This year like every year I was tasked with the job of coming up with cute little office gift ideas to give to Tim’s staff as a token of his appreciation.
I can’t lie, this is my favorite time of year, so it was right up my alley when he told me he was ready for me to put the gift ideas together.
This year I wanted to do something a little different and more meaningful so I decided I would give everyone sweet treats to put them in the holiday spirit and landed on Chocolate Cupcakes, with white icing and Ghirardelli Peppermint Bark Squares as the toppers.
Yummy!!!!
I looovvvveee Ghirardelli chocolate and I figured everyone needed a little pick me up this year, and he’s always talking about how the ladies in his office love sweet treats so I thought this would be the perfect gift!
To keep it affordable I ran out to Walmart and picked up everything I needed to make these special treats, and prepared them right from the comfort of my kitchen in less than a couple of hours.
To prepare these sweet treats you’re going to need the following:
- Cupcake Mix – Look I’m not a gourmet chef, lol. My cupcakes come right out of the box.
- White Icing – Don’t use the marshmallow kind, it’s too soft, get you some stiff or medium decorative icing it makes it a lot easier to decorate. I had to make a second run to grab some stiff icing because the first round of icing I got wasn’t getting the job done, lol..
- Piping Bags and Tips – You can find these on the cake decorating aisle
- Decorative Boxes – Look in the Christmas decor section there are plenty of options. Choose what works for you based on your needs
- Shredded Paper Gift Filler – I decided to use shredded paper, it’s inexpensive and a little goes a long way
- Ghirardelli Peppermint Bark Chocolate Squares – This is the most important part. Without cupcake toppers, you’ve just got plain cupcakes and there’s nothing fancy about that. When you add the chocolate squares as the topper it makes your cupcakes look all fancy and like you put a lot of work into it. But in reality, it takes like 5 extra minutes, lol.
Preparing Your Gift Boxes
- Cook Your Cupcakes and Let Them Cool – Again my cupcakes came right out of the box, when I really want to be fancy I add butter instead of oil, but that’s as gourmet as it gets, lol. So whip them up and while they’re cooling you can get your gift boxes ready.
- Prepare Your Gift Boxes – Make sure your boxes are free from any of the little packets they put in them to keep them fresh and add an even mix of your white and red shredded paper. Fill the box up about ¾ of the way and put it to the side. Prepare all of your boxes so once the cupcakes are ready you can just place them in the boxes.
- Prepare Your Icing – I like to place my tip inside the bag and push it all the way down to the bottom cutting off the tip to make the icing tip fit securely in the hole. Once that’s done I place the entire bag in a 12 oz cup folding the top around the edges of the cup. I take a spoon to transfer the icing from the container to the bag and squeeze until the icing is slowly coming out of the tip of the bag.
- Cut you Ghirardelli Chocolate Squares into 4 pieces
- Decorate your cooled cupcakes with icing, add sprinkles then place one of your 4 pieces of Ghirardelli Chocolate Squares gently into the tip of the cupcake until it is secure.
- Place your cupcake in the gift box and decorate with unopened chocolate squares, close the box, and deliver.
Viola!
A super sweet and tasty gift your loved ones or coworkers are sure to love!
That’s it it’s that simple. You made a fast easy and delicious treat that looks like you spent hours making and is sure to add a great hint of the holidays to the festivities!
If you decide to try it I’d love to know, and if you love Ghirardelli like I do head over to Walmart and grab you a bag, or two, or three.
Enjoy friend and happy gift-giving season!!!
