Homemade presents and food can make wonderful gifts at the holidays. But how many people have the time and the energy to do it? Not many. However, there is a middle between the do-it-yourselfer and the person who buys everything allowing for both saved time and money. A few days ago I was flipping through my favorite Cupcake recipe book and I realized something, about 40% of the recipes have same base, a yellow cake batter. The only difference between the cupcakes was that there was either a different frosting or something else added to the mix. This made me realize something, instead of spending 40 minutes making this yellow cake batter every time I could buy a yellow cake mix and change it around using the recipes. For example, one of the recipes is for a melted caramel cupcake. The cupcake itself is just a yellow cake but cream cheese, brown sugar, and other ingredients are used to make it a different. If I buy a yellow cake mix then all I have to do is make the topping. I love the cupcake recipes in the book, but often times they take hours of my day. Now I can change it around a bit still get something great tasting but that doesn’t take hours of my life. Furthermore, it saves me money in two ways. The first one is buying Apple Strudel Caramel Crunch cupcakes at the grocery store would no doubt cost me a lot. The second is that I can often find cake mixes on sale for cheaper than the ingredients would cost. This is especially good for people who don’t cook often and whose ingredients go bad. (However, that is not a problem I have experienced. We go through flour and sugar like its water at the holidays.)
So how does this apply to things beyond cupcakes? Well, practically anything can be embellished for cheap. You can buy a plain scarf and find a cute pin to add with it, add a velvet ribbon and a charm to a candle, or buy a bunch of colorful paper and an album to create a do-it-yourself scrapbook kit. There are endless options of ways that you can buy something and embellish it much cheaper than if you had bought it that way.