Cassie Bustamante

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Cookbook Create: Cookie Swap or Family Recipe Collection Gift Idea

December 5, 2016 by Cassie 47 Comments

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This post is sponsored by Cookbook Create.  When Chris and I were first married, I had very limited cooking experience, nor a database of go-to recipes.  I asked my mother to put together some of our family’s recipes together for me one Christmas.  She purchased a cute little journal and added on sticky tabs and hand wrote every single recipe for me, along with some fun little notes about them from our family’s history. Cookbook Create is an awesome company that allows you to (just as the name indicates!) create your own cookbook!  You add your own recipes, and can upload your own photos, creating something that is sure to become a family treasure. It would have made my mother’s job much easier!Cookbook Create Cookie Swap DIY CookbookI was so excited to have the opportunity to try out Cookbook Create, and have partnered with several other bloggers on a “Cookie Recipe Swap” cookbook.  We each contributed recipes to a group collection, and then we were each able to create our own cookbooks from that collection, organizing recipes as we wanted, and adding our own photos to make it more personal.  This idea would be amazing for a holiday cookie swap! If you’re hosting one this season, have everyone contribute recipes and you can each make your own cookbooks from them!  How fun would that be?

Emmy and I had a fun weekend of holiday baking to put together our original recipes and photos that I was contributing to the collection. Of course, if you are hosting a cookie swap, you could easily snap photos of each of the cookies while you’re there.  The individual recipes don’t need photos, but they’re much more fun that way.  One of the cookies we made for the collection was a family favorite, peanut butter blossoms, and we added this photo to go along with the recipe.Peanut Butter Blo

After we all added our recipes, it was time to create our own cookbooks!  For the cover, Cookbook Create has several templates available, or you can use your own photo.  I opted to use a picture of my fringed Christmas tree from last year as a background. Cookbook Create Cover PhotoAs you can see above, designing the cover is the first step, and then you simply follow each step until your book design is complete.  The process is really simple and prompts you right through easily.  I had so much fun choosing festive photos to add to my book.Cookbook Create Photo Adding

And when the book arrived, my kids were thrilled to see that I had chosen photos of them as well as each of our family pets to include in our book to make it special.  It’s truly full of family favorite recipes as well as meaningful memories. If you look closely below at the cinnamon bar recipe you’ll see what I wrote that makes it special to me.

inside of Cookbook Create

When the book arrived in the mail I was blown away by how beautiful it was!  It’s a professional quality bound book that I put together and virtually created.  My kids and I were excited to test out some of the recipes that were new to us from the other bloggers, and decided to start out with “Grandma’s Iced Gingerbread Cookies” that Emily of Rainbow Delicious created.  (Just wait until you see ours below… they don’t look quite as lovely! ๐Ÿ˜‰ )Gingerbread Cookie RecipeOf course, I say “kids” here loosely… Emmy was thrilled to help with the actual mixing and baking…Baking Cookies with EmmySawyer told us to let him know when the dough was ready for sampling.  This recipe was egg free, so I suppose we could’ve just plopped down with spoons and eaten it straight, right? ๐Ÿ˜‰Kids trying cookie doughBut alas, buzzkill mom scooped it into a bowl with a lid to refrigerate so we could roll and cut later.Putting Away DoughAfter a few hours, we were ready to roll and cut into the special Christmas shapes my kids chose like monkeys, gorillas, wreaths, and Santas.  I am pretty sure monkeys and gorillas were “away in the manger,” too, right?  Emmy and I began rolling and cutting and before I knew it, the whole family had come together to cut cookies.  We are never that perfect Christmas card family, but for this one moment, it felt like it… Christmas music was playing, and we were all happily cutting Christmas gorilla cookies together.Family Cutting Cookies TogetherOnce they went in the oven, I washed dishes and made the frosting while everyone else played Uno until we were ready to decorate.  We had our icing from the recipe in the book, and brought out different sugars and gels we had on hand and just had fun.  As you can see, we are no professionals.Decorated CookiesAnd then there was this gorilla… Emmy wanted to make a bear like the one in The Great Outdoors which my parents showed her a couple weeks ago. (For your reference, if you aren’t familiar with it, it’s got a bald behind and you can see it here.)  We were out of bears so she used a gorilla instead and, well, now it looks like a baboon… the Christmas baboon!Decorated CookiesWe have had so much fun flipping through this book, finding new recipes, and visiting the old ones to read what makes them special to us.  We’ve loved seeing our home and family on the gorgeous print pages.  I made sure that each dog was accounted for in its pages.  Oh, and as you can see I chose the butcher block background Cookbook Create has for the pages.  I loved how it mimicked our own counters.Cookbook CreateAnd since every Christmas, our elf Lolly is part of our family, I couldn’t leave him out.Cookbook Create- Personal cookbook

Next year I would love to plan a cookie swap with my local girlfriends and make a book we can all collaborate on together and add our photos and recipes to; it would be such a wonderful memory to keep forever.  I also think that Cookbook Create would be a perfect way to make a cookbook for a bride and groom, or for a bridal shower, even a baby shower.  At Valentine’s day it would be fun to make one with all of the recipes you and your special someone enjoy together.

If you are hosting a cookie swap this season, be sure to check out Cookbook Create so you can make your own special cookbook for you and your friends to treasure forever… because we all know the cookies don’t last!

PS- Be sure to check out the other bloggers cookie recipe swap posts here: Summer, Emily, Jess

This post was sponsored by Cookbook Create.  All photos and opinions are my own; I truly love what this company is all about and hope you check them out!

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Comments

  1. [email protected] says

    December 5, 2016 at 8:09 am

    This would be fantastic for a cookie exchange. Such a great way to capture the recipes. Love your photos and Noa is the same way. He only wants to sample.

    Reply
    • Cassie says

      December 5, 2016 at 10:50 am

      i need to host a swap so i can do this with friends and fill with our memories! so fun! sawyer and noa…. maybe just boys!

      Reply
  2. Jessica | Petal + Ply says

    December 5, 2016 at 10:04 am

    Such a great idea! I love how you made your cookbook into a memory book too with all the family photos.

    Reply
    • Cassie says

      December 5, 2016 at 10:50 am

      i love that it can be filled with memories… like if a relative passed how nice would it be to collect their recipes and share with photos of that person and gift to your family? right? or at a 100th birthday party for guests!

      Reply
  3. Brynne | The Gathered Home says

    December 5, 2016 at 10:35 am

    Wow! You just blew my mind with this post… Seriously, I’m in love with this idea! Totally stealing the cookie exchange cookbook idea for next year!

    And can I just say, I LOVE the pic with Emmy and Sawyer tasting the cookie dough? Their sweet faces crack me up – that must be some GOOD cookie dough! ๐Ÿ˜€

    Reply
    • Cassie says

      December 5, 2016 at 10:48 am

      they were hilarious!!!! i made them wait to taste the dough and snapped a few pics before that.. that photo was taken right after i said, “OK, go!”and their faces couldn’t have been more perfect!

      Reply
  4. Danielle says

    December 5, 2016 at 10:38 am

    What a sweet idea (literally)! LOVE the family photos of you guys.

    Reply
    • Cassie says

      December 5, 2016 at 10:46 am

      thank you, danielle! isn’t it a fun concept?

      Reply
  5. Melissa says

    December 5, 2016 at 10:41 am

    What a fun product! It would be an amazing gift to put together a full book of family recipes.

    Reply
    • Cassie says

      December 5, 2016 at 10:45 am

      I would love to do this for Emmy when she is older!

      Reply
  6. Mallory says

    December 5, 2016 at 10:41 am

    Okay this is the coolest ideA!!!!! So glad to learn about it and am totally sending to my
    Mom and sister right now! Xo

    Reply
    • Cassie says

      December 5, 2016 at 10:43 am

      Isn’t it fun? I am so going to host a swap next year for this very reason!

      Reply
  7. Jessica says

    December 5, 2016 at 11:00 am

    I love this idea. I am not much of a cook or a chef at that matter, but I do love to bake. This would make the perfect gift to give to family and pass down to our kids. Thanks Cassie for sharing this with us. Also, you have one BEAUTIFUL family!

    Reply
    • Cassie says

      December 5, 2016 at 9:03 pm

      thank you so much, jessica! we had a lot of fun doing this together!

      Reply
  8. Eliesa @ Pinterest Addict says

    December 5, 2016 at 11:12 am

    This is SUCH a great idea! I love it for Christmas, but I can see one being created as a wedding present for the new bride – a cheat sheet to make all her new husband’s favorite foods… Or of course the other way too- I hear that some husbands cook! LOL!

    Reply
    • Cassie says

      December 5, 2016 at 9:03 pm

      yes, exactly! my husband actually does cook! ๐Ÿ™‚

      Reply
  9. Jess says

    December 5, 2016 at 11:20 am

    I love this idea so much! I’d love to make a cook book full of all of the recipes I’ve blogged about over the past few years. It motivates me to keep on sharing them!

    Reply
    • Cassie says

      December 5, 2016 at 9:02 pm

      you totally should!

      Reply
  10. Claire Brody says

    December 5, 2016 at 12:13 pm

    Seriously love this idea! So sweet and meaningful!

    Reply
    • Cassie says

      December 5, 2016 at 9:00 pm

      thank you, claire!

      Reply
  11. Aniko says

    December 5, 2016 at 2:34 pm

    Love it! Super cute idea!!

    Reply
    • Cassie says

      December 5, 2016 at 9:00 pm

      thank you, aniko!

      Reply
  12. Kim says

    December 5, 2016 at 3:07 pm

    This. Is. Incredible!!! What a beautiful idea and a wonderful gift. My mind is spinning with the possibilities.

    I actualy just kind of want to buy this book – looks yummy. And also, I’m totally going to make peanut butter blossoms this year. I’ve never made them.

    Reply
    • Cassie says

      December 5, 2016 at 8:59 pm

      thank you! it really is the coolest, right? you should make them- we love them!

      Reply
  13. Shelley | Crazy Wonderful says

    December 5, 2016 at 6:05 pm

    This is the coolest!!!! What an amazing family gift that would make! And, I’m still laughing about the Christmas Baboon ?

    Reply
    • Cassie says

      December 5, 2016 at 8:58 pm

      chris and i were DYING!

      Reply
  14. Gwen, The Makerista says

    December 5, 2016 at 6:45 pm

    Oh, I love this idea! And you all are so adorable, I wish I looked that good making cookies! Well, I wish I made cookies… ๐Ÿ˜‰

    Reply
    • Cassie says

      December 5, 2016 at 8:57 pm

      haha! i wish i didn’t make them… my waistline doesn’t need them! ๐Ÿ˜‰

      Reply
  15. [email protected] says

    December 5, 2016 at 7:17 pm

    Such a fun idea! I’m, uhh….actually about 4 years overdue with a project I volunteered for to type up all of my grandmother’s recipes and get them made into a book for the family. Maybe this will give me some motivation. You know, after I finish the 2016 photo books for all the grandparents. Right. Back to that!

    Reply
    • Cassie says

      December 5, 2016 at 8:56 pm

      haha! you crack me up!

      Reply
  16. Charlotte Smith says

    December 5, 2016 at 8:08 pm

    This is adorable! My kids love cooking and it’s such a special time for us to hang out without squabbling! Copying this!

    Reply
    • Cassie says

      December 5, 2016 at 8:56 pm

      you need one of these! it’s so fun!

      Reply
  17. Emily of www.elevengables.com says

    December 5, 2016 at 8:41 pm

    What a clever idea! I agree that this would be perfect for a cookie exchange!

    Reply
    • Cassie says

      December 5, 2016 at 8:54 pm

      thank you! i need to host one next year now!

      Reply
  18. Ariel says

    December 5, 2016 at 8:51 pm

    I am so sorry I’m late to the party on this post! What a neat idea! I know about a million and one family members that would love something like this as a gift for the holidays. I’ve got to get my thinking cap on in time for the holidays NEXT year!

    Can we talk about how cute you guys all look?! Emmy’s face in one of those pics is perfection – like an actual kid in a candy store.

    Reply
    • Cassie says

      December 5, 2016 at 8:53 pm

      that photo was when i finally said, “ok go!” and told them they could eat the dough! ๐Ÿ™‚ and thank you!

      Reply
  19. Tania says

    December 5, 2016 at 9:20 pm

    What a great idea, it looks like lots of fun! I love the way the book turned out, the family pictures will be so fun to look back on through the years :o) When my daughter moved out my mom, mother-in-law, and I each contributed some of her favorite recipes and made her a book so she could cook the foods she loves without having to wait on us! She loved it. If this had been available then I totally would have done it!

    Tania

    Reply
    • Cassie says

      December 6, 2016 at 8:12 pm

      that is so awesome that you all collaborated on that!

      Reply
  20. Stephanie @ Casa Watkins Living says

    December 5, 2016 at 10:24 pm

    Literally making one now! Love this idea as a gift too!

    Reply
    • Cassie says

      December 6, 2016 at 8:11 pm

      me, too! it’s such a great idea!

      Reply
  21. [email protected] says

    December 6, 2016 at 9:52 am

    oh my gosh, I ADORE this idea!!

    Reply
    • Cassie says

      December 6, 2016 at 8:00 pm

      thank you! i do, too!

      Reply
  22. Tricia @ Suburban B's says

    December 6, 2016 at 10:14 pm

    What a great project Cassie! I love how your cookbook turned out and love all your photos!!! ๐Ÿ™‚

    Reply
    • Cassie says

      December 8, 2016 at 5:25 pm

      thank you so much! i love them- i love this whole concept!

      Reply
  23. Emily says

    December 7, 2016 at 7:03 pm

    That makes me so happy that you tried my Grandma’s gingerbread cookie recipe, your cookies look like they turned out great! I really enjoyed doing this cookbook cookie exchange with Cookbook Create and am excited to try out all the recipes for years to come!

    Reply
    • Cassie says

      December 8, 2016 at 5:11 pm

      they were awesome- my family has devoured them! i loved working on this, too! happy holidays!

      Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Eclectic Christmas Tour Part 2 - Cassie Bustamante says:
    December 7, 2016 at 10:17 am

    […] are on my mantle).With the center of the island being clear, it’s now perfectly ready for holiday baking, which we’ve already started.Our kitchen opens to our dining room, as you can see above and […]

    Reply

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Hi, I’m Cassie!

I believe that you don't have to spend a lot of money to live a beautiful life and be your best self.ย  Here you will find budget friendly ideas to live happily, healthily, sustainably, and most importantly authentically.ย  We all get one chance at this life,ย and this ordinary girl plans to make hers extraordinary. How about you? Read more...
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Mother, wife, shop owner, blogger, writer, incurable diy-er, furniture painter, coffee and wine drinker, friend. Seeking happiness and passing it on. Read Moreโ€ฆ

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