As the holiday season approaches thoughts turn to holiday baking. For many, this includes baking cookies for a “swap”. It is easy for you to host the event. It can be as simple as a project for a few friends or as big as a project for your woman’s club. Set the date and invite your friends. As soon as you have confirmed the number of participants, let all know the number. Each participant will make a dozen cookies for each of the others. By doing this, you have completed your holiday baking and only have to make one kind of cookie. The more participants, the bigger the variety. Also ask the participants to bring an extra dozen for sampling at the tea, 2) make an extra two dozen for a bake sale and/or 3) ask each participant to make a contribution for a “bakeless” bake sale. You can provide some boundaries if you desire, such as cookies that ship well, bar cookies,
Sounds interesting? If you ask each participant to bring an extra dozen cookies for sampling, you provide the tea, decorations, and place settings for a gathering of friends, as well as a table for placement of the cookies for the swap. Your cooking is done for you (save for the cookies that you make for the swap). Provide some holiday music and let the participants gather in friendship. During the tea time let members tell about the recipes, play a few games (trivia, guess who made what cookie, etc.) and get in the holiday spirit. You might even want to watch a holiday movie together.
It is a good idea to find out from each participant what cookie they are making and let the others know to avoid duplication or, if the group doesn’t mind, just let it be a surprise. If there are eight dozen chocolate chip cookies for each person, so be it.
You may ask that all send you a copy of their recipe in advance and as a gift make little recipe booklets or recipe cards for them so they all have the recipes for future use. If you make the cards you can print them for free either from downloading a template from the Microsoft Word or HP.com (I’m sure there are others), cut them to size and wrap a set for each participant with curling ribbon or raffia. The booklet templates can also be downloaded in Word. Or, you can ask each participant to make enough copies of their recipe to share.
If you ask them to bake cookies for a bake sale, make arrangements to hold it at a craft fair, church bazaar or at a grocery or department store. You will need to arrange for the swap at a time suitable for the bake sale. Donate the proceeds to a worthy cause such as The Great American Bake Sale to help end childhood hunger or the cause of your choice.
If this is too much work for you or your volunteer time is dedicated to other causes, you can ask the participants to participate in a “bakeless” bake sale. In this instance, they would donate the money that it would cost them to purchase the ingredients for the recipe they chose. You would be the “treasurer” for these events and see that the funds get to the proper place.
For more information on how to hold a cookie swap go to www.dominosugar.com/cookieswap or at www.cookie-exchange.com. It can become a wonderful tradition and signal the start of your holiday season. Tea, cookies, friends and the warmth of giving. What could be a better start?
Tea at the Unicorn Wine Guild 