Goodies that work for any Holiday.

Here are some goodies that can be changed easily depending on what Holiday you have coming up.
 These are Key Lime Coconut cupcakes, but really you can make any flavor cupcake that goes with that season.  So with Halloween coming up I would probably make either a fall flavored cupcake, a Halloween decorated cupcake with some cute topper, or simply make the case colors and frosting colors orange and black (if possible it is best to skip the black frosting because it will make the mouths of your guests look yucky, unless that is what you are going for!)  And there are so many cute cake stands out there.  This one is a cheap cardboard one that my mother-in-law got on sale last year and it did turn out cute.

In the back of the serving platters are mini pies.  These are pretty simple to make as well as to change seasons or Holidays.  To make the mini pies you need the following items:  Pie crust, pie filling (what ever flavor you want, a mini muffin tin, and circle cookie cutters.
I used a circle cookie cutter that was 1/2 inch wider than the mini tin to cut out circles of the pie crust. Lightly grease your muffin tins and place your pie crusts in each hole pushing them into the tin leaving a little for the edge of the pie.  For Halloween I have even pinched one side of the pie crust to make it look like a pumpkin (the pinched part is the stem of the pumpkin and then use pumpkin pie filling for the body, and after it is baked you can either leave it that way or pipe eyes nose and mouth with melted chocolate for a cute Jack'o lantern.)  For other Holidays you can put a crust on top that has a shape cut out of the top crust.  For the 4th of July I cut little stars and had cherry and blueberry filling for red, white and blue colors.  There are so many mini cutters that your pie crusts could have bunnies, Santa hats, stars, hearts, shamrocks, and many many more.  Bake until cooked, which depends on the pie filling and if there is a top crust and such.  The pumpkin pies cooked quicker I want to say around 15 min, but the pies that had the top crust were around 25 minutes at 350, but in a pinch I have cooked them at 425 for about 12-15 minutes tops.  Just watch them you want the crust cooked and the filling bubbly.  YUM!

The cookies on the platters are refrigerated sugar cookies which are super simple to make and the colors can be changed to match the Holiday.  I believe I have my sugar cookie recipe in the recipe section, but if not then I will get it there soon. To make these sugar cookies you make a batch of your dough and separate it out into how ever many colors you want to make.  Then use some of your frosting colors and knead it into the dough (I would wear gloves or do it in the mixer so your hands don't get stained).  Then roll the dough on Parchment Paper (or wax paper if you don't have parchment paper) probably max of 1/8th of an inch since you will be layering the cookies.  Do this with each color, and then stack them all on top of each other (removing the parchment paper, but save that for the baking).  Roll your rolling pin on top of the cookie dough just a little bit to help them stick together, and then roll them up into a log and refrigerate them for at least an hour.  Then just slice cookies about 1/4 inch thick and put them on the saved parchment and bake at your cookie dough baking time and temp.  But normally it is about 7 to 8 minutes, just check them. You want the edges to be slightly browned, but not the whole cookie or they will get hard (I like softer cookies so bake according to what you like).

So everything is super and can be changed depending on what you are celebrating!  Hope this helps with the upcoming holidays!  Let me know if you have any questions.