18/12/2023

Child friendly Christmas recipes

Christmas is here and now's the time to get the festive bakes on!

As children enjoy their time off school, it’s the perfect time to keep them entertained with some home baking. Get the festive tunes on and make memories as well as delicious treats with these top Christmas recipes for kids!

Christmas biscuits!

Snowman biscuits

These snowmen biscuits from BBC good food couldn’t be cuter! What’s more, they’re ideal for kids to get involved in and the more ‘individual’ they look, the better. For biscuits with festive character, have a go with your kids!

Ingredients

125g butter, softened
125g golden caster sugar
1 egg, beaten
1tsp vanilla extracts
250g plain flour, plus extra for dusting

Decoration

400g white fondant icing
Icing sugar, for dusting
100g pack mixed red, yellow, black and blue ready-to-roll icing
Tube white icing, for sticking
Tube black icing

Method

• Heat the oven to 190C/ 170C fan/ gas 5. Cream the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy, then beat in the egg and vanilla. Stir in flour and mix to a fairly soft dough. Tip onto a lightly floured surface and knead gently. Put the dough on a plate, cover and chill for at least 2 hours.
• On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to a thickness of around 0.5cm. Use cookie cutter or water glass to stamp out 7cm rounds. Re-roll the trimmings and repeat.
• Transfer the biscuits to two lined baking trays and bake for 8-14 mins until the edges turn lightly golden in colour. Leave to cool.
• To decorate, roll out the white fondant icing on a surface lightly dusted with icing sugar. Stamp out 7cm circles using the same cookie cutter or glass as before, then use a dab of white tube of icing to. stick a fondant round on each biscuit.
• Roll out one icing colour at a time. Stamp out a 7cm circle of icing, cut in half and stick on for a hat. Cut a strip of another colour and make some markings to make it look like the elasticated band of a hat, then trim to fit and stick on. Repeat with all the biscuits, mixing and matching colours.
• Decorate the hats with icing spots and strips if you like. Roll out balls of coloured icing, poke holes all over with a cocktails stick and stick on as pom poms. Fold lumpy balls of the orange icing for noses and roll out balls of black icing for eyes. Press down to flatten, then stick on with white icing. Use the tube of black icing to pipe row of dots for the smiles.

Get the original recipe here.

Easy Christmas biscuits

These festive and delicate biscuits from BBC Food will fill kids with joy (and just a little sugar!). This makes 36 biscuits.

Ingredients

100g/3½oz unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
100g/3½oz caster sugar
1 free-range egg, lightly beaten
1 tsp vanilla extract
275g/10oz plain flour

To decorate

400g/14oz icing sugar
3-4 tbsp water
2-3 drops food colourings
Edible glitter

Method

• Preheat the oven to 190C/375F/Gas 5. Line a baking tray with greaseproof paper.
• Cream the butter and sugar together in a bowl until pale, light and fluffy.
• Beat in the egg and vanilla extract, a little at a time, until well combined.
• Stir in the flour until the mixture comes together as a dough.
• Roll the dough out on a lightly floured work surface to a thickness of 1cm/½in.
• Using biscuit cutters or a glass, cut biscuits out of the dough and carefully place onto the baking tray. To make into Christmas tree decorations, carefully make a hole in the top of the biscuit using a straw.
• Bake the biscuits for 8-10 minutes, or until pale golden-brown. Set aside to harden for 5 minutes, then cool on a wire rack.
• Sift the icing sugar into a large mixing bowl and stir in enough water to create a smooth icing. Stir in the food colouring.
• Carefully spread the icing onto the biscuits using a knife and sprinkle over the glitter. Leave until the icing hardens.
• You can tie a festive ribbon through it and distribute on your christmas tree for a real sense of festivity!

Get the original recipe here.

Christmas cupcakes!

What's not to love about this Christmassy snowmen cupcakes from Good to know! Great for kids to get involved in and the more ‘individual’ they look, the better. For cupcakes with festive character, have a go with your kids!

Ingredients

100g/4oz softened butter or margarine
100g/4oz golden caster sugar
2 eggs
100g/4oz self raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla essence

Decoration

Icing sugar for dusting
150g/5oz ready-to-roll white icing
3 tbsp apricot jam
Marshmallows
Red fizzy lances for the scarves
Tubes of coloured writing icing
Sugar baubles (for cake decoration) and edible silver baubles

Method

• Preheat the oven to 180C/300F/Gas Mark 2. Mix the main ingredients (butter or margarine, sugar, eggs, flour, baking powder and vanilla essence) until light and fluffy.
• Place 8 cases in a cake tin and fill to two-thirds of the way up. Bake for about 20 minutes until risen and lightly golden. Cool the cupcakes in the cases on a wire cooking rack.
• Dust a clean work surface with icing sugar and roll out the icing to about 0.5cm thick. Cut out eight circles the same size as the top of your cakes. Put the apricot jam into a small dish and stir in one tablespoon of hot water. Brush this over the surface of the cakes and stick the circles of icing on top.
• Stick marshmallows on the icing sugar discs with a bit of apricot jam to form the snowman heads. Add black writing icing for the eyes, red writing icing for the smiles and secure the sugar baubles with a bit of writing icing for the noses. Then stick on the edible silver baubles for buttons and wrap fizzy lances around the snowmen’s necks for scarves.

Get the original recipe here.

No bake Christmas treats!

Reindeer Rice Krispie treats

Kids will love these Reindeer Rice Krispie treat from 30 days recipes. This awesome snack is super easy and takes around 30 minutes to create.

Ingredients

85g butter
1 bag of marshmallows
6 cups of Rice Krispies cereal
1 pack of edible eyes
1 pack of M&M's (red)
200g milk chocolate
Craft spoons

Method

• Melt butter in large pot and add the marshmallows. Stir until marshmallows are completely melted.
• Take off heat and add in the 6 cups of Rice Krispies cereal and spread into a 9x13 pan.
• Let harden in the fridge for 30 mins and cut into rectangles for each reindeer. Carefully push the craft spoons into the treats.
• Melt chocolate following the instructions on the package and then spoon into the piping bag. Cut a small hole on the corner of the bag and pipe onto the Rice Krispie rectangles to create the reindeers antlers.
• Use a small dot of melted chocolate under the edible eyes and M&M's (red ones for the reindeers nose) to attach to the treats.

Get the original recipe here. 

Christmas Rocky Road recipe

Christmas Rocky Road recipe from BBC Good Food is the perfect treat which kids will love. It’s super easy and makes about 20 squares of deliciousness.

Ingredients

100g butter, cut into cubes, plus extra for the tin
250g Christmas biscuits, such as shortbread or chocolate biscuits
75g shelled nuts 
100g mixed dried fruit (such as raisins, cherries or glacé ginger)
75g Christmas sweets (candy canes, marshmallows or jelly sweets)
400g milk or plain chocolate (or a mixture of both), chopped
140g golden syrup
2 tbsp sprinkles, or more sweets, to decorate

Method

• Butter and line a 20cm square tin, or use a 20cm square silicone mould. Break the biscuits into pieces. Halve any larger nuts either by snapping them or carefully cutting with a knife, then combine them with the biscuits. Halve any large pieces of dried fruit and chop or snap sweets into smaller pieces, then add these to the bowl.
• Melt 300g of the chocolate, the butter and the golden syrup carefully in a pan set over a low heat, stirring occasionally, then pour this over the biscuit and nut mixture and mix together.
• Tip the mixture into the tin, then level the top – it doesn’t need to be completely smooth. Melt the remaining chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a small pan of simmering water, then drizzle this over the top and sprinkle with the decorations. Chill for at least 3 hrs or overnight before cutting into squares. This'll keep in the fridge for three to four days (if it lasts that long!).
• Get the original recipe here. 

If you’re hungry for more, take a look at these Christmas for kids recipes from BBC Good Food.