The Boyd household is going to be quite busy in the days leading up to Christmas, but gift purchasing and wrapping may be the last thing on the family’s mind.
The Jaffrey sisters – second grader Eva, fourth grader Ella, fifth grader Mia, and seventh grader Zoe – will be making various baked goods for teachers, friends, and other community members in the days leading up to Christmas. The effort, which ramped up around Thanksgiving, has been the children’s way to give back to their family and friends, with funds raised being used to purchase Christmas presents.
“Christmas is my favorite holiday,” said Ella, in between bites of a fresh-out-of-the-oven sugar cookie. “I get to bake, and I like opening and watching other people open presents.”
Inspiration for the holiday-oriented business venture came around Thanksgiving, when a teacher offered to pay Zoe to make her an apple pie after sampling her baking skills during a Thanksgiving lunch at school.
Heather Boyd – the girl’s mother – said her daughters have been cooking and baking for a long time. In fact, Boyd said she has a photo of Ella making herself some oatmeal at age 4.
“Ella loves making cookies,” said Heather, who admits that she only considers herself to be an average baker. “Zoe makes dinner two times a week. [Having them cooking and baking] is great because it keeps them occupied.”
The Boyd children estimate that they have made over $100 to date, with each child taking the profits from the items they specifically bake (the girls are required to pay their parents back for ingredients).
“We mainly sell to teachers and people on Facebook,” said Mia. “The pies sold really well around Thanksgiving and we are doing a lot of holiday cookies.”
Currently, Mia is specializing in M&M bars, pumpkin pie, and gingerbread cookies; Zoe bakes mini cheesecakes, apple pie, and pretzel caramel bars; Ella makes sugar, M&M, and chocolate chip cookies; and Eva is trying her hand at chocolate cream pie.
The girls spend a lot of time with cookbooks, Pinterest, and allrecipes.com, examining and trying out various recipes. The Boyds also enjoy experimenting on their own, an activity that has yielded mixed results so far.
The Boyd sisters are now in the final holiday stretch, creating a menu of items to make that will be passed onto interested buyers. Baking will commence in the days leading up to Christmas Eve; orders will be available for pickup after completion.
“I still need to do some more Christmas shopping,” said Zoe. “It’s hard to do my shopping because when I’m in the stores, my parents are with me.”
A limited amount of goods are still being offered by the Boyds to be made for the holidays. For more information, email heathereboyd@yahoo.com.
Nicholas Handy can be reached at 924-7172 ext. 235 or nhandy@ledgertranscript.com. He is also on Twitter @nhandyMLT.