some time and bake some yummy cupcakes & pies for my family and wanted to share the tasty cupcake recipes with you all. I also may have had one too many Eggnog with Brandy (not on the same night, lol) over the Holiday break. 

After making both sets of these cupcakes, I know they'll be a family staple during the holidays sounds sill but they taste like Thanksgiving, lol. I love sweet potato pie and pumpkin pie, so when I came across recipes that turned my holiday favorites into a cupcake, I couldn't wait to make them. I found the Sweet Potato Cupcake recipe in Martha Stewart's Cupcake book, you can buy it here on Amazon.com. I blogged about her book before and love it, for a beginner baker its a the essential cupcake book. In the past, I've made a few of her cupcakes which I blogged about here: Confetti Cupcakes, Banana Split Cupcakes, Strawberry Cupcakes and Chocolate Cupcakes. 

Sweet Potato Cupcakes 

I adapted this recipe from Martha Stewart and made a few minor changes for baking ease. 

Ingredients for Cupcakes - makes 18 

2 Large Sweet Potatoes
2 Teaspoons of Baking Powder
1 Teaspoon of salt
2 Teaspoons of Cinnamon
1/2 Teaspoon of Nutmeg
2 Teaspoons of Vanilla Extract
2 Cups of All Purpose Flour
1 Cup of unsalted butter Room Temp.
1 Cup of Sugar
1 Cup of Brown Sugar
4 Large Eggs Room Temp.

Bake It

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. The sweet potatoes for 10 mins of until soft, let the sweet potato cool and peel the skin from the potato. Mash the sweet potatoes in a small bowls, there should be about 2 cups. Spray cupcake tins with non stick cooking spray and then line with tin with cupcakes liners. 

In a separate bowl sift together flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. With and electric blender cream together the butter and both sugars and until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time until fully mixed in the batter. Add the sweet potato mash and vanilla. Next slowly add the flour mixture in three parts. Divide batter evenly into the cupcake liners, bake cupcakes for 28 minutes rotate halfway though. Transfer cupcake tins to wire rack and let cool before removing cupcake from pan. 

For the frosting, I made basic Vanilla Buttercream frosting and sprinkled the top of the cupcakes with brown sugar. These cupcakes where a hit!! I'll be making them very soon. 


Pumpkin Cupcakes with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting 

I shared this recipe a few years ago on the blog, and thought I'd re-share them with a prettier picture! :) It's funny, I bake close to 30 cupcakes on Thursday yet only had a chance to take pictures of two, go figure. I lined my cupcake tines with pretty wrappers, but they turned yellow from the non-stick spray :( This recipe is adapted from Ina Graten via House Beautiful. 

Ingredients for Cupcakes - makes 10  

1 Cup All Purpose Flour 
1 Teaspoon of Baking Powder
1/2 Teaspoon of Baking Soda
1/2 Teaspoon of Kosher Salt
1 Teaspoon of Cinnamon
1/2 Teaspoon of Ginger
1/2 Teaspoon of Nutmeg
3 Large eggs Room Temp.
1/2 Cup Sugar
1/2 Cup of Brown Sugar
16 ounces of Pumpkin Puree (not pie filing) 
1/2 Cup of Vegetable Oil 
1 Heath Bar 

Bake It

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray the cupcake tins with non stick cooking spray and then line the cupcake tins with liners. In separate bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg. Using an electric mixer whisk together eggs, pumpkin puree, both sugars and vegetable oil. Slowly add flour mixture in three parts. Divide batter into cupcake liners evenly. Bake for 20 - 25 mins, transfer cupcake tins to wire rack and let cool before removing cupcake from pan. 

Ingredients for Frosting 

6 Ounces of Cream Cheese at room temperature 
3 Tablespoons unsalted butter at room temperature 
1/2 Teaspoon of Maple Extract Flavor
1/2 Teaspoon of Pure Vanilla Extract
2 Cups of Shift Flour  


Frost It 

Using an electric mixer with a paddle attachment, cream the cream cheese and butter on low speed until smooth. Stir in maple and vanilla frosting. Slowing stir in the confections sugar until mixed smooth. Frost cupcakes with cool and top with chopped Heath bar. 

I hope you all enjoy these cupcake recipes!

What are your favorite cupcakes to bake or eat during the Holiday Season?