Things You'll Need:
- recipes that dovetail nicely
- ingredients
- three to four hours
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Step 1
These assembled ingredients feature pumpkin and cream cheese recipes.First, calm down. You can do this. The easiest thing to do is to go out and buy stuff at the local bakery to send. If you chose this solution, chose it only once per organization. Be sure to wrap any store bought goods in plastic wrap instead of the packaging it comes in. You may be able to get away with it once. If you want your children to be heroes, though, find several recipes that dovetail--that use similar ingredients or recipes that can be worked on simultaneously. Take stock of what ingredients you have on hand and go get what you need on your way home from work. Get your recipes and all of the ingredients you'll need for each recipe out on the counter with all of the measuring cups and spoons, mixers, bowls and pans you'll need. This will minimize trips to the pantry and save time.
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Step 2
sunshine bars are topped with part of the cheesecake batterOnce you've assembled your ingredients, plan your order of attack. For example; if you're using pumpkin for Pumpkin bread and cheesecake and cream cheese for cheesecake and sunshine bars, start with the easiest recipe by making your cheesecake mix and get your sunshine bars in the oven while you start the rest of the work. That way, you'll have time to get everything for the next recipe ready while the first one bakes.
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Step 3
This cheesecake crust has to be frozen for 30 minutes before bakingRead your recipes carefully since some may have do-ahead tasks. These can be prepared and set aside until needed. If you read all of the recipes before you start, you can even make a checklist if there are a number of these do-ahead tasks so that you never get stuck having to wait for a hot food to chill or a cold one to heat.
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Step 4
A bowl of flour and spices sits aside as dried apricots are chopped for the pumpkin bread.Organize your preparations so that you use any time to prepare ingredients needed for the next item. A stack of small containers--steel bowls or disposable storage containers--is handy to arrange prepared ingredients in order of use.
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Step 5
The cheesecake is in, the pumpkin bread's cooling and the sunshine bars are ready to cutDo most of your preparation while your items are baking. This way, there is no wasted time waiting for the dinger to go off. Try to have the next batch ready to go in when the first batch is done. Set up an extra cooling rack or two so that you can move your goods along as they finish.
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Step 6
As your goods finish, clean up after yourself. This will make used utensils available for the next recipe and at the end of the process, you'll have a dish of clean dishes and a few things to put back in the pantry instead of a mess that will take you another hour to clean up.
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Step 7
This gingerbread piece for a church bake sale is mounted on shirtboard and will be wrapped in a florist's plastic bag with a bow.Package goods carefully. Cookies can be put in plastic bags but gooey stuff should be wrapped individually or on a paper plate. Put things like a cake or cheesecake on a piece of foil-wrapped cardboard. If you need a bag for a cake or larger item, use florist's bags or small clear bags that are sold for recycling. Clear bags for packaging larger pieces are also available in craft stores.
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Step 8
If you've organized your recipes and work, using ingredients for more than one item, you should be able to get things done for those three bake sales in as many hours. If you've got extra cookie dough, stow it in the freezer for next time. Consider keeping some "starter" for "friendship" or sourdough bread if you have a breadmaker. You can start it when you go to sleep and bag fresh bread to send in the morning.
