Mug Swap & Cranberry Orange Mini Donuts

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Years ago, I participated in a mug swap during the holidays, and it was so much fun. The person who I sent to and received from became friends and I still have my mug. It’s one of my favorites. Since then, I’ve always had a mug swap party with the girls. It’s a nice way to catch up, have some tea, eat sweets and swap a mug. These cranberry-orange mini powdered donuts are perfect with tea, and simple to make. So simple you won’t believe it.

On a recent trip to Big Lots to pick up some other necessities, I noticed that they had everything I needed for my mug swap party. I wanted to keep it simple on the budget this year so I was excited to pick up everything at Big Lots. As I’ve mentioned before, I always get the brands I love, with the quality I insist on at the perfect value when I shop Big Lots.

While in-store I picked up two mugs for me to exchange, two varieties of tea, a sparkly leaf garland (which I decided I was going to rip the leaves off of to use for table decor), napkins, cookie sticks, waffle cookies, jam and a mix for Orange Cranberry Muffins.

Tip: I picked up some simple striped wrapping paper, too. You can use wrapping paper as a runner or table covering. It’s disposable, easy to clean up and looks gorgeous! You can notice the simple striped design I chose in some of the other pictures in this post.

Wanting to do something different, I decided to make mini donuts from the muffin mix. It’s easy – and it works!

Simply mix the contents of the muffin mix with 3/4 cup of water. Add in the mix-ins (in this case it was cranberries). Mix really well and put it into a piping bag or gallon size freezer bag. Then, pipe the ‘dough’ onto a greased cookie sheet in circles. Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes until tops of the muffin ‘give’ and spring back up. Once cooled, dip in powered sugar.

Yum! These were a hit at tea. The combination of orange cranberry with the powdered sugar is amazing! And it really IS that simple.

The high quality tea brands that I picked up were perfect – and the cookies were of gourmet quality. With selection and value like this, it was simple to create a tea social and mug swap.

To exchange mugs, I asked everyone to fill out a tag telling why they chose their mug. I had asked them choose a mug that said something about them.

At Big Lots, I found this ‘London’ mug. It was definitely all me, reminding me of the time I lived there in my early twenties. To be young again….

I like to assign every mug a number and then everyone draws. Everyone leaves with a mug from a friend – and a story behind their mug. It’s fun and always a good time.

I hope you’ve enjoyed seeing how I plan a fall mug swap and tea social! Tell me, what gathering, party or get-together could you plan with the speciality and grocery items at Big Lots? Share your ideas in the comments below!

Comments

Summer Davis says

November 12, 2015 at 9:59 am

I used to host a cookie party each Christmas, but I no longer eat sugar so I was trying to figure out what to do this year. This is PERFECT, especially since I love coffee. That London mug is amaze – and you ARE still young. Young and beautiful and a smart shopper. #client

Annette says

November 13, 2015 at 5:50 pm

This is the best idea! I really don’t like cookie exchange parties because of all the prep work that goes into them, so this is the perfect substitute!