As I write this, snow is falling softly outside, and I can hear the beautiful tones of carol singers in the distance. Ok, none of that is true – it’s cold but dry, and fairly quiet – but one thing I can always count on around the festive time of year is christmas crafting, and the joy it brings to me and my loved ones.
On today’s blog, I wanted to share my love of Christmas crafting with you, and give you some ideas for your own festive creations this year. Plus, if you know someone who loves Christmas crafting as much as I do – and particularly the edible kind – I’ve also included some of my favourite gifts for cake makers too.
The joy of Christmas crafting
In a world of algorithms and incessant adverts, it can be hard to remember the original meaning of Christmas. And no, I don’t mean the religious one – I mean the reason we all get so excited every year, the time spent with our nearest and dearest, the communal activities, the warm fuzzy feeling of being all together again (and I think this is especially true after the past couple of years we’ve had).
One of the things I love most about the festive season with my family is Christmas crafting: spending time together to slow down and make something creative. Best of all is the Christmas crafting you can eat afterwards, which, as a professional cake maker, is kind of my speciality…
Christmas crafting ideas
As such, I’ve put together a couple of ideas of Christmas crafting activities you could get up to with your loved ones. Whether they’re rosy-cheeked children, teenagers who are counting down the hours ‘til they can go to the pub with their mates, or grown-ups all gathered in the same house for the holidays, these are bound to bring joy to everyone!
Make a Gingerbread Wreath
Floral wreaths are lovely, of course – but can you eat them? I think not! With a gingerbread wreath, you not only get the wholesome fun of making the dough, baking the shapes and assembling them into a pretty ornamental design, but you also get the devilish fun of demolishing it, snapping a bit off to sink your teeth into.
My Gingerbread Wreath kit includes my super secret gingerbread and royal icing recipes, as well as all the tools you’ll need to bring it to life: 9+ cookie cutters, a rolling pin, a paintbrush, disposal piping bag, presentation board, and the all important sugarpaste and sprinkles too! Plus, you’ll get an exclusive video tutorial to guide you through each step, taking you from dough to done.
12 Treats of Christmas
As well as Christmas crafting, another of my favourite things about the season is the abundance of delicious food and festive flavours. If you love all of the Christmas classics and don’t want to choose what you want to make: you don’t have to! My 12 Treats of Christmas course includes step-by-step instructions on how to make mini Christmas cakes, meringue wreaths and lollipops, spiced lebkuchen (gluten-free!), truffles, tiffin, mince pies four ways, mulled wine and festive spiced nuts, sugar cookies, fudge, brownies, and mega chunk cookies. Pick and choose your favourites, or set aside a fun day to make them all: it’s totally up to you.
The video course also includes loads of pretty presentation and packaging ideas, so that you can treat your friends to the fruits of your labour, too. Christmas crafting that doubles as a cute, thoughtful gift? It’s a win-win!
Christmas crafting ideas inspired by Kirsty’s Handmade Christmas
If you’re anything like me, you’ll love Kirsty’s Handmade Christmas, and find it a really inspiring watch in terms of christmas crafting. Well, back in 2020, I not only had the pleasure of going on the show, but of also winning it!
Paint a red-breasted robin cookie
Inspired by the experience, I’ve created some special robin-related christmas crafting sets, so you can recreate the red-breasted cuties in your own kitchen. When the show aired, loads of people asked me where they could get a robin cutter to get their cookie shape perfect – so I created one especially!
If you want a hand in the painting, too, you can level up to the kit, which includes the cutter, a paintbrush, food colours, and a special embosser for the design as well my special gingerbread and royal icing recipes.
Make a gingerbread house
I’ve given this Christmas crafting classic a Sugar Buttons twist, by making it a home for our gorgeous robin friend. In the Gingerbread House kit you get all of the above as well as everything you need to bake and build the house, plus sprinkles, sugarpaste, and a presentation board to proudly display your creation on.
Christmas crafting gifts for cake makers
I’ve also totally got you covered if you want the Christmas crafting vibe to continue into your present-giving, with a shop full of gifts for cake makers.
If they’re into impressive cakes and bakes, my acrylic scraper and terrazzo embosser are both great tools to help them level up their decorating skills (the embosser works for clay, too, so you could create some funky homeware or jewellery with it!). Alternatively, you could gift them a 1:1 class, where they can work through whatever cake dilemma they’re facing with me. It doesn’t need to be a dilemma, either: it could just be a fun new technique they’d love to learn!
Alternatively, you might be looking to kit out their kitchen with some staples: my oven gloves and tea towels both make really great gifts for cake makers. Or how’s about a gift you can be certain they won’t have already? My No Mess Mixer Guard is a creation I designed after coming to the end of my tether with the icing sugar clouds that would regularly engulf my kitchen. I searched low and high for a solution better than hugging a clean tea towel over the mixer to cover every tiny gap; when I couldn’t find one, I set about prototyping this.
Or if you can't decided what to buy the cake maker in your life, why not give them a gift voucher so they can do the choosing themselves?
What Christmas crafting are you doing this year?
That spirit of togetherness I mentioned above extends virtually, too: what Christmas crafting are you doing this year? I’d love to know!
Happy Christmas Crafting! x