Whether it's a cake, a scarf or piece of embroidery - get your skills in gear and share your sparkle. Be ambitious and bake a batch of cookies or a dozen scarves to sell them for donations. Make sure to adhere to social distancing rules if you are selling anything to your friends and family.

Make sure to share photos of your incredible crafts with the hashtag #ShareYourSparkle

Check out a creation from one our supporters for some inspiration:

Cookie crafting

Create some delicious baked treats based on St John's new ambulance - try out our recipe below. If you're feeling ambitious, you could bake a batch and sell them for donations. Make sure to adhere to social distancing rules if you are selling baked goods.

Make sure to share photos of your delicious creations with the hashtag #ShareYourSparkle.

Cookie recipe

This recipe is taken from BBC goodfood. To find this recipe and more visit the goodfood website.

 

Ingredients

• 175g dark muscovado sugar
• 85g golden syrup
• 100g butter
• 3 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 350g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1 egg, lightly beaten

To finish

Depending on how you want to decorate your design. Chocolate or royal icing will work well for overall coverage but don’t be afraid to use a little bit of sparkle!

 

Method

1. Heat the sugar, golden syrup and butter until melted.
2. Mix the spices and flour in a large bowl.
3. Dissolve the bicarbonate of soda in 1 tsp cold water.
4. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients, add the melted sugar mix, egg and bicarbonate of soda. Mix well. At this stage the mix will be soft but will firm up on cooling.
5. Cover the surface of the biscuit mix with wrapping and leave to cool, then put in the fridge for at least 1 hr to become firm enough to roll out.
6. Heat oven to 190C/170C fan/gas 5. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead briefly. At this stage the dough can be put into a food bag and kept in the fridge for up to a week.
7. Cut the dough in half. Thinly roll out one half on a lightly floured surface. Cut into shapes with cutters, such as Ambulances, Bertie the Badger, The Amalfi Cross or more traditionally: gifts, trees and hearts, then transfer to baking sheets, leaving a little room for them to spread.  
   Repeat with remaining dough.
8. Bake for 12-15 mins until they darken slightly. Cool for a few mins on the baking sheets, then transfer to a wire rack to cool and harden up completely.
9. Decorate and enjoy.

How to raise money

• Follow our Christmas Cookie recipe
• Bake and decorate, why not get you whole household involved - decorating is the fun part!
• Organise a virtual crafting masterclass. Fancy yourself an expert baker? Take your audience through a step-by-step guide to create some Christmas cookies or a loaf of banana bread. Remember to ask for donations from viewers
• Take photos and share your fabulous cookies. Head over to social media, the telephone, WhatsApp and email and ask your friends, family and neighbours if they would like some of your delicious cookies for a donation to St John Ambulance.
• You could set up a JustGiving page and share images of your crafting, don’t forget to send the link to your network of friends and family.
• Take lots of pictures of your bakes on social media and ask for donations. Don’t forget to us the hashtag #ShareYourSparkle and tag so we can see all your fabulous makes!

All fundraising can be done through JustGiving. 

Tag St John Ambulance on social media:     

Contact

For any extra questions please email our team at communityfundraising@sja.org.uk.