A few weeks ago I hosted my 2nd annual Champagne & Cookies Christmas Party! Nothing like a little hi-brow/lo-brow mixer to kick off the holidays! Just like last year, I spent the month of December in a cookie tizzy, with a list of 28 recipes I wanted to make. After some soul-searching and a serious conference call with Danielle, my list got cut down to ten treats, with some last minute changes to keep things interesting. I had a couple of repeats from last year, and guess which cookies were the first to go? Read on to find out!

#1-3: Soft Frosted Sugar Cookies, Gingerbread Sandwich Cookies with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Filling, Mocha Caramel Nanaimo Squares

I was nervous about the sugar cookies, because Danielle made them and brought them to work, and *gasp* there were leftovers. This is a bad sign, especially in my office, because we all know my co-workers will eat anything. I ended up making them, throwing some red and green sprinkles into the dough, and frosting them with my favourite buttercream. I loved them! The Gingerbread Sandwich Cookies were a huge hit too; basically a soft ginger molasses cookie sandwiched together with cinnamon cream cheese icing. I will definitely make these again. Finally, the Mocha Caramel Nanaimo Squares were a hot mess. The caramel filling was too thick, they were a mess to cut, and the overall result was way too sweet (in my opinion).

#4-6: Coffee Toffee, Peppermint Bark, Peanut Butter Truffles

Two repeats from last year, plus Homemade Peanut Butter Cups just rolled into balls and dipped in chocolate. Bonus: all of these treats are gluten-free!

#7: Chocolate Mint Marshmallow Brownies

Remember those Chocolate Mint Marshmallows I brought back from Target in November? I just popped those on top of some brownies for the last 5 minutes of baking, then sprinkled on a few mint chocolate chips. They were great, but there was actually another chocolate mint treat I made before Christmas that I liked better. I’ll tell you about that soon!

#8: Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

My boss gave me a red velvet cupcake mix for Christmas, so this was a last minute addition to the party, and I got to use these new “stay-brite” cupcake liners which totally worked. I made sure to point out to my guests that the cupcakes weren’t from scratch (to protect my reputation, haha) and the result was that no one ate them! No matter, I brought the leftovers to my hairdresser and she loved them!

#9: Sponge Toffee

Perfect for my festive Christmas bowl Debbie gave me last year 🙂

#10: Pretzel M&M Cookies

Yes, you guessed right. These were the first to get gobbled up once again!

I had such a fun night watching my friends go around and decide what to try, and then filling up their loot bags with treats to take home! This is quickly becoming my favourite Christmas tradition 🙂