Best Treats to Give as Gifts

The holidays are the perfect time to show your appreciation for your loved ones and all that they have done for you over the last year. However, it is easy to be overwhelmed by the thought of buying an individual gift for each person, especially those whose tastes you don’t know as well. Fortunately, today we have compiled a list of delicious holiday treats to give as gifts that are perfect for everyone on your list, from your co-workers, to your neighbors, to your children’s teachers.

Caramel Dipped Pretzel Rods
The combination of salty and sweet flavors is one of the hottest food trends today. Using our Peter’s Caramel Loaf, melt in the microwave or on the stovetop, stirring regularly. You can also add one ounce of confectioner’s sugar to each pound of caramel to thicken it for the ideal gooeyness. Roll your pretzel rods in the caramel mixture and immediately dust with or roll in your favorite holiday sprinkles. We also love this treat because it is so easy to package! All you need are a few caramel pretzel rods, a brightly colored cello bag and a string of sparkly ribbon.

Cupcakes in a Jar
Mason jars are still one of the hottest items on the baking scene, and are a great way to present your baked treats in an easy and portable way. Using your favorite family recipe or one of our delicious premium cake mixes for quick convenience, bake a tray of chocolate, vanilla or red velvet cupcakes. Using an 8oz jam-sized mason jar, drop one unwrapped cupcake into the bottom and pipe with your favorite creamy frosting. Repeat once more for a double layered effect. For an even more personalized effect, write little notes to recipients on the top of the jar lid, or try printing out your most recent family picture and wrapping it around the jar for an edible holiday card!

White Chocolate Party Popcorn
Party popcorn is one of our favorite treats all year round, and it could not be simpler! All you need is microwave popcorn, white chocolate candy melts and sprinkles of your choosing — we tend to stick to red and green this time of year, but any sprinkles will do. Simply melt the candy melts in the microwave on medium heat, stirring every 45 seconds, and once fully liquefied, slowly pour over a bowl of fresh popped popcorn, mixing as you pour. Kids will love shaking the sprinkles over the mixture, but be sure to add sprinkles quickly while the candy melts are still sticky, otherwise you risk all of your sprinkles falling to the bottom of the mixing bowl. Serve either in a small paper bag or out in a large bowl at your next event!

Peppermint Bark
One of the best items to make in a large batch is chocolate bark. For this version, all you will need is a bag of semisweet dark chocolate drops, peppermint extract, white chocolate melts and crushed up candy canes. Line a large baking sheet with aluminum foil, shiny-side up to prevent sticking. Stir in one ounce of peppermint extract to the melted dark chocolate and spread evenly across the baking tray. Leave aside for ten minutes to allow the chocolate to set. Then, repeat the process with the white chocolate, immediately sprinkling with the crushed candy canes, gently pressing the candy into the white chocolate. Set aside for about an hour at room temperature to allow the chocolate to harden, then break apart into small pieces and wrap in bags or small boxe
s for serving.

We would love to hear if you have tried any other holiday gift recipes! Comment below or share on our Facebook page!

Last-Minute Christmas Candies

Christmas is only a few days away now, which means it’s time to start distributing your Christmas candies to neighbors, coworkers, friends and family. If you’re one of the many people who never got to making Christmas candies during this busy season, you might think you missed out on being able to give homemade gifts to friends, but we have a few last-minute Christmas candy ideas to keep you from having to make a run to the store. Give yourself an afternoon to make these delicious last-minute gifts, and your friends will love their treats.

 Here’s a roundup of our favorite easy Christmas candies:

Martha Stewart’s Peanut Butter Swirl Bark — Four ingredients are all you need to make this delicious bark. If your recipients love peanut butter, they’re sure to enjoy this delightful and gorgeous bark.

No-Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Candy Bars — It’s entirely possible that you have all of the ingredients for these bars in your pantry right now. The delicious peanut butter and chocolate combination makes this treat a must-have!

Triple Chocolate Covered Peanut Clusters — This recipe uses the slow cooker to make most of its cooking time hands off, which is perfect when you need to wrap gifts! Once the chocolate melts in the slow cooker, add the peanuts and drop by heaping tablespoons onto wax paper to cool. It’s that simple.

Peanut Butter Pretzel Bites — Combining peanut butter, caramel and chocolate with salty pretzels might be the tastiest thing you could do this holiday season. This recipe makes about 100 pretzel bites, so plan accordingly!

Cool Mint Patties — Making popular supermarket candies at home is the surest way to prove you have magical powers. You can keep it a secret that this recipe is a snap to make with only seven ingredients.

Chocolate Mint Candy — For the mint lovers in your life, this chocolate mint candy has to be on your must-make list. This recipe yields about two pounds of candy, which might be the perfect amount for your Christmas snacking needs.

Choc-Cherry Fudge — If you’re looking for an easy fudge recipe, this might be your winner. Maraschino cherries with their stems attached really make the presentation of this fudge something special. The best part? No need for a stove or oven!

Salted Chocolate Pecan Toffee — This recipe doubles easily, so make a couple of pans of this delectable toffee, and you’ll be able to knock out all of your Christmas candy-making in one pass. With chocolate, pecans and a hint of saltiness, what could be better?

Salted Caramel Charms — Salted caramel is a huge hit again this year, so be sure to take advantage of the sweet and salty craze with these gorgeous truffles. Only requiring four ingredients, you know this recipe can’t be too difficult!

Gingerbread Cake Balls — What says “Christmas time!” more than gingerbread? These cake balls offer a new twist on an old favorite and are sure to impress anyone who receives them.

Looking for more Christmas candy ideas? Check out our Pinterest board! Have a Christmas candy that you love to make every year? Let us know about it in the comments below.

Christmas Candies You Should Make in December

Christmas is right around the corner, which means one thing around here: It’s time to plan out the candies we’re making!  Christmas candy is a must for holiday parties and a perfect gift to give to neighbors and coworkers, so now’s the time to choose a few candies to make during December.

One of our favorite Christmas candy options around here is traditional chocolate candies molded into holiday shapes. It’s great for candy making beginners and experts, and if you stock up on a few different types of candy molds, you can make all of your Christmas candy in a snap!

To make chocolate candies, choose a chocolate with a high percentage of cocoa butter to give the chocolate plenty of sheen and temper the chocolate (for an easy chocolate tempering tutorial, click here). Next, pour the chocolate into your different holiday candy molds — we recommend evergreen trees, stars and Santa’s face for a cute variety of chocolates to give to family and friends. Let the chocolate cool, and then your chocolate treats are ready to go!

Another classic holiday treat is fudge, which might be one of the quickest and most simple sweets to make.

For our super-simple fudge, you’ll need:

• 12 oz. semisweet chocolate chips
• 1 tbsp water 
• ½ of a 14 oz. can of sweetened condensed milk 
• ¾ c. chopped walnuts
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract

Microwave the semisweet chocolate chips, water and condensed milk together on high, stopping each minute to stir until the chocolate is smooth. Once the chocolate is fully melted, add in the walnuts and vanilla and pour the mixture onto a cookie sheet lined with wax paper. Chill the fudge until firm, then cut and enjoy!

For a change from traditional Christmas candy, we love making peanut butter truffles! Better Homes and Gardens has a delicious recipe for this tasty dessert, and it only requires a few easy ingredients and a little bit of time. This recipe allows for a little customization, too: You can add in finely chopped peanuts and use whatever quality of dark or bittersweet chocolate you want!

What’s your favorite treat to make for friends, family, coworkers and neighbors this time of year? Let us know in the comments below or on Facebook!

How to Decorate Holiday Cookies

Whether you are young or old, one of our favorite activities to do as a family around the holidays is to sit around the table laughing, sharing stories, and decorating holiday cookies. However, thinking about the potential mess of smeared icing and scattered sprinkles can make some nervous. Today, we have compiled a helpful guide to icing and decorating your own holiday cookies to make a memorable and delicious treat for your family.

The first step to creating a fun collection of holiday cookies is assembling some festive cookie cutters. Some of our favorites for the holidays are the classic Gingerbread Boy, Candy Cane and the Snow Covered Tree. Kids will love rolling out the dough with a rolling pin and stamping their own shapes, but be sure that there is an adult around to put the cookies into the hot oven!

Next comes the sweetest part of the cookie making process: the icing! We love using the soft and fluffy CK Buttercream Frosting on our cookies. Delicious and easy to use, it is the perfect canvas for any cookie. You can apply it right from the can or whip it up in the mixer on low with any of our professional food colorings for a rainbow of frosting colors. Or, if you want to add more of a seasonal twist to your frosting, add in a few drops of candy flavoring oils: Peppermint and cinnamon are our favorites this time of year.

Your kids will love the last step, making their cookies truly unique by dusting on colored sugar or fun-shaped sprinkles. These Christmas Light Bulk Candy Sprinkles are perfect for any sugar cookie, or go the more classic route with White and Red Decorette sprinkles for a custom-designed candy cane look.

The options for holiday cookies are truly endless, and with the holiday season creeping up on us, it is the perfect time to start experimenting with decorations for your holiday party or just a snowy afternoon snuggled up inside with your family. For more ideas on how to decorate holiday cookies this year, check out one of our favorite guides, courtesy of Real Simple Magazine.

What are you favorite ways to decorate cookies this time of year? Leave a comment and let other readers know your secrets!

The Beginner’s Guide to Making Holiday Candy

No matter which holiday you are celebrating during the winter season, it is a great time of year to show your friends, family, neighbors, and co-workers how much you appreciate everything that they have done for you this year with a little bag of sweet treats. With all of the peppermint and chocolate candy options, it can be overwhelming to know where to begin! Luckily, today we have assembled a handy beginner’s guide to making holiday candy to whip you into shape for the holiday season, including how you can use some of the tools you already have to make delicious delights that everyone will love!

Candy Molds

Whether you fill it with hard candies, mints or chocolate, everyone will love all of the fun festive shapes of our favorite holiday molds. At such affordable prices, candy molds are a great place to stock up with a variety of options to give your dessert tray personality. The cute mini Pine Cone Mold is ideal for chocolate, and the Tree Sucker Mold would be perfect to fill with bright colored candy melting wafers. When making lollipops, do not forget the most important part — the sucker sticks!

Fillings

While red, green and white candy melts are always safe and reliable options around the holidays, this is the time of year to be adventurous and make your candies as bright and colorful as the ornaments on your Christmas tree.  Or, try dipping your favorite crunchy snacks like pretzel sticks or twists into our premium chocolate melts and then dip in your favorite multi colored sprinkles, or even crush up candy canes and dip chocolate melts into the powder.

Packaging

The holiday season is no time to be shy with your candy packaging. Now more than ever is time to go over the top with bows, curled ribbon and bright colored packaging. From gold and silver doilies to red and green twist ties for cello bags, Sweet Treat Supply has you covered, whether you are bringing a tray of treats to a friend’s party or giving out small bags as favors. For a real blank canvas, try putting your candies inside one of our simple White Cake Boxes. If you have children who are eager to help with the candy preparations, but you are hesitant to have handling hot candy melts, they will love decorating the boxes!

We all know how easy it is for the holiday season to become jam packed with gift shopping, school activities and office holiday parties, and it is tempting to grab the first tray of holiday cookies at the grocery store as you dash out the door. However, with so many simple options in the candy making world, it is a fun way to add a personalized and handmade touch to your gifts and treats that everyone will love and appreciate!

Five Fall Treats You’ll Love

With the arrival of fall comes a wave of new flavors that will leave you tempted to clean out the pantry and make room for all of the delicious goodness that the season has to offer. However, with so many holidays to celebrate and football games to watch, there is hardly an extra minute of time to put toward concocting all of the sweet treats on your fall wish list! That’s why we’ve put together a list of five must-try simple dessert recipes for fall that you’ll absolutely love:

Candy Corn Cookies

It’s impossible to talk about fall without mentioning the spookiest, most sugary holiday of the year: Halloween. As a tribute to this fun holiday (and your secret candy corn addiction), spoil yourself with these decadent candy corn and white chocolate chip cookies. You haven’t experienced candy corn until you’ve had them like this: warm, gooey and surrounded by white chocolate chips and cookie. Is your mouth watering yet? Try this simple cookie recipe and your friends and family (and your taste buds) will thank you!

Mini Caramel Apples

These delicious caramel creations are the non-baker’s solution to a fantastic autumn-themed dessert. A twist on the standard-sized caramel apple, these minis are as easy to make but without the messy eating! These fruity sweets are the perfect treat for your Halloween happy hour or for the next big fall bake sale. Make your mini apples even more festive by rolling them in autumn-colored edible glitter!

Candied Pecans

One of the telltale signs of fall is seeing fallen pecans on the sidewalk and hearing the crunch of their shells as you pull up your driveway. If you don’t have time to prepare a full-fledged pecan pie for your in-laws visit this Thanksgiving, candied pecans are SO easy to whip up. Plus, they go with just about everything. Eat them by themselves, use them in your fall cookie recipes or even add them to a tossed salad! You can also spruce up any store-bought dessert with these tasty treats.

Snicker Apple Pie

This twist on a classic autumn apple pie recipe is so simple, you’ll feel bad taking too much credit for your sweet creation at the next holiday party. All you need is a pre-made pie crust and some chopped apples and snickers, and you’re practically ready to put it in the oven. Never underestimate simplicity when it comes to baking!

Ooey-Gooey Turtle Bars

These Ooey-Gooey Turtle Bars are a special treat that will have you feeling like a kid again waiting for them to come out of the oven. The combination of caramel, pecans, chocolate and heaven make these the pinnacle of all the great fall dessert recipes. The great thing about this recipe is that you can throw in just about any combination of extras you want. Butterscotch chips instead of chocolate? Easy. Heath bar crumbs for pecans? Done. These may take a little more time and effort to make than some of our other fall dessert recipes, but it will definitely be worth it!

We want to know how your recipes turn out! Which other delicious fall desserts do you love? Let us know, and visit the Sweet Treat Supply store for all of your baking and decorating needs!

Pumpkin Dessert Recipe Roundup

Fall is finally here, and that means one thing: It’s time for some delicious pumpkin desserts! Whether you’ve been craving pumpkin all year long or the fall weather is making you crave some comforting pumpkin flavor, a sweet pumpkin treat is a great way to celebrate this season. We’ve scoured Pinterest and a few of our favorite cooking blogs to find some of the most delicious pumpkin desserts so you can ring in this new season with great taste.

Check out our list of favorite recipes:

Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies — With pumpkin pie spice, pumpkin puree and oatmeal, what’s not to love about these cookies? They’re the perfect amount of sweet, not too difficult to make, and you can convince yourself that they’re almost healthy with the pumpkin and oats.

Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls — Could anything scream “Fall!” more than pumpkin cinnamon rolls? Didn’t think so. These cinnamon rolls come with a buttermilk and pumpkin dough, fabulously buttery cinnamon sugar filling and a cream cheese glaze to die for. While they’re probably not the easiest pumpkin treat you’ll make this fall, they’re sure to be one of the tastiest.

Brown Butter Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting — Take a moment to take in that entire name for this dessert. Brown butter? Delicious. Pumpkin? Love it, obviously. Cupcakes? Of course. Cinnamon? Yes. Cream cheese frosting? Please. We’re not sure if there’s any way to make these cupcakes tastier. They have fall written all over them, so they’re a perfect indulgence for this time of year.

Pumpkin Mug Cake — Pressed for time, but still want a delicious pumpkin dessert? This mug cake has your back. It only needs four ingredients and 60 seconds in the microwave before you’re rewarded with something warm and sweet. You won’t find any hard-to-find ingredients in this recipe, either: cake mix (might we recommend one of these CK cake mixes?), pumpkin puree, water and pumpkin pie spice.

Fudgy Pumpkin Bars with Vanilla Bean Brown Butter Glaze — If you follow us on Facebook, you’ve probably noticed how much we like the Averie Cooks blog. Well, no pumpkin recipe roundup is complete without a recipe from her. In fact, Averie Sunshine just recently released a book called “Cooking with Pumpkin: Recipes That Go Beyond the Pie.” One of our favorite recent pumpkin recipes from her are these fudgy pumpkin bars. There is absolutely nothing that we don’t love about this recipe.

If you’re looking to make a favorite pumpkin recipe at home, one of our favorite products is the pumpkin spice bakery emulsion. It’s gluten-free and water-based so the flavor won’t bake out.

What are your favorite pumpkin recipes? Let us know in the comments below! If you’re looking for more pumpkin inspiration, check out our Halloween board on Pinterest with plenty of pumpkin deliciousness!