Two more days until 2012 and another little printable gift for you. It's a champagne bottle label PLUS a way to make your new year party memorable. In the white space you can have everyone who is celebrating together sign their name, or write a resolution--as long as it's short.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!
CLICK TO DOWNLOAD FREE CHAMPAGNE LABEL!

We all eat too much over the holidays, we are in this together. It's worth it. That's why we should start off the morning right, so we can have that extra cupcake later.

I usually don't post savoury dishes... I'm the baker, my husband's the chef and that system works perfectly. However, I wanted to share this recipe with you because it looks festive (I am all about how food looks) and it's a healthy option. If you celebrate christmas, try this for breakfast on the 25th. I like my oatmeal more chunky than runny. Add more water if you like it runny.

CRANBERRY OATMEAL
1 serving (multiple recipe based on how many servings you need)
2/3 cup rolled oats
2/3 cup water
1 tbsp cranberries
1/2 tbsp sunflower seeds
1/2 tsp brown sugar
cinnamon (to taste)
pinch of salt (to taste)

• Combine oats, cranberries, sunflower seeds and brown sugar in a bowl.
• In a small pot bring the water to a boil then add the oat mixture. Reduce heat to low and cook covered for 12 minutes.
• Add cinnamon and salt to taste.

Happy Holidays!

I stuck to my theme, gold and white (with a little brown) and I'm liking the feeling of this colour scheme. Sort of like a classy festive palette.

On the top of these cappuccino cupcakes is a little sugar cookie. Yes I really do have that small circle cutter and you better believe I used it.

Below: The simplicity of these is what makes them so beautiful, don't you agree? With a little bit of white sugar crystals sprinkled on top and black & white swiss chocolate and vanilla bean buttercreams. The gold liners complete the perfect package.

stay tuned...

Double post today!
Come back later for a yummy and nutritious christmas morning cranberry oatmeal recipe.

This past weekend was the gift fair I participated in. This year I decided to do sugar cookies. They make great kris kringle gifts and stocking stuffers. I did a gold and white scheme throughout.

The lighting was pretty terrible but here is my table:

Of course cupcakes were there. Chocolate, peppermint and marble were thrown into the mix, plus I did some coconut flavours (because white went with my theme).

My personal favourite was the box of snowy tree cookies:

Above were the sugar cookies. I made holiday tags for the individual packages and as a treat for you here they are for download. These can be used on those last minute gifts I know you are all scrambling to purchase. You're not alone.

CLICK TO DOWNLOAD FREE HOLIDAY TAGS!

Create a Ferrero Rocher pyramid. This is for the extremely nice.

Buy a box of Milk Chocolate covered Butter Toffee (with roasted almonds) by President's Choice. Not only delicious, but comes in a great tin.

Create your own homemade sundae kit. A neat idea from savvymom.ca.

Black licorice is gross, but this bag of "coals" is too cute. Crate & Barrel

I was hesitant at first. While I know that designing and making cakes takes work I somehow thought cake balls are even more intense. It's not true. I used coconut cake with cream cheese coconut icing to make my first... Cake Balls.

I would call them cake truffles, because the texture reminds me more of truffles (on that note I can't wait to try a chocolate version of this). It's actually really simple, you bake a cake (use Betty Crocker's mix, I won't judge) and once cooled you crumble it. Combine it with your icing. Roll this mixture into balls and dip them into melted chocolate. How is that for a summary. For the snowballs I sprinkled coconut and white sugar sprinkles on top. Enjoy them this way.

There you go, use for left over cake, AND a pretty impressive little treat.

PS. OR Don't bake a cake and use this brilliant and quick idea of making them with TIMBITS,  via Aubrey + Lindsay's blog.

cupcakedesign will be joining some very talented local artists in displaying hand crafted gifts for this holiday season. If you live in or around Toronto we would love to see you drop by!
*cupcakedesign will be there Dec 17 & 18 with holiday cupcakes, and sugar cookies*

WHERE: The Tranzac
292 Brunswick Ave. Toronto, Ontario
December 3, 4, 10, 11, 17 and 18 - 2011
FREE ADMISSION!!
Show time: 12:00 pm - 6:00 pm

Click here for more info.

What if you took a Lindt Lindor Chocolate Truffle and you put it inside a soft chocolate chip cookie?
That's exactly what I tested out for you today.

As you can see above we have the Lindor three ways, full solid truffle in milk chocolate, white chocolate and a half truffle. You will also need a chewy cookie dough recipe (see read more below) .For the solid ones, roll the dough around the truffle making sure you 'seal' it, don't leave a crack because one thing I have learned from this is that the Lindor chocolate likes to melt out of the dough and onto the pan. For the half truffle on top, just sort of mold it into the cookie. *Now this one WILL spill onto the pan so it's not the best option*

Patiently waiting for it to bake...

Done, cooled (well sort of cooled) and ready to eat. The result: The cookies with the solid truffles in the middle baked well, the chocolate remained intact in the cookies that were properly sealed. The taste was chewy, yummy, chocolately. It sort of is like a cookie sandwich.

You will need a glass of milk.

And the one with the half truffle on top looks kinda ugly.
The chocolate goodness was there, but for the wow factor go with the solid option.

Click READ MORE for the chewy chocolate chip recipe...