Merry Christmas everyone! I’m spending Christmas in Atlanta with my cousin and nephews. I’ve been doing a lot of baking and cooking and not a lot of picture taking or writing up recipes.  My bad but you’ll just have to deal until the new year….

One thing I enjoy making is rainbow cupcakes. It’s just fun to do and the end product looks rad. They’re usually so colorful that you don’t need to put frosting on top (which I did eventually for these plus with red and green sprinkles but I have no picture of that).  I decided to make a batch of Christmas colored cupcakes to take with me to work.  As if we weren’t getting enough sweets sent to us from different companies and what not.  But I figured one last bit of sweetness couldn’t hurt.

– 2 boxes white cake mix
- eggs (egg substitute), oil and water according to cake mix directions
- Red & Green food coloring

Frosting
- 8 oz. package cream cheese, softened (Tofutti Better than Cream Cheese)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- Christmas colored sprinkles

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large mixing bowl, mix cake mix, eggs, oil and water to create a smooth batter. Separate the batter into 3 equal bowls. Add Red food color to one bowl and mix with a spoon.  Keep mixing until there is no white batter left in the bowl.  If you know your color wheel and what not you know that red and white obviously make pink.  Keep adding red food coloring until you get an actual red color in the batter.

In the second bowl add green food coloring to the batter and mix until there is no white left.  Leave the third bowl with the white batter.

Line a muffin pan with cupcake liners.  Now, you can really do this however way you want; I personally liked layering the different batter colors alternating so i had some that were green on top, then red and so on into each cupcake liner.  Once you are done filling all the liners, using a toothpick, stick into the batter of each liner and slowly swirl them around to get a swirly, paisley effect.  Place them in the oven and bake for about 20-22 minutes or until they pass the toothpick test.

Remove from oven and allow them to cool.

For the frosting, add softened cream cheese to a bowl. Add vanilla extract and mix. Once all cupcakes are cooled frost each one. Sprinkle Christmas colored sprinkles on top.

Makes about 2 dozen

I try not to eat a lot of candy around the holidays but one of my favorite combinations any time of the year is mint and chocolate.  I always look forward to grabbing a bag of Hershey’s Mint Kisses because they’re always available during Christmas-time.  It can get a little dangerous, me, alone with a bag of mint kisses.  So instead of devouring them one by one I figured I would make a bark to share with my family and co-workers so I didn’t hog it all to myself.

- 1/2 bag mint-chocolate chips
- 1/2 bag white chocolate chips
- 2 tbsp Christmas colored sprinkles
- wax paper

Place a layer of wax paper onto a baking sheet. Use a double boiler to melt chocolate. Start with the mint chocolate chips first. Melt them in the double boiler and whisk as its melting. Keep whisking until all chips are melted and you see a nice sheen in the chocolate. You want to keep whisking in order to prevent the chocolate from being too hot and burning or curdling. Once all the chocolate is melted then remove from heat and pour onto wax paper. You want to pour it in the middle and allow itself to spread. Use a spatula to evenly coat the shape of the pan. If your chocolate doesn’t reach the edges that’s fine it doesn’t need to, just make sure it’s even to prevent it from being too thick or thin in certain places. Let it set, clean out your bowl or use another bowl because you will want to make sure it is completely dry.

Repeat process with white chocolate chips. Once all white chocolate chips are melted add sprinkles and continue to whisk. Once white chocolate is done pour over the mint chocolate on the wax paper. Use a spatula to smooth over white chocolate. If you mix the mint chocolate and white chocolate together don’t worry, not only will it make some fun paisley designs I like to say it gives the effect of “snow on the ground.” Set the tray in the fridge to harden for at least one hour, best overnight.

Once the chocolate has hardened, remove wax paper from the underside of the chocolate and begin to break into chunks. It doesn’t really matter how big or small you do it it’s not meant to be perfect shapes. Then eat and enjoy or this also makes a good gift in a tin or bag.