Spice up your gift giving!

Fresh off of our Disney vacation, Christmas is upon us! Time to crank out some more gifts of cheer. Sissy & I turned to our Gooseberry Patch Jolly Holidays cookbook for some inspiration.

First thing that captured out interest was some Spiced Cider Mix. Yum! Plus, it was super quick, simple and easy! Sissy and I mixed it up in mere minutes:




It's as simple as this:
2 cups of sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground cloves
1.5 tsp allspice
1/4 tsp nutmeg

Mix it all together and store it in an airtight container. I reused these cute little jars that were part of of gift last Christmas from Gal in the Middle...and for the remainder of the batch some small canning jars.





To use, simple add 2 teaspoons to a cup of warm chide, then garnish with a cinnamon stick and an orange slice. Yum!

Next on the list: Spice Cake in a Jar



This one was kind of fun, because you baked the cake right in a Mason jar, then sealed it after making. The recipe says it has a shelf life of 6 months. Who knew?

Just mix together the following:
2/3 cup shortening
2 2/3 cup sugar
2 cup applesauce
4 eggs
3 1/3 flour
1.5 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder

Warning: it's a mixer-full!

Then fold in 2/3 cup raisins and 2/3 cup chopped nuts. Sterilize your canning jars and lids, then spray the inside of the jar with non-stick cooking spray.

Fill 8 1-pint, wide mouth canning jars half full of batter and bake 45 minutes at 325 degrees. Confession: I used regular-mouth jars because it was what I had on-hand and it seemed to work just fin....though I'm sure it would be easier to get the finished cake out of a wide-mouth jar.

Remove from the oven and immediately seal with lids and rings. When the lids ping, the jars are sealed properly.




When I was all done, I printed off some labels for each on some leftover holiday letter stationary, then used my Creative Memories tape runner to mount them on some green and blue photo mats. I trimmed them up, then punched a hole with my Creative Memories snowflake punch.I tied them on with some sparkly ribbon, bundled up some cinnamon sticks, and packafed it all together with some local cider and citrus fruit.

How's that for adding some spice to your holiday?


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