It's Beginning to Look a lot like...well, you know!

Christmas is my all-time favorite time of year.  My family celebrates the birth of Jesus and everything the season has to offer.  I came up with a couple of holiday-inspired cupcakes to get in the mood: orange-cranberry and mint chocolate chip.  And to try out how well these flavors worked, I had the opportunity to be a vendor at a local craft fair this past weekend.  I have never sold at a craft fair before, so this was a bit of a nerve-wracking experience.  How many cupcakes do I make?  How to showcase them?  How well will they sell?  I ended up making over 300 (yes, folks, 300!) cupcakes.  I made my holiday cupcakes as well as Snickerdoodles.  Thankfully, I had a good friend help me (again, thank you Denise!!).  I think I overestimated how many cupcakes I would need, but I got great feedback on my cupcakes.  The fair was successful, though, and I would do it again in a heartbeat.  Take a look at my table and these delicious cupcakes:

Here I am...freezing! It was pretty chilly in the building. Luckily, my sweet hubby went home and got me some boots!

I used frames to display the price list and a flyer describing the business

Cranberry-Orange with Orange Buttercream

Mint Chocolate Chip with Mint Buttercream

Snickerdoodle with Cinnamon Buttercream

As I said before, I had such a great time and enjoyed seeing all the other vendors.  I even got some Christmas shopping done! 

Now, since my first random drawing was such a success, I am going to do another one for December.  Go to my Facebook page and find the picture of the Mint Chocolate Chip cupcakes and "like" it by December 18th.  If you win, you can pick between either the Cranberry-Orange or the Mint Chocolate Chip to have delivered by Christmas!

Tip of the Blog:
The Cranberry-Orange cupcakes were garnished with orange peel.  When grating any fruit peel (called the zest), be cautious to only grate the outer peel and not the white pith underneath.  The pith is bitter and will take away from the sweetness of the zest.  If you are looking to add some great flavor to a batter, zest is the way to go!