(This post is sponsored by Kitchen Stuff Plus. As always, all opinions are my own.)

It’s the holiday season, which means lots of festive decorations, tableware, and food! Adults and kids love the special desserts that come with Christmas, and it’s even more fun when they’re simple to make and decorate. The important part is being together, so here are three easy-to-make suggestions for home or school: gifts made with brownie squares, puffed rice cereal wreaths, and a tree made out of cupcakes. You can make the base of the treats in advance and save the decorating for the kids. The best part is that it’s all edible!

Brownie Gifts

For these palm-sized brownie gifts, you will need: a brownie pan, packaged brownie mix and icing, mini candy canes, and holiday sprinkles of your choice.

To make these brownie gifts into perfect squares, use a tray like this one, from Kitchen Stuff Plus. This brownie pan is perfect because many people like the edge pieces and, with this pan, everyone gets one! I like the stability and the clean edges of these perfect squares.

Bake and ice the brownies according to the instructions on the box. If you want to make your own brownies from scratch, go ahead. Make sure you bake the brownies long enough so they aren’t gooey. I baked mine for 30 minutes in this pan. This way the candy canes will stand upright securely. 

Place two mini candy canes in the centre of each iced brownie. This is the ‘bow’ of the gift. Slightly angle the candy canes into the brownies, so they look like a tied bow. Decorate with sprinkles/colourful icing. I like these colorful stoneware bowls and star spoons for keeping the sprinkles and candy pieces tidy. The brownie gift can even be picked up by the candy canes!

Puffed Rice Wreaths and Ornaments

To make these wreaths, you will need: a baking sheet with a 2 cm or ¾-inch height tray, like this one from Wilton, sprayed with cooking spray. You will also use circle cookie cutters, icing, and sprinkles of your choice. To make the puffed rice base, you will need ¼ cup of butter, 40 large marshmallows, 1 tsp vanilla, 6 cups of puffed rice cereal, and 20 drops of green food coloring.

Cook the butter, marshmallows, and vanilla over medium heat, stirring until the ingredients come together in a smooth mixture and the marshmallows are fully melted. Add 20 drops of green food coloring and stir well. Remove from the heat and add the puffed rice cereal and combine. Spread into the pan so that the thickness of the cereal comes up to the edge of the pan. You may not fill the entire tray you’re using, especially if it’s as long as this 15 inch one. I used a spatula like this green Christmas one, to smooth out the cereal and keep it even at the ends.

Wait until the spread cereal cools and hardens up a bit, at least two hours. You can make it the day before and cover it with plastic to use the next day. Use metal cookie cutters to cut out any shape you want. I used circles to make wreaths and decorated the inside cut-out pieces as ornaments. Get creative with icing and sprinkles. 

Cupcake Tree

To make this cupcake Christmas tree, you will need: 12 baked cupcakes, icing, sprinkles, pretzel rods or pieces, and a tray that is about 12 by 16 inches, like this red one, which also comes in white.

Bake and ice the cupcakes and then arrange ten cupcakes in a pyramid shape with four cupcakes forming the bottom of the tree and two cupcakes forming the trunk of the Christmas tree. I used a star cookie cutter to make the star at the top of the tree. Place the cutter into the icing and put the sprinkles carefully into the centre of the cutter. Shake the cupcake gently to spread the sprinkles around and invert the cupcake so the extra sprinkles fall out.

Decorate each row of the tree with a different, consistent design or have each person decorate a cupcake and keep it random. Use pretzel rods or pretzel pieces to create a wood-like tree trunk. ‘Hang’ mini candy canes on the tree by pushing them into some of the cupcake branches. Place ornaments like this star one, paper gift boxes, and candy canes around the tree and on the tray. A cake mix cupcake recipe yields 24 cupcakes, so you can decorate the remaining 12 cupcakes and serve those, if you would like to keep the cupcake tree to grace your dessert table.

These three treats are really easy to make and are a great opportunity for a kids’ get-together or a family holiday decorating session. The end result is a beautiful and colourful dessert spread. You can create a festive table to wow your guests by using tableware like this tartan table runner, tiered plate, red cake plate, Christmas snowflake dish, snowflake placemats, and old-fashioned milk bottle drinking glasses, all available at Kitchen Stuff Plus. I also love these ‘vintage’ Christmas napkins with the truck and tree motif. 

I hope these ideas inspire you to use your favorite candies and chocolates to create some fun Christmas memories with family and friends!

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