Tis the season to get baking, cooking, and making delicious treats to give as unique gifts to your friends and family. Help spread the cost of Christmas this year, and give gifts that people will adore. They will be completely unique and having been made with love.
Homemade gifts are nothing new, but with finances being ever more squeezed year on year, they are becoming a cool and cost -effective way of showing your love during the festive season.
We’ve collated some of our favourite ideas for you to try.
1. Christmas spiced shortbread
Every one loves a biscuit and there is something very comforting and delicious about home-baked butter shortbread – but spiced with cinnamon, this humble biscuit becomes a seasonal speciality. Use extra cinnamon for dusting and you could add a little clementine juice to the mixture, too. Here is a great recipe idea from BBC Good Food.
2. Christmas cupcakes
However good you are at baking, even if you think you are a bit everyone can have a go at baking cupcakes- you could even get the kids involved too. A great gift for friends and colleagues, chocolate cupcakes are always a winner – personalise them with the recipient’s initials or a symbol with special meaning for an individual touch. Or go to town with Christmas sparkles and decorations on top. Great recipes ideas can be found here!
3. Edible Christmas Tree Decorations
These peppery, gingerbready edible decorations are a firm favourite of one of our favourite foodies, the lovely Nigella! These are another great fun treat to make with the kids. You can decorate them as much or as little as you like, or even have them co-ordinate with your other, non-edible Christmas decorations. Check out Nigellas delicious recipe here.
4. Chunky Christmas Fudge
Fudge is a lovely, easy to make treat. You can add pretty much any colour and flavour to it that you like, and by using pretty festive wrapping or recycling glass jars you can make it look beautiful. There are some great recipes here.
5. Christmas Chutney
A perfect match for cheese and cold meats, and delicious in turkey sandwiches, chutneys are always a welcome gift at this time of year. There a loads of different flavours to experiment with, and you can recycle clean coffee jars, decorated to make them look festive. Check out Mary Berry’s Festive Chutney here!
Whatever you decide to make and bake for Christmas, spend more time in the kitchen and less time tidying the house! Have Maid In Essex come and clean your house for you before, or after the big day. Call us on 01277 812220 or click here to contact us by email.