The Easiest Holiday Dessert

This past week I was put to the test when my neighborhood association reminded me that I had signed up to bring a dessert to the annual holiday party.

I was right in the middle of shuttling my children to and from kindergarten, preschool and trying to work in between my family obligations.

My husband suggested that I go to a bakery and just drop the $50 plus that it would cost to buy a platter of treats. I just couldn't bring myself to do it.

It was right then that I hatched the idea for a donut hole tree. Even though people might not want to admit it, everyone loves donut holes. After I went to purchase all the neccesary items, the cost came out to around $10 and approximately 30 minutes time.

Here are items that you will need to pull this off:

- foam cone from craft store

- toothpicks

- wax paper

- marsh mellows, blueberries, gum drops to serve as ornaments

- plate

- 5 dozen donut holes, any kind (6 or 7 dozen for a large cone)

When I went to the donut store, they only had blueberry and glazed donut holes so I had to go with what they had. I decided to use blueberries and white mini marsh mellows as my tree ornaments so it would provide contrast next to the dark blueberry donut holes. If the donut store would have had powdered donut holes, I would have used red and green gum drops.

1. The first step is to wrap the foam cone in wax paper and trim it to fit.

2. Place the wrapped cone on a plate (I put red paper heart doillies on the plate for decoration).

3. Starting from the base, position the donut holes around the bottom and then get toothpicks and push the toothpicks through the donut hole and through the foam tree pushing the toothpicks all the way in.

4. Continue doing rows until you get all the way to the top. Leave the very top of the foam tree open so that you can use it to hold the tree in place when you place the ornaments.

5. Place toothpicks in the open spaces and place the marsh mellows or gumdrops on end of the toothpicks. Do not push the toothpicks all the way in. Having the ornaments stick out a bit further than the donut holes creates some dimension.

6. Continue placing ornaments all the way around and do not worry about creating a repeating pattern. Random looks good.

7. When you are finished, place a donut hole on top to finish off the tree. I also placed a sprig of our Christmas tree on the top for garnish.

When people use their hands to pull off a donut hole, the toothpicks will stay in the foam. This project will yield a very cool, unique treat that everyone will enjoy. Believe it or not, there is a very fancy French dessert with the same concept that uses cream puffs instead of donut holes and it is called a Croquembouche.