Dial up the cute factor at your holiday table with these fun and creative holiday desserts, ranging from easy Santas crafted from strawberries to ambitious baking projects like a buche de Noel. Turn on some festive tunes, gather the whole family, and put even the littlest hands to work stirring batter and decorating with candies. The more the merrier!
Transform ordinary brownies into Prancer, Dancer and Vixen with our recipe for Christmas Reindeer Brownies (pictured above) decorated with mini marshmallows, wafer cookies and candies.
Instead of pricey store-bought chocolates, make your own gorgeous White Chocolate Holiday Bark studded with bright-red dried cranberries and crunchy green pistachios.
Go all out this Christmas with the ultimate holiday baking project: the Buche de Noel. Roll chocolate sponge cake spread with coffee- and brandy-flavored buttercream into a log, frost, then top with marzipan berries, pinecones and mushrooms.
No gingerbread men were harmed in the baking of this Pull-Apart Gingerbread Man. In fact, the clever dessert for a crowd is made up of mini gingerbread cupcakes, a homemade ginger-molasses frosting and candies for decoration.
Giada’s crafty Christmas dessert is not only cute, but it’s healthy too. To make her Strawberry Santas, cut the tips off the berries to make “hats,” layer with mascarpone frosting and dot with mini chocolate chip “eyes.”
Part craft project, part delicious baking endeavor, our Cupcake Christmas Tree makes a stunning edible centerpiece for your holiday table.
What’s more adorable than ordinary gingerbread folks? Gingerbread People in Gingerbread Hot Chocolate Tubs. These bikini-clad gingerbread peeps sitting in drinkable tubs of hot chocolate topped with marshmallow suds will warm you up, sate your sweet tooth and make you smile all at once.
Originally appeared on Blog.FoodNetwork.com.
Words by Elizabeth Brownfield.