Blogmas #17: DIY Last Minute Gift

So you’re a last minute shopper, and now it’s the day before the company Christmas party and you need a secret Santa gift. Darn. What do you do? I am the cake-in-a-cup wizard. I have tried them all and done many experiments to find the best cake-in-a-cup. But have you thought about making them gifts? Maybe you should.

We’ve all seen those mason jar cake/cookie/brownie kits where you dump the jar in with an egg and some milk or something and the recipe is done? You can do the same thing with a festive mug.

I recommend choosing a nice Christmassy mug, or you can DIY one, two tutorials that are not mine but that I like can be found here and here for fun mug projects. Then you can pick out a nice cellophane bag and add all the dry ingredients, layering them up nicely. Attach a card with directions for the wet ingredients and baking time and you’re done!

Here are three recipes you can use. I’ve tried them all, and they’re all great. Each serves just one.

Chocolate Chip Cookie

Dry ingredients:

1 tbsp white sugar

1 tbsp brown sugar

Pinch salt

¼ cup of flour

3 tbsp chocolate chips

Wet ingredients:

2 tbsp melted butter

1 egg

Cook 60 seconds in the microwave.

Brownie

Dry ingredients:

2 tbsp sugar

1 tbsp brown sugar

Pinch salt

4 tbsp flour

1 tbsp cocoa powder

2 tbsp chocolate chips

Wet ingredients:

2 tbsp melted butter

1 egg

Cook 45 seconds in microwave.

Salted Caramel Cake

Dry ingredients:

4 tbsp flour

4 tbsp sugar

3 tbsp cocoa powder

¼ tsp baking powder

Pinch Salt

2 or 3 caramels (the little square ones)

Wet ingredients:

1 egg

3 tbsp milk

Cook 90 seconds in microwave.

There you go. Three quick gift ideas that are perfect for that person you drew in the secret Santa.

Today's advent calendar prize is Sugarbomb Ultra Plush Lip Gloss.

I like the colour of this. It's darker than both of the other colours that I've gotten so far, which weren't so much to my taste.This one is better. So far I haven't been impressed with their lip gloss formula, but I will try this out. I am not convinced that I should actually buy any of their full-size glosses. The description online also says this is supposed to be sugary, but it doesn't seem any different from the other glosses and their can't-put-my-finger-on-it taste.