Easy DIY Holiday Desserts

The holiday season has begun! Which means it’s the perfect time of year for playing in the snow, making gingerbread houses and of course, baking! Who doesn’t love buttercream frosting or chocolate fudge? And we finally have an excuse to eat whatever we want since our ugly Christmas sweaters will cover our cake and pie bellies.

These easy DIY treats are perfect for your family gathering this year. In today’s recipes we are making four holiday desserts that the whole family will love. We created snowflake cupcakes with a homemade buttercream frosting recipe, melting snowmen chocolate bark, realistic-looking pinecones made from chocolate, and last but not least, hot chocolate fudge. These recipes differ in difficultly. The microwave fudge requires little time and effort. The melting snowmen bark is a fun treat to make with your kiddos. The snowflake cupcakes are a little more difficult to make, because you have to be careful with the delicate piped chocolate. And the chocolate pinecones were the hardest recipe out of the four to create. But we were up for the challenge. Are you?

Snowflake Cupcakes

What you need:

• Pre-made cupcakes (we went with red velvet)
• White chocolate, melted
• Edible glitter (optional, but definitely suggested)

For the buttercream frosting:

• 1 cup salted butter (2 sticks), softened
• 1 tbsp pure vanilla extract
• 4 tbsp heavy whipping cream
• 4 cups confectioner’s sugar
• Blue food coloring

1. Beat butter, vanilla, and heavy whipping cream until smooth.

2. Slowly add the confectioner’s sugar to the mixture. Then add the blue food coloring. Beat mixture for 2-3 minutes until fully incorporated.

3. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

3. Set the frosting aside and melt your white chocolate in the microwave for 1 minute. Stir chocolate and melt for another 30 seconds or until it is fully melted.

4. Cut a corner of a Ziploc bag (optional: insert a piping tip at the cut corner). Scoop the melted chocolate into the Ziploc. Start piping your melted chocolate in snowflake-like patterns. It’s up to you how they look. Every snowflake is different!

5. Let the snowflakes harden. You can either let them dry at room temperature or in the fridge.

6. Pipe your buttercream frosting onto your cupcakes, then stick a snowflake on top. For an additional sparkle, add some edible glitter by brushing it on the white chocolate snowflakes with a clean paint brush. And you’re done!

Melting Snowmen Chocolate Bark

What you need:

• White chocolate
• Red chocolate candies (red M&Ms)
• Edible candy eyes
• Small pretzel sticks
• Small Reese’s peanut butter cups
• Orange sprinkles

1. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

2. Melt your white chocolate. Stir until smooth. Pour the white chocolate onto the baking sheet and spread it out evenly. Start adding your candies immediately before the chocolate has hardened.

3. Place the eyes in the chocolate. Place the orange sprinkle under the eyes for the carrot nose. Then use the red candies as the buttons and put three in the center under the nose. Use the pretzel sticks as the arms and cut the Reese’s cup in half and use it as the snowman’s top hat. Repeat until the entire sheet is covered with ‘melted snowmen.’

4. Place in the fridge for an hour or until harden. Break up the bark into individual snowmen and you’re finished.

Chocolate Pinecones

What you need:

• 3 cups Krave Chocolate cereal (you can also used Chex Chocolate or Chocolate Fiber One cereal)
• Pretzel sticks
• 1/4 cup Nutella
• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 3 tablespoons butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cup confectioner’s sugar

Hot Chocolate Fudge

What you need:

• 2 cups of dark chocolate
• 2 cups of white chocolate
• 1 1/2 cup of mini marshmallows
• 1 can of sweetened condensed milk

1.  Combine the white chocolate chips with 1/2 of the sweetened condensed milk.

2. In a different bowl combine the dark chocolate chips with the remaining sweetened condensed milk.

3. Line a 9×9 square pan with aluminum foil then grease it with butter or shortening.

4. Begin microwaving your chocolate. Microwave your dark chocolate mixture for 30 seconds, take it out and stir and put it back in for about another 30 seconds. Spread evenly the melted mixture in the prepared pan.

5. Repeat this step with the white chocolate and evenly spread it on the dark chocolate layer.

6. Top your white chocolate layer with mini marshmallows.

7. Refrigerate for about 4 hours. Cut into squares and serve!