Can you believe Christmas is coming so soon!? Finally, it’s getting close to that time of year where you decorate your Christmas trees, get together with your kids, family and friends surrounded by joy, love, presents and hopefully, GREAT food! And what better way to involve your kids in the whole process than cooking some yummy festive food together? In this blog, we have listed 7 tasty Christmas recipes for the whole family to enjoy on the big day!
Why is it so beneficial to involve your kids in the cooking/baking process?
One of the reasons it’s so important to involve your kids in everything you do and getting them to practice teamwork is that it’s a skill that will benefit them when they’re older. Teamwork teaches them communication and social skills. In this case, by getting your kids to help you bake/cook for Christmas, you’re teaching them how to communicate and socialise with you while going through the ingredients and the cooking instructions.
You’re teaching them to listen to you, to help and you’re boosting their confidence immensely, especially if they are learning a new skill or doing something they’ve never done before! So not only will they become more successful in life but they will also learn to make new foods and have a fun bonding time with you simultaneously.
Before you start, we have this wonderful Christmas Cooking bundle (which is also listed separately throughout the blog) for you to purchase, with tools to use in some of the recipes: Xmas rolling pins, cookie cutters and a kids apron & chef hat! The apron and chef hat is so cute and your little ones will feel like mini professional chefs! We know how messy cooking can be so the apron comes with sleeves to avoid extra mess to your kids’ clothes!
Now you are all ready to start cooking!
What is the best Christmas cake recipe without nuts?
A quick and tasty nut-free moist fruit cake recipe that serves roughly 16 people. Get these colourful and eye-catching Christmas cake toppers as well to decorate the cake and make it look extra special.
Ingredients:
150g butter or margarine
150ml milk (whole or semi-skimmed)
6 tbsp. golden syrup
225g currants
225g raisins
100g sultanas
100g chopped mixed peel
100g dried apricots (or any other chopped dried fruit your kids like)
225g plain flour
1 tsp ground mixed spice
A pinch of grated nutmeg
2 eggs
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
Optional Extras: double cream or custard to add to top of cake
- Place the butter, milk, syrup, dried fruits, peel and apricots (or other dried fruits) in a saucepan and heat until the butter has melted.
- Simmer gently for 5 minutes and then allow to cool slightly.
- Sieve the flour and spices in a mixing bowl and add the eggs. DO NOT STIR AT THIS STAGE.
- Mix the bicarbonate of soda into the cooled fruit mixture and pour into the flour.
- Mix well and pour into a lined and greased 18cm cake tin and bake at 150C /Gas 2 for 75-90 minutes.
- Check to see if cake is cooked and then turn out on a wire tray to cool.
- Once the cake is cooled, place onto a large plate or dish and if you like, you can pour double cream or custard over the top for extra moist deliciousness!
- Your kids can decorate the cake with the fab Christmas cake toppers.
Christmas cake recipe without eggs
Here’s the PERFECT Christmas Cupcake recipe which is eggless- 12 vanilla cupcakes topped with a creamy buttercream frosting. In the recipe, the buttercream is made with pink food colouring but you can change this to green food colouring to make your cupcakes look like mini Christmas trees!
You can get some sprinkles of different colours and shapes for your kids to decorate the top of the cupcakes to look like tree ornaments! Not only will they have fun helping to bake and decorate them but they’ll also absolutely LOVE eating them! Kids love playing with toys and these mini Christmas ornaments can add the perfect festive touch to it- your kids can choose their favourite characters like the Santa Claus and the Snowman to place next to/around the cupcakes.
Lovely cinnamon Christmas biscuits
With this Christmas biscuits recipe, you can roughly make up to 40 biscuits, depending on the size of your cookie cutters. If you don’t have cookie cutters, you can get these lovely Christmas themed ones in shapes like a stocking, Christmas tree, snowman and more. Kids will love to create different shapes with these cutters and then design the biscuits with white chocolate and beautiful silver balls! Another extra tip is using these Christmas rolling pins that will engrave beautiful festive patterns into your dough to make your cookies extra special!
Ingredients:
175g dark muscovado sugar
85g golden syrup
100g butter
3 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
350g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 egg, lightly beaten
100g white chocolate
Edible silver balls
- Heat the sugar, golden syrup and butter until melted. Mix the spices and flour in a large bowl. Dissolve the bicarbonate of soda in 1 tsp cold water. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients, add the melted sugar mix, egg and bicarbonate of soda. Mix well. At this stage the mix will be soft but will firm up on cooling.
- Cover the surface of the biscuit mix with cling film and leave to cool, then place in the fridge for at least 1 hour to become firm enough to roll out.
- Heat oven to 190C/170C fan/gas 5. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead briefly. (At this stage the dough can be put into a food bag and kept in the fridge for up to a week.) Cut the dough in half. Thinly roll out one half on a lightly floured surface. Your kids can help you cut into fun shapes with cutters, such as gifts, trees and hearts, then transfer to baking sheets, leaving a little room for them to spread. Repeat with remaining dough.
- Bake for 12-15 mins until they darken slightly. If the holes you’ve made have closed up, remake them while the biscuits are warm and soft using a skewer. Cool for a few mins on the baking sheets, then transfer to a wire rack to cool and harden up completely.
- Break up the chocolate and melt in the microwave on Medium for 1-2 mins, or in a small heatproof bowl over simmering water. The kids will then enjoy drizzling the chocolate over the biscuits, or pipe on shapes or names, then sticking a few silver balls into the chocolate.
Yummy Christmas pudding recipe that toddlers will love!
This Christmas pudding recipe by Organix is great for your little elves aged 12months+! It serves around 8 people and is full of goodies like apples, raisins, dates and carrots- yummy AND healthy! Also suitable for vegetarians.
Christmas Eggnog recipe
It’s so easy to make homemade Eggnog! Just cream, sugar, eggs, and spices and only takes around 30 minutes to make. Enjoy it with alcohol for the grown-ups, or without alcohol for a child-friendly version! The perfect festive drink for the whole family- serves roughly 12 people.
Ingredients:
6 medium free-range eggs (fresh & preferably organic), separated
150g golden caster sugar
500ml whole milk
400ml double cream
Freshly grated nutmeg, to taste
Whipped cream spray
Optional (for adults only): 350ml rum or bourbon (whichever you prefer)
Extra tip: If you are worried about egg safety, instead of buying a pack of eggs, you can use pasteurised egg whites that are available to buy in a carton.
- Whisk the egg yolks in a bowl with 100g of the caster sugar until the mixture is pale yellow and thick (mix with an electric handheld mixer if you have one).
- Stir in the milk, double cream, and the rum or bourbon. You can also add a little grated nutmeg if you want.
- Pour the mixture into two 750ml/1½ pint bottles and keep in the fridge for up to 2 weeks. (the alcohol will prevent the eggs/cream from spoiling).
- Place the egg whites in a box and freeze until ready to serve the egg nog.
- When ready to serve, defrost the egg whites into a clean metal or glass bowl. Using a handheld electric mixer, whisk the egg whites until foamy and opaque. Add the remaining 50g of sugar and whisk the egg whites until soft peaks form when the whisk is removed.
- Pour the egg nog from the bottles into a large bowl and fold in the egg whites until well combined. Ladle the egg nog into glass tumblers.
- Add the whipped cream spray on top and serve with a little freshly grated nutmeg over the top of each glass.
Mary Berry's yule Christmas log recipe
Who doesn’t love chocolate cake!? This recipe by Mary Berry is one of the most delicious Christmas recipe ideas that serves around up to 10 people. It’s the perfect alternative to Christmas pudding- some kids might be fussy as they don’t like raisins and sultanas so they’ll enjoy this cake much more!
Ingredients:
For the chocolate sponge:
4 large free-range eggs
100g/3½oz caster sugar
65g/2½oz self-raising flour
40g/1½oz cocoa powder
For the chocolate ganache topping
300ml/½ pint double cream
300g/10½oz dark chocolate (around 35-40% cocoa solids), broken into small pieces
For the cream filling:
300ml/½ pint double cream, whipped
To decorate:
icing sugar for dusting
a toy robin or sprig of holly
- Preheat oven to 200C/Gas 6. Lightly grease a 33x23cm/13x9in Swiss roll tin, and line with non-stick paper or baking parchment, pushing it into the corners.
- For the sponge, in a large bowl whisk the eggs and sugar using an electric hand whisk until the mixture is pale in colour, light and frothy. Sift the flour and cocoa powder into the bowl and carefully cut and fold together, using a spatula, until all the cocoa and flour are incorporated into the egg mixture. (Be careful not to beat any of the air out of the mixture).
- Pour the mixture into the lined tin and spread evenly out into the corners. Bake in the middle of the preheated oven for 8–10 mins, or until well risen and firm to the touch and the sides are shrinking away from the edge of the tin.
- Place a piece of baking parchment bigger than the Swiss roll tin on the work surface. Dust with icing sugar generously. Carefully invert the cake onto the paper and remove the bottom lining piece of paper.
- Cut a score mark 2.5cm/1inch in along one of the longer edges. Starting with this edge, begin to tightly roll up the sponge using the paper. Roll with the paper inside and sit the roll on top of its outside edge to cool completely.
- While the cake is cooling, make the ganache topping. Heat the cream in a pan, just so as you can keep your finger in it. Remove from the heat and add the chocolate, stirring until it is melted. Cool to room temperature, then put into the fridge to firm up (this icing needs to be very thick for piping).
- Uncurl the cold Swiss roll and remove the paper. Spread the whipped cream on top, and re-roll tightly. Cut a quarter of the cake off from the end on the diagonal. Transfer the large piece of cake to a serving plate and angle the cut end in to the middle of the large cake to make a branch.
- Put the chocolate icing into a piping bag fitted with a star nozzle. Let your little ones pipe long thick lines along the cake, covering the cake completely so it looks like the bark of a tree- doesn’t matter if it doesn’t look neat, the importance is your kids creativity! Cover each end with icing or, if you wish to see the cream, leave un-iced. Alternatively, just use a palette knife to spread on the icing and create rough bark texture with a fork.
- Dust with icing sugar and garnish with fresh holly or a little robin to serve. You can also get these holly and berry decorations to make your final product look even more beautiful.
Christmas recipe without oven: No-Bake Christmas Wreath Treats!
The most delicious Christmas treats, perfect for kids! These Christmas Wreath treats by ‘Taste of Home’ made from just a few ingredients are super simple and quick to make and doesn’t need any cooking or baking! Your kids can have fun decorating these cornflake treats to look like mini Christmas wreaths! The recipe makes roughly 8 wreaths.
Ingredients:
20 large marshmallows
2 tablespoons butter
Green food colouring
3 cups of cornflakes
Red M&M's (about 2 tablespoons)
- Place marshmallows and butter in a microwave-safe bowl; microwave, uncovered, on high until butter is melted and marshmallows are puffed, about 45 seconds. Tint with some green food colouring. Stir in the cornflakes.
- On a waxed paper-lined baking sheet, divide mixture into 8 portions. With buttered hands, working quickly, shape each portion into a 3-in. wreath. Your kids can decorate immediately with the M&M's, pressing slightly to stick to the wreaths. Let stand until set.
So there you have it! 7 lovely festive Christmas recipes that you and your kids can enjoy making together and the whole family can enjoy eating your masterpiece on Christmas day!
The kitchen is a great place to nurture your child’s self-esteem, confidence as well as their self-worth. Teaching your kids to cook provides the opportunity to encourage them and celebrate their creations and skills. After cooking and baking something successfully, they feel a sense of pride which makes you so proud of them too!
We also have another fantastic Christmas Bundle for you and your kids that can be a great tool for practising teamwork- 10 pieces of wooden Christmas ornaments to colour in and hang and a pack of 6 colouring Christmas cards that are the perfect way to end a day full of baking and cooking. You can sit with your kids and get them to colour in these adorable ornaments and the cards can be given to friends & family. It’s the best chance to have even more of a bonding time relaxing and colouring together to wind down after a hectic, fun and messy day!
We hope you have a blast of a time making beautiful memories together though collaborative baking and cooking with your mini chefs!