Gift Giving: Christmas Baking Day

I spent several hours on Saturday, December 11th doing a Christmas Baking Day with Ashley from Reflecting on the Simple Things in Life making treats to give to family, friends, and neighbors.  We started about 3:30 PM and were finished around 10:30 PM that night with another hour added for cleaning and packing up the goodies.  Ashley was kind enough to open her home up so we could get the baking done. The house smelled amazing with all the delicious treats we made throughout the evening.

Ingredients Table
(You can tell we shop some of the same sales based on our ingredients table)

Ashley was organized with several tables full of specific items which helped us keep the clutter off the counter tops and island as we were each working on recipes:

• Baking Ingredients Table for the recipes we had a picked out
• Cooking Pans, Bowls, and Utensil Table for easy access to items we need
• Cooling and Packaging Goodies Table
• Finished Products Table which was full of treats by the end of the evening

We would pick out ingredients and utensils as we needed them from the necessary tables.  The goodies got bagged in between baking items.  It was a very efficient system and we were able to accomplish a lot in a relatively short amount of time plus we were able to talk, laugh and enjoy each others company in the kitchen.

Cooking Pans, Bowls, and Utensil Table

The kids popped in and out, occasionally helping with recipes that intrigued them.  Our husbands had fun hanging out too.  They were kind enough to pick up the pizza for us and an extra bag of powder (or confectioner’s) sugar for us at the grocery store.  Thankfully that was the only ingredient that we really seemed to go through more than expected.  We were both prepared with the ingredients and items for the day which allowed the event to go smoothly.

Cooling and Packaging Goodies Table
Ashley packaging the Cinnamon Rolls! Yum!
Her smashing sticker is compliments of my daughter, Brina.

Honestly, despite it being really busy and standing on our feet for a long period of time everything went pretty smoothly. Only one minor casualty, my small Christmas Tree cookie cutter managed to work it’s way down to the garbage disposal.  It made a loud noise when it was turned on so nothing was broken and the tree was able to be bent back into a tree like shape.  The only thing that would have made it a little more efficient would be to have two ovens but since neither of us have that we were able to work everything out fairly well.  Her oven was probably ready for a break by the end of the evening, but I am sure it felt very loved.

Baked Goods Table
(Starting to fill up)

It was our desire to accomplish as much as we could in the time table allotted and we did it.  We had up to 17 recipes prepared to make for the event.  We were able to complete 12 of the recipes which is pretty amazing especially since majority of the items were baking ones and we had only one oven. I will posting the recipes for the ones that we accomplished throughout our baking adventure throughout this week.

The following are the recipes that we accomplished that evening:

• Homemade Peppermint Oreos
• Puppy Chow
• Bon Bons
• Cinnamon Rolls
• Chocolate Pretzels/Snowmen
• Cinnamon Stars
• Super Chocolate Cookies
• Sour Spirals
• Peanut Butter Cookie Cups
• Candy Cane Cookie Cups
• Homemade Hot Chocolate Mix
• Cheerio Christmas Trees

Below is a picture of all the goodies we were able to make over the course of just a few hours.  I am thankful for the opportunity to share in this event with Ashley.  It was a lot of fun, enjoyable and rewarding.  I look forward to doing it again!

We DID IT!
I think we were two very tired Momma’s by the end but we had a lot of fun!

Table full of Baked Treats to Share with Others

It was so full we almost didn’t have enough room to squeeze everything on it!

The recipes that we didn’t get to during our baking day I plan to make over the Holidays as well since I have all the ingredients for them already in our kitchen.   I will be posting the following recipes for you next week:

• Chocolate Crackle Tops
• Oreo Truffles
• Orange Dreamsicle Cookies
• Berry Shortbread Dreams
• Sugar Cookies/Bears