Our Cupcake Surprise is decorated with
Guittard’s colored white chocolate morsels.
Photo by Corey Lugg | THE NIBBLE.

1. Make your favorite cupcake recipe (we love Sprinkles cupcake mixes).

2. Fill the cupcake liner halfway with batter.

3. Insert a piece of chocolate from your favorite gourmet chocolate bar (the size should be equivalent to a miniature-sized chocolate bar, about 1″ x 3/4″).

4. Fill the liner 2/3 to 3/4 of the way with remaining batter and bake as instructed. The chocolate bar will melt during the baking process. Cool.

5. Frost the cupcakes. You can add another piece of chocolate to decorate the top.

We love making a chocolate cupcake recipe using a spicy “Aztec” chocolate bar.

• Here’s an entire cookbook of yummy cupcake recipes.

Spread’s specialty is luxury peanut butter and almond butter. How luxurious? One variety has edible gold flakes. But most are slightly less ornately-embellished PB and AB.

Four ounces of nut butter cost $12.00 or $13.00, the PB/AB equivalent, ounce-per-ounce, of a box of luxury chocolates. And there are quite a few luxury chocolate PB and AB flavors to choose from in Spread’s repertoire of 170 or so.

It you’re still looking for that special gift, this could be it. You can buy Spread in individual jars or in a variety of themed gift boxes, including “gentlemen’s,” holiday and Latin flavors, plus two collections just for canines.

If you’re looking for a new gourmet food addiction, you’ve come to the right place. Once you start, you can’t stop—and why should you? Each of the 47 or so flavors currently listed on the website sounds equally tempting, unless you have something against butterscotch, cherry, chile, cinnamon, cookies and cream, lavender, pretzels or the myriad of other inclusions.

Peanut butter so gourmet, it can be
turned into fancy desserts. Photo
by Evan Dempsey | THE NIBBLE.

You could serve the Hickory Farms beef on
the crackers included in the gift box or with
bread. Photo courtesy Anton Shevtsov |
Stock Exchange.

Just because you’re counting down to the holidays doesn’t mean you don’t have two minutes to enter this week’s Gourmet Giveaway—especially when the prizes are holiday-related!

PRIZE #1: Hickory Farms Gift Box ~ 5 Winners

With all the entertaining during the holiday season—and more to come—why not create easy hors d’oeuvres using products from this week’s Gourmet Giveaway sponsor: Hickory Farms. Their Beef Hearty Hickory Gift Box includes everything you’ll need for a meat-and-cheese hors d’oeuvres tray: beef summer sausages, two types of Cheddar cheese blends, sweet hot mustard and wheat crackers (plus two strawberry candies for the host). If you win this gift box, all you’ll need to supply your guests with are plates!

Approximate Retail Value: $20.00

It’s always cocktail hour somewhere, so be prepared for an impromptu get-together with our second prize: two entertaining books by Colleen Mullaney. You’ll throw significantly improved cocktail parties after reading “It’s 5 O’Clock Somewhere” and “Punch.” Both books give serving tips and teach you how to make the most crowd-pleasing cocktails and thirst-quenching elixirs with that little special something to give them an added “punch.”

Approximate Retail Value: $33.00

• To Enter This Gourmet Giveaway: Go to the box at the bottom of our Parties & Events page and enter your email address for the prize drawing.

Take a look at our eight luscious cookie recipes, including:

• Apple Cider Buttons
• Almond Butter Buckeyes
• Pistachio Biscochitos
• Wintermint Wafers
• Bananas Foster Bars
• Gold Rush Bars
• Chocolate Butter Pecans
• Mount Rainier Macaroons

It’s a great time of the year to teach children how to bake. They can give the cookies as “their” gift.

See more cookie recipes, including last year’s Christmas cookies, in our Gourmet Cookies Section.

Mount Rainier Macaroons look like the
holidays. Photo courtesy Wisconsin Milk
Marketing Board.

Serve a variety of Marys at your holiday
party with a different garnish for each:
scallions, celery, fennel or carrots. Photo by
S. Mario | Fotolia.

• The Bloody Bull, with beef bouillon
• The Blood Mariner, with clam juice
• The Danish Mary, with aquavit instead of vodka, plus dill
• The Highland Mary, with Scotch
• The Russian Mary, with yogurt

In addition to being highly popular, the red color is seasonal, along with the green garnishes of celery stalks and rosemary sprigs.

Learn the history of the Bloody Mary.

Check out our wealth of Bloody Mary recipes.