If you’re like me, you’ve been pretty damn busy during this time of year. Between graduate school, work, and oh yeah, just taking care of me, there hasn’t been much time for mellowing out like a marshmallow (Ok, marshmallows don’t really “mellow out”). But hey now, being busy isn’t going to stop me from celebrating The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. (Some like to call it All Hallow’s Eve. I call it Halloween.)
I love my staff so I decided I wanted to do something easy but fun for them to celebrate the holiday. Here’s my little DIY for Halloween gifts, goodies and greetings.
Enjoy!
Arts and crafts supplies:
Cardboard gift boxes
Wooden clothes pins
Your own Halloween Photo
Photoshop
Baking Supplies:
Muffin tin
Cupcake liners
Mixer
Mixing bowls
Ingredients for chocolate cupcakes:
Cupcake batter:
2 cups all-purpose flower
1 ¼ teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
1 stick unsalted butter, at room temp.
1 ½ cups sugar
2 large eggs
3 ounces unsweetened chocolate melted and cooled
1½ cups buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Cream cheese frosting:
1 package cream cheese (I use fat free Weight Watchers)
¾ stick of unsalted butter
¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
4 cups confectioners’ sugar
(This cupcake recipe is from the best bake sale ever cookbook by Barbara Grunes)
The How To:
1. Find out how many staff members you are baking for (This seems like a logical step, but you’d be surprised how easy it is to miscount)
2. Pick out the type of gift box you want to put your fall goodies (I went to Michaels and found these cute, little Peanuts boxes. Good for recycling later on, right?)
3. Make sure you have wooden clothespins (You’ll be using these later on.)
4. Pick out a cool, vintage or retro image you’ve taken (I found a photo I took of a Halloween sign way back in the day.)
5. Use your Photoshop program to add your staff members names onto the photos. (You’ll need to save each one as a separate image. You’re creating a Halloween tag for their gift box. You can add whatever greeting or message you want.)
6. Print out the personalized photos and cut them out to make them look like a tag
7. Attach the “tags”, using the clothespins, to the gift boxes
(How ya doin’? You’re almost there. Now comes the baking part)
8. It’s time to bake the goodies.
Prepare the cake:
· Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and line your muffin pan with the cupcake liners (Thank you, Martha for “loaning” me some of yours)
· Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. Set aside
· In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar together until light, about 2 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Blend in the cooled chocolate. Add the flour mixture alternately with buttermilk, beating until smooth and well blended. Mix in the vanilla.
· Fill the cupcake liners about 2/3 of the way. Bake in center of oven for 20 minutes or until toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Let cupcakes cool.
Prepare frosting:
· Cream the cream cheese and butter with the vanilla.
· On low speed, slowly add the confectioners’ sugar, beating until creamy
· Once cupcakes have cooled frost them and add sprinkles, if desired
9. Place cupcakes in the fridge for safe keeping. When you’re ready to take your goodies into work, put the cupcakes and any other treats you wish to give out in their individual gift boxes and attach the Halloween tag
Happy Halloween!
