Have you started making your Christmas desserts? The festive season is mostly about eating. People eat all kinds of foods as they spend time with their families and friends. One dessert that features in almost every meal is a cake. Cakes add festive sparkle to Christmas dinner tables. They whet appetites and delight the senses. If you want to create a Christmas cake that is scrumptious and unique, look to Stagetecture’s best Christmas cakes. You’ll add the “wow” factor to your dinner table.

How to Make Our Favorite Christmas Desserts

Christmas Dessert: Christmas Tree Cupcakes Recipe

If you want your kids to remember the holiday season for a long time to come, make these Christmas tree cupcakes. They are sure to impress as they are shaped like miniature Christmas trees. What’s more, you can use them as decorations on your holiday table. Kids will not only love them, adults won’t be able to resist them. Get the recipe here: Kids Dessert: Christmas Tree Cupcakes Recipe.

Christmas Dinner Dessert: Chocolate and Almond Buche De Noel

Buche de Noel is a conventional French Christmas dessert that looks like a tree log. It is usually garnished with powdered sugar and meringue mushrooms. To attain the cylindrical shape, do not bake the cake for too long and roll it while it’s warm. You can make your own variations to the filling by adding chocolate chips, nuts, and even berries. This Christmas cake will be the centerpiece of your Christmas dinner because of its look and taste. For the best outcome, use this recipe: Christmas Dessert: Chocolate and Almond Buche De Noel.

Traditional Christmas Desserts: Caramel Creme Cake

This post not only incorporates cakes, it includes different types of desserts. It has a recipe for pecan squares and Rudolph’s Christmas sugar cookies. But if a cake is what you’re after, check out the recipe for caramel cream cake, chocolate mint cake, and chocolate citrus cake with candied oranges. There’s no way you can go wrong with so many options.

Rudolph’s Christmas Cookies

No doubt about it, a Christmas cake is a major part of a Christmas dinner. It is something people look forward to and indulge in. The best thing is that you can make your cake in advance and freeze it till Christmas day. Don’t buy your Christmas cake at the store when you can make a stunning one on your own!

For more of our favorite holiday desserts click here.

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Celebrating the holidays with a holiday cookie swap is the perfect way to celebrate the season with family, friends, and coworkers!  Not only are the holidays right around the corner, but invitations to all sort of social events are about to start rolling in. If you’re thinking of hosting a little get together this year, why not try a cookie swap? They’re simple, sweet and we have all the info you need right here. Follow these tips and you and your friends will get to enjoy a festive evening enjoying your favorite cookie recipes. It’s bound to become a yearly tradition.

How to Host the Best Holiday Cookie Swap

Send Cute Cookie Swap Invitations:

These days, formal invitations to parties are often considered more of a nice gesture than an absolute necessity. However, we think that a cookie exchange is a perfect time to bring this courtesy back. Cookie exchange invitations are perfect! Why? To provide instructions. In case our guests are unfamiliar with the process, write up a little info sheet asking each person to bring three-dozen of their favorite recipe. Suggest that they be individually packaged for easy grabbing and remind everyone to bring a container for later. Try these pretty cookie swap invitations on Etsy!

Image via: Enchanted Designs 4 u – Cookie Party invitations

Set A Festive Mood at your Cookie Swap:

This is a holiday party, after all! Before your guests arrive, do your best to set the holiday atmosphere. Get out your best decorations, light up the tree, if you have one, and put on some soft music in the background. We suggest layering the table where you’ll be displaying the cookies with cheery tablecloths and using gift-wrapped boxes to stagger the cookies at different heights. Your guests will be sure to feel the celebratory mood right away.

Offer Holiday Favorites to your Cookie Party:

As much as we’d love to, it’s probably not a good idea to subsist on cookies alone. That seems like a recipe for a stomachache. Go ahead and set up a separate table with non-baked seasonal favorites to round things out. The adults will go nuts over a fortified punch and the kids will love these yummy brownies recipe!

Prepare for Leftovers:

Other than getting caught up with friends and family, the best part of a cookie swap is getting the opportunity to sample tons of different cookie recipes with only minimal effort on your part. The next best part is getting a chance to bring leftovers home. Make sure your guest don’t leave empty-handed by preparing adorable doggie bags for them to take home. It could be something as simple as a paper bag with a small gift tag and some ribbon because this is one occasion where its what’s on the inside that counts.

 Cookie exchanges definitely rank as some of our favorite holiday entertaining events because they’re so simple. Pick one friend to provide the location and set the scene, a few others to bring small snacks, and ask all the invitees to bring some cookies. That’s it. While you could certainly bust out your favorite party games, we just like to let everyone mingle. Think of your cookie swap as a few restful hours away from all of the holiday stress. Trust us, our tips make will make it super simple and delightfully festive.

Have you ever been to a cookie exchange? What’s your favorite kind of cookie?

For more ways to celebrate this holiday season, visit our celebration category!

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Who’s making homemade brownies this weekend?! We love finding delicious recipes that are don’t have gluten but still taste like homemade. Going gluten-free does not mean going dessert free for the rest of your life. In fact, there are plenty of gluten-free dessert options available. While you may not be able to pick a box of cookies at your local bakery, you certainly can make some delicious treats right in your own home. To help you get started, we point you this Mocha Brownie recipe that only you would know is gluten-free.

Gluten Free Dessert: Mocha Like Homemade Brownies with Fresh Raspberries

Yields: 12 servings

Homemade Brownies Ingredients:

4 large egg whites

16 ounce (1 package) gluten free brownie mix

6 tablespoons canola oil

1 tablespoon instant coffee granules

Cooking spray

1 cup whipping cream

2 teaspoons instant coffee granules

½ teaspoon vanilla essence

¼ cup powdered sugar

½ cup chocolate syrup

1 ½ cups fresh raspberries

Homemade Brownies Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Beat egg whites using a hand mixer at high speed for one minute or until frothy. Stir in oil, brownie mix, and 1 tablespoon coffee granules. (batter should be thick)
3. Spread the batter in an 11* 7 inch ceramic or glass baking dish coated with cooking spray.
4. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the edges comes out clean. (center will not be cooked at this moment but will continue to cook as brownies cooks.) Cool completely in a dish on wire rack. Cut into six squares, then again cut each square diagonally in half to create 12 triangles.
5. In a medium bowl, place cream, 2 teaspoons coffee granules, and vanilla essence. Beat using a mixer at a high speed until foamy. Add powdered sugar; beat again until soft peaks form.
6. Place brownie on a serving plate. Drizzle with chocolate syrup. Dollop with topping and sprinkle fresh raspberries.

Eliminating gluten from your diet does not mean sacrificing all the flavor. Let us know what you love about these yummy brownies.

You may love our vegan brownie recipe too!

For more dessert ideas, check out our dessert recipes archives.

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If you are hosting a Thanksgiving feast this year and want to leave your guests with a little party favor, these ideas can help you get started. It does not have to be expensive or extravagant, just a little thoughtful gesture for their time. You can leave them at the table to greet your guests before dinner or let them take it with them for the drive home. We point you some creative Thanksgiving favor ideas.

Creative Party Favors for your Thanksgiving Entertaining

Thanksgiving Entertaining Ideas – Bake season inspired cookies

Trust us, you can never go wrong with leaf, pumpkin or turkey shaped cookies. Use a cookie cutter and then frost them with colored icing. If preparing for the Thanksgiving dinner is already too much for you, go ahead and purchase cookies from a local bakery and pack them in little pouches. Guests will be so happy to receive this pretty gift that they won’t care who made it.

Try these Thanksgiving cookie recipes.

Thanksgiving Fun for Kids: Chocolate gold coins

Well, a bag of chocolate gold coins might sound very boring and usual. But, it gets very different and special when you attach a card saying, “If you want to feel rich, count all the blessings money can’t buy!”.

DIY Thanksgiving favors

Spray paint mini pinecones in a metallic gold or silver color and fill a small glass jar with them. Place them at every setting for your guests to take home as a holiday decoration. Alternatively, fill small mason jars with a tea light candle and glue ribbon around the rim. Double them as a decor for the Thanksgiving table and have your guests take them home post dinner.

Thanksgiving Ideas – Create a Mini Cookbook

As the holiday season is almost upon us, why not create a mini cookbook with your favorite recipes? You can browse Stagetecture for tons of ideas and print them for your guests. Although there are a lot of cookbooks available that you can buy, we think there will not be any that will be filled with more love and comfort than the one that you will make by yourself.

Thanksgiving favors are a way of showing your loved ones how much they mean to you. Use these ideas to create lovely presents that can double as party decor and thank you gifts at the same time.

For Thanksgiving host and hostess gifts shop our Burlap and Succulents shop.

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Who doesn’t love brownies? If you’re looking for a chocolate brownies recipe perfect for those of you with a vegan lifestyle, you will love this one. Try this vegan Chocolate Brownies recipe perfect for your sweet tooth. There is nothing better than a warm brownie alongside your favorite frothy drink or cup of coffee. Enjoy this delicious brownie recipe for your dessert love!

How to Make Vegan Chocolate Brownies Recipe 

Brownies Recipe Ingredients:

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2 cups white sugar
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup water
1 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Chocolate Brownies Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. In a large bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt. Pour in water, vegetable oil and vanilla; mix until well blended. Spread evenly in a 9×13 inch baking pan.
3. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes in the preheated oven, until the top is no longer shiny. Let cool for at least 10 minutes before cutting into squares.

Best Brownie Recipes:

Many cooks argue what makes the best brownie recipes. Is it the chocolate, the density, the sweetness, or the right combination of them all? We’d love to hear what you love about brownies and share them with us in the comments!

For more delicious desserts, visit our desserts archives.

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