FREE. FOUR PAGES. TYPE IN THEM OR PRINT THEM BLANK
The Cottage Christmas Gift Kit
The hard part of gift baking is never the baking. It is the four days between your oven and somebody else’s kitchen.
Four pages that cover the part no recipe does: how far ahead to make it, whether it survives being carried, whether it can be posted at all, and everything that goes in the tin except the food.
Nothing here names a recipe, so it works whatever you are baking from.
PDF, 4 pages, fillable. The download link arrives by email straight away. One click to unsubscribe, any time.
The four pages
The Edible Gift Plan
How far ahead each kind of thing can be made, what carries well in a car, what survives a week in a parcel, and what should never leave the house. This is the page nobody publishes, because it is unglamorous and hard to research.
The Christmas List
Everyone you are baking for, what each one gets, and the day it has to be finished by. Fill it in once in November and stop carrying it in your head. The make-by date is the only planning most people need.
To Tie On
Twelve gift tags in the illustrated style of the books. Type a name in before you print, or print them blank and write by hand. Cut, punch, thread with string or a strip of cloth.
For the Tin
Labels for the lid, a card that says what it is and when to eat it, and a blank recipe card so you can pass the recipe on with the gift. That last one is the piece nobody else includes.
Print at 100 percent, actual size, with scaling switched off. Card stock of 200 to 250 gsm for the tags and cards, about the weight of a postcard.
Now you need something to put in the tin
Molasses cookies, chocolate caramels, nut brittle and the rest are on this site in full, each with how long it keeps and whether it travels.