Send cookie-exchange party guests home with a little bit more than just cookies.
Whether you're running a cookie exchange for the holidays or as a sweet pick-me-up for your circle of friends, send partygoers home with a special take-home memento of the event. While cookie exchanges, where guests each bake a number of batches of cookies and divide them among party attendees, always result in cookies to take home, you can enhance the end of the party with little gift favors, as you say goodbye to your fellow bakers. Does this Spark an idea?
Special Sprinkles
Sprinkles are a popular, and low-calorie, addition to homemade cookies.
Whether you call them sprinkles or jimmies, canisters of colored sugar bits can add a bit of edible creativity to your cookies. Unlike cookie topping options such as peanut butter cups or chocolate chips, a whole tablespoon of chocolate jimmies contains only 35 calories, so encourage your cookie bakers to sprinkle their goods liberally. As guests get their cookie bounty ready to take home, send each person on her way with a new canister of sprinkles. You'll find an endless variety of sprinkles in every color under the sun. If your cookie group meets regularly, consider giving each person a canister of sprinkles themed for the next holiday. Sprinkles are available in pumpkin, heart, ghost and Christmas tree shapes, to name a few. If your next cookie challenge revolves around a color, select canisters of sprinkles in a single, neon hue or a container of crystal sugar sprinkles, that are sure to add a bit of "bling" to each cookie.
Cool Cutters
Cookie cutters can be given to bakers as party favors.
When the smell of fresh-baked cookies tempts cookie-lovers' noses, the shape of the cookie may not matter as much as how fast the cookies can be snagged, but shaped cookies can still add a sense of artwork to your cookie platter. Cookie shapes are achieved through cookie cutters, small metal or plastic bits that are pressed into the raw dough before the baking process. Cookie cutters are thought to have originated in Egypt over three thousand years ago, according to the Old Fashioned Living website. Today, cutters are used as both baking implements and for decorative purposes, when they are hung up like mobiles or piled on cake plates. Send your guests home with a new cookie cutter as a party favor to inspire their next baking project. Cookie cutters are available in just about every shape imaginable, from holiday themes to animals to letters of the alphabet. Give each cookie exchange member a letter with her first initial or a shape to use for the next cookie exchange. Cookie cutters are available at craft stores, homegoods stores and baking-supply shops.
Awesome Aroma
While the scent of freshly baked cookies can be hard to beat, it's not always realistic to imagine someone in your cookie exchange would have a tray of cookies baking around the clock. Instead, give party guests the opportunity to enjoy the scent of cookies any time, anywhere, with a cookie-scented candle. You'll find many cookie-scented candle options, like vanilla shortbread, chocolate chip, snicker doodle and peanut butter cup in candle shops, craft stores and from online candle venders.
Tags: your cookie, Cookie cutters, cookie exchange, home with, canister sprinkles