You made cookies to give as gifts. They taste good. They’re homemade. You spent time and money making them.
There’s just one problem.
They look a little crazy.
Maybe they spread more than you wanted. Maybe the icing isn’t exactly bakery quality. Maybe your snowmen look slightly alarmed. Maybe some of the cookies are bigger than the others. Maybe they just don’t look anything like the cookies you saw on Pinterest when you decided this was a good idea.
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Yes. Give people the cookies.
Most people are thrilled when someone gives them homemade cookies. They are not standing there inspecting whether every cookie is the exact same size or whether your royal icing lines are completely straight.
They are thinking: Oh good, cookies.
Your Cookies Don’t Have to Look Perfect
I think we’ve gone a bit off the mark about how homemade food is supposed to look.
We see professionally styled cookies every time we open a social media app and forget that normal people are making Christmas cookies in their kitchens after work, probably while doing three other things at the same time.
Homemade cookies are supposed to look homemade.
A crooked star still tastes like a star. A gingerbread man with one leg slightly larger than the other is still a gingerbread man. And nobody has ever turned down a good sugar cookie because the sprinkles weren’t evenly distributed.
At least nobody who should be receiving your cookies.
Flat cookies can still taste fantastic. But if you'd rather they weren't quite so flat, here's why cookies spread and how to fix them for next time.
There Is a Difference Between Ugly Cookies and Bad Cookies
Now, I’m not suggesting you package up absolutely anything and hand it to the neighbors.
There’s a difference between cookies that look a little weird and cookies that didn’t turn out.
If the bottoms are burned, the centers are raw, the cookies taste strange or they’ve been sitting around long enough to qualify for Social Security, don’t give those away.
But cookies that taste good and are simply less than perfect?
Those are gift cookies.
Packaging Fixes Almost Everything
This is where cute cookie packaging earns its keep.
Put homemade cookies in a pretty cookie box, cookie tin or cellophane bag. Add some parchment paper or tissue paper. Tie on a ribbon or some baker’s twine and add a gift tag.
Suddenly your slightly wonky cookies look intentional.
Packaging is also helpful if you’re giving several different kinds of cookies together.
A few chocolate cookies, some sugar cookies and a couple of Christmas cookies with sprinkles look much more impressive grouped together than they might sitting separately on your cooling racks.
And frankly, once you put a ribbon around something, people assume you know what you’re doing.
What if My Decorated Cookies Look Bad?
Give yourself a minute before you decide they look bad.
You’ve probably been staring at these cookies for hours. You saw the inspiration photo. You know exactly what you wanted them to look like.
The person receiving them doesn’t.
They’re just seeing homemade cookies.
If you have one cookie that looks truly deranged, fine. Keep that one for yourself. Every batch needs a baker’s cookie anyway.
Package up the rest.
Should I Gift Broken Cookies?
This depends on how broken we’re talking.
I wouldn’t put a cookie that has completely snapped in half into someone’s Christmas cookie box and pretend nothing happened.
A small crack? A missing corner? A little imperfection that doesn’t affect the cookie?
I wouldn’t worry about it.
Save the genuinely broken cookies for yourself. Those are calorie-free because they’re technically scraps. I don’t make the rules.
Homemade Cookies Are Supposed to Be Homemade
If somebody wanted absolutely identical cookies made by a machine, they could buy a package at the grocery store.
The whole point of giving homemade cookies is that you made them for someone.
They don’t need to look like they came from a bakery. They don’t need professional icing. They don’t need to be the exact same size.
They need to taste good, be safely baked and be packaged so they stay fresh.
That’s it.
So if you’re standing in your kitchen wondering whether your cookies are pretty enough to give away, stop staring at them.
Put them in a cute box.
Tie a ribbon around it.
Give your love.
Cute Cookie Packaging Ideas
Kraft Boxes with Clear Windows
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