Cocoa & Crafts Hoilday Party

I hosted a fun girl's night out holiday crafting party last night. Here's the scoop:

Decorating was inspired by this vintage village cupcake kit by Bake It Pretty. I made yummy red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting...recipe at the end of the post.

I used my fun melamine appetizer plates. All from Target...rectangle from last year and circle from this year.

The spread: crackers and cheese, veggies and dip, choc dipped marshmallows, cherry pocket pies (I made them in a half circle this time), onion-cheese custard tarlets, red velvet cupcakes and spiced nuts (got these in the holiday section at Target and they are VERY good).

I made giant snowballs to hang from the ceiling using MS's tissue pom pom tutorial.

For the party favors I made sea salt truffles and put them in these cool cupcake wrappers and placed in printed cellophane bags from Hobby Lobby.

There was a hot beverage bar with hot chocolate mix, homemade mini snowflake marshmallows, choc dipped candy canes and also vanilla chai tea mix.

And there's nothing better than Coke in a bottle.

And there was crafting! We made a variety of ornaments.

Some paper globes.

And button wreaths. These awesome buttons I got here. I ordered 2 bags and it made many wreaths and I have a lot left over.

A girlfriend of mine gave me this super easy recipe for red velvet cake:

Red Velvet Cake

1 package german chocolate cake mix

1 C sour cream

1/2 C water

1/4 C veg oil

1 bottle red food coloring

3 lg eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

Using only ingredients above, mix and prepare as directed on cake mix box. Bake 350F. My cupcakes baked for 19 mins and were perfectly done. Baking round pans or a sheet cake will take longer.

Cream Cheese Frosting

1 8oz pkg cream cheese, room temp

1 stick of butter (1/2 C), room temp

3 3/4 C powdered sugar

1-2 tsp milk to consistency desired

1 tsp vanilla extract

Beat cream cheese and butter til creamed. Add other ingredients til smooth.