Christmas Bake Sale Recipes

31 October 2016

Christmas Bake Sale Recipes

The festive season gives you a guilt free pass on over-indulging in sweet treats, which is why selling homemade biscuits & cakes makes for the perfect fundraising idea. People just can’t resist a perfectly baked ginger bread cookie at Christmas!

We have included our fail-safe traditional biscuit recipes that give you a great base to create your own original biscuits to sell at your Christmas fair to raise money. They’re super easy to do, even for a novice, so grab your apron and start baking!

If you’re feeling a little adventurous, we have put together a fantastic Pinterest board of great Christmas Bake Sale Ideas to spark your imagination.

Classic Christmas Biscuit Recipes 

Traditional Biscuits

Shortbread

The 3-ingredient recipe! This will make around 20 biscuits shapes or finger 125g butter 55g caster sugar 180g plain flour

1. Pre heat the oven to 190C and line baking trays with greaseproof paper.
2. Cream the butter and sugar together until smooth and creamy.
3. Sift in the flour until the dough starts to thicken.
4. Knead the rest of the dough together with your hands to create a firmer dough.
5. Roll out the dough to a around 1cm thick and cut into your desired shapes. Or roll into a circle or rectangle if you plan to cut the biscuits down once they’ve been cooked.
6. Place the biscuits in the oven for around 20 minutes until golden brown
7. Place aside onto a cooling rack to cool. If you are cutting the biscuits into fingers or triangles after its cooked, it’s best to do it when its slightly warm to stop them crumbling.
8. Store in an airtight container and they will keep for up to 5 days.

Top tips -It is much easier to cream the butter and sugar together if the butter is brought to room temperature. It will save you a lot of arm ache! -Don’t over work the dough as the butter will become too melted when put into the oven. -The dough is quite sticky so it can be hard to roll out. Before you start rolling out your dough and cutting your biscuits shapes, try putting down some grease proof paper with flour so they don’t stick to your work surface. The biscuits will seem under cooked when you take them out the oven but they will continue to cook and harden when they’re cooling. It’s super easy to burn them so keep an eye on the biscuits as they cook. 

Ginger Bread

This recipe will make around 15 biscuits 225g plain flour ¼ tsp salt 2 tsp bicarbonate of soda 1 heaped tsp ground ginger ½ tsp cinnamon 50g unsalted butter 100g soft brown sugar 2 ½ tbsp golden syrup

1. Pre heat the oven to 180C and line baking trays with greaseproof paper.
2. Sift the flour, bicarbonate of soda, cinnamon, ginger and salt together.
3. Heat the butter, syrup and sugar together in a bowl over a pan of hot water until everything is dissolved. Leave the mixture to cool.
4. Mix in the butter mix to the dry ingredients and make into a dough. Knead the mix together to makes a smoother dough by hand.
5. Cover the dough with foil or cling film and leave to cool in the fridge for 30 minutes.
6. Roll out the dough to around 1cm thick and cut into your desired shapes. Place on the baking tray allowing space to spread when cooking.
7. Cook for 10 to 15 minutes.
8. Place on a cooling rack to cool and store in an airtight container. Biscuits will keep for up to 5 days.

Top Tips -The dough is very sticky and will need a lot of flour to help roll out and cut the dough. -Biscuits will seem under cooked when they are taken out the oven but they will firm up a lot when cooled. Ginger biscuits burn very easily in the oven so it’s best to take them out sooner rather than later. Make sure the biscuits are completely cool before decorating them, as the icing will just slide off!