What’s inside: Are you looking for creative ideas for homemade gifts from the kitchen? We’ll look at the top 5 gifts and see how you can make them.
Using Handicraft to make useful items
If you homeschool and include handicraft, then you likely have children who are very capable of making useful items. You may have already scheduled a final project to be given away as charity or for a loved family member. And you may already have taught kitchen skills along the way.
You and your kids can make so many useful and personalized items from your own kitchen!
We’ll look at some top ideas for gifts from the kitchen and how you can make one today.
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Top 5 Gifts from the Kitchen
Here’s my list of the top 5 gifts you can make in your own kitchen. These are super easy to do and with a little forethought and preparation, you can make it a family event as you make up a batch of gifts!
First we’ll give a big picture overview of what you can make and some details on what you would need.
Top 5 What to make
- Baking Mixes or Soup Mixes
- Spice Mixes
- Cookies
- Sugar Scrubs
- Herb Infused Vinegars & Oils
How to Package
- Mason Jars
- Cookie Tins for cookies and small spice tins or jars for spice rubs or mixtures
- Glass Bottles for oils/vinegars
- Glass jars for sugar scrubs
Tips for packaging in mason jars
If you are packing a jar for a gift, how you package it depends on the contents.
- Canned goods must follow the safety rules for canning. So that covers all jams, jellies, salsas, chutneys, etc.
- Fresh goodies like homemade cookies should be packaged neatly stacked in the jar so that there isn’t too much movement that would break the cookies.
- Candies or other loose-packed homemade goodies should be packaged in a “just enough” way to limit damage from traveling.
- Layered soup mixes or baking mixes where you showcase the different layers should be packed tightly by tamping down each layer, especially the flours or oatmeal layers that squish more than you think. The top should go on with no movement of the layers when you gently shake the jar.
When packaging in tins
Small tins are useful for spice rubs, while large cookie tins with a clear window are great for baked goods.
You need to limit the wiggle room of baked goods in a tin. Spice rubs are fine regardless of volume but it’s best to fill the spice tin fairly well to make it look best.
How to Finish & Label
- Ribbons
- Jute
- Pretty Labels or gift tags
- Clear gift bags or Paper totes with tissue paper
Spice tins should use printed, stick-on labels like these. Grab my free round label Canva template here! It works for 2” round labels in a 4 x 5 layout on 8.5” x 11” label paper. The labels go with the “Spice Rub” recipe mentioned below, but it is a completely customizable label if you have a different recipe.
5 Ideas on how to find recipes
Baking Mixes
You can convert your favorite recipes by making sure the volume in the jar will be a squishable 1 quart (or whatever size jar you are using.) This involves math. Here’s where you can get your kids involved.
Baking Math
- 1 Quart Jar = 4 cups = 2 pints
- 1 cup = 16 Tablespoons = 8 oz
- 1 Tablespoon = 3 teaspoons
- Quiz: How many teaspoons in a 2 oz tin?
- Hint: You can get a general answer, but you are comparing volume to mass, so it can depend on density. Can you squish 2 oz of marshmallows into that tin? It’s easy enough to squish in 2 oz of cinnamon! Just go with the general answer – it’s good enough for a spice rub!
Conversion help!
I like to make quantity conversions in my meal planning app Plan To Eat. It lets you multiply the recipe by whatever amount you want. This works fine for dry ingredients that go in your jar, but you have to be careful of the wet ingredients that your giftee will need to complete the recipe. No one likes to measure out 2.34 eggs.
The nice thing about some recipes is the add-ins. You can often just include more of them to fill up the jar. Who is going to complain that your chocolate chip cookie mix has too many chips?
Muffin mixes are a bit tricky. I’ve found that most recipes’ dry ingredients for 12 muffins do not fit well into a standard-size jar. So you have two options:
- Make a uniform muffin mix. A generic muffin mix will not be a layered jar – it’s just going to mix up evenly – kind of like using homemade Bisquick. Pretty simple recipe, and it lets the giftee decide what kind of muffin to make. You fill up the jar. And let them worry about how much to use. They might measure 1¾ cups dry ingredients for one recipe.
OR - Adjust the mix with trial and error, and assume the giftee will have to make “15 muffins” or some oddball amount. You fill the jar full and it will probably make more than a dozen muffins.
Spice mixes
There are tons of recipes out there! These will be a uniform mix of spices that you make in a bigger quantity and then divvy up among your gift tins. I received one as a gift once, and we loved it!
Here are a few of my favorite recipes for spice mixes:
- Spice Rub
- Lemon Pepper Rub
- Dry Rub for Ribs
- Rogan Josh Seasoning (Indian spice mix)
Cookies
This one is simple. Just whip up your favorite batch of cookies and package in a pretty box with tissue paper. There are infinite cookie recipes available, of course.
And you can always check out a cookie cookbook from the library for inspiration like Gourmet Magazine’s The Gourmet Cookie Book: The Single Best Recipe from Each Year 1941-2009.
So many cookies, so little time!
We’ve also liked to gift cookie dough to friends so they can make cookies and eat them fresh from the oven. A good way to package dough is to shape the dough into a log shape and then wrap it in wax paper and freeze. It becomes “slice-and-bake” for your giftee. A typical chocolate chip cookie recipe will make 2 or 3 logs. After it’s frozen, simply wrap it in gift paper and give it to someone quickly before it thaws. Frozen cookie dough always has been a welcome gift for hungry teens to make into cookies.
Sugar Scrubs
Sugar scrubs are a fun way to use essential oils and make a great “Spa Day” type of gift. Here’s a basic recipe that can be scented however you like.
Herb Infused Vinegars & Oils
These are garden inspired gifts. Use whatever herbs you grow. Here’s a basic recipe you can adjust as needed.
Keep on learning
I hope this has inspired your homemade gift-giving!
Key tip: Make it a family project and spend a day in the kitchen – but be sure to end the session with some goodies of your own to sample!
FAQ
People love getting Gifts in jars. Gifts can range from the DIY type of mix – like a cookie mix or soup mix – all the way to pre-made goodies packaged beautifully in a jar. Goodies like homemade cookies or candies, fruit butters, jams & jellies, homemade canned salsas or chutneys – your friends and family will enjoy it even more when it is packaged with love.
If you are packing a jar for a gift, it depends: Canned goods must follow the safety rules for canning. So that covers all jams, jellies, salsas, chutneys, etc. Fresh goodies like homemade cookies should be packaged neatly stacked in a jar or cookie tin so that there isn’t too much movement that would break the cookies. Candies or other loose packed homemade goodies should be packaged in a “just enough” way to limit damage from traveling. Layered soup mixes or baking mixes where you showcase the different layers should be packed tightly by tamping down each layer, especially flour or oatmeal which squish more than you think. The top should go on with no movement of the layers when you gently shake the jar.
