Handmade Christmas gifts

Now a year couldn't go by without me making some gifts for the season. So this past Sunday, after I dropped off Grandma at her Christmas sisters brunch, I got busy and got to making my handmade goodies.

I used to make cookies for all of my friends and co-workers every year. But my boss makes these amazing cookies that he's famous for, so I had to switch it up. After making cake pops at the  Handmade Miami cake pop crafter-noon we had earlier this year, I though they would make a great gift for my co-workers. So I baked off a chocolate cake and got down to business.

I was browsing Bakerella's site and the Christmas cake pops she had were so cute! I was gonna try to make the reindeer ones, but I forgot to buy the red candies for the noses, so I made the santa hats instead. Once I got the hang of it it wasn't that hard. The worst part was the dipping. After I was all done, I found out that I should've thinned out the candy melts with some shortening. Oh well, maybe next time. I made about 15 santa hats and got over the triple dipping it required, so then I just made round cake pops. I made a full batch, which is about 55 (I got 57, but had a few cake pop casualties along the way).

I wrapped up the cake pops and attached a cute little tag and handed them out at work. Everyone went crazy for them. And how cute do they look?

While my cake balls were chilling, I had time to make some cranberry orange vodka for my friends. I can't take credit for this, it's all Martha. The recipe is so easy. I made two batches and was able to fill the two smaller and one larger bottle. You just have to do this with a few days of advance notice of when you're gifting it, because it needs at least 3 days (the more the better) to infuse.

So those are this year's handmade gifts (so far at least). Are any of you handmaking any gifts this year?