I dedicated this weekend to tackling all my holiday shopping, so when I had to bring a dessert to a good friend’s holiday party I didn’t have much time to bake something elaborate. With literally 45 minutes to get myself presentableand have the dessert ready I knew exactly what needed to happen. Bring in the cupcakes! I had found this amazingly cute paper cupcake tower with matching cupcake wraps, and together they served as my contribution to the super chic holiday soireé.

To answer your premeditated questions, no, I did not make them from scratch. Yes, I used a box. And, yes, I did crumble my own candy-canes to make the crunchy minty topping/garnish. The boxed red velvet cake mix is delicious and easy and seriously gets the job done. Do we really need to waste all that time making cupcakes from scratch? I think not!