65 Christmas baking recipes

We love Irish cream at olive check out our Irish cream taste test to find out which one to buy), so we have created some indulgent Baileys recipes for you to make. For quick and easy festive entertaining, check out our no-cook Christmas entertaining ideas, or for fun bakes which mash up festive flavours, check out our Christmas mash-up recipes.

Best Christmas baking ideas

Bûche de Noël

Serve this bûche de noël for a Christmas dessert showpiece. This festive log features layers of chocolate sponge, chantilly cream and chocolate buttercream.

Cinnamon biscuits

These crisp iced biscuits are flavoured with warming cinnamon and ginger spices. They are sure to fill your kitchen with enticing festive aromas.

Classic mince pies

It's just not Christmas without a mince pie. Making your own shortcrust pastry is easy, and investing in decent shop-bought mincemeat makes all the difference.

Make-ahead Christmas cake

Get ahead for Christmas by baking this classic festive fruit cake, covered in marzipan and fondant icing. With gentle spices, citrus flavours and ginger wine, this easy bake is full of flavour and sure to impress a crowd.

Classic stollen

This gently spiced, festive bake is bursting with dried fruit and marzipan. A great homemade gift or afternoon pick-me-up.

Baileys cake

A real showstopper of a cake, this three-tiered beauty is all dark chocolate and Baileys Irish Cream. It's perfect for an impressive Christmas dessert.

Vegan gingerbread men

Enjoy some festive nostalgia with a batch of vegan gingerbread men. They're easy to bake and fun to decorate.

Stollen bites

Make these pretty stollen bites for a fun Christmas baking project – you can use any mixed dried fruit, such as cranberries, sour cherries or apricots.

Christmas crumble

Expand your Christmas repertoire with this festive take on your fave pud. Use up left-over mincemeat – jarred or homemade – for extra flavour.

Gingerbread cupcakes

These moreish spiced cupcakes are great fun to make over the festive season for the whole family.

Vegan Christmas cake

Everyone will enjoy a slice of this Christmas cake, which can be baked and matured up to eight weeks before Christmas. Feed the cake weekly with your choice of brandy, rum or whisky for extra moisture and a warming flavour.

Stollen buns

The marzipan and dried fruit in stollen are quintessential Christmas flavours, reworked here into a snowball-like bun by London's Fortitude Bakehouse.

Gluten-free chocolate fudge cake

Turn your hand to baking this festive chocolate fudge cake this Christmas, which just happens to be gluten free.

Cozonac

Bake this sweet Christmas bread from Prestige Patisserie in Tottenham this Christmas. It’s studded with raisins, nuts, chocolate and Turkish delight and infused with rum.

Pistachio and cherry nougat pandoro

Cut corners by assembling this impressive festive centrepiece with shop-bought pandoro – it’s a bake which will get everyone in the festive spirit.

Gingerbread pie

Bake this glorious gingerbread pie, showcasing a blend of ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice, for a Christmas bake that’s designed to impress.

Chocolate panettone

We've given this sweet Italian bread a decadent twist with dark chocolate – the perfect treat to serve visitors over the festive season.

Tiramis-czhoux tower

You can guarantee friends and family haven’t come across this hybrid before, where balls of choux pastry are stuffed with coffee-drenched ladyfingers and boozy pastry cream.

Christmas lamingtons

Give lamingtons a festive makeover in this recipe from Morny Bakehouse, with white chocolate icing, a cherry yuzu jam centre and a buttercream crown.

Christmas pavlova

Individual pavlovas are filled with caramelised pineapple, topped with vanilla-infused cream and finished with a passionfruit coulis. This is a truly showstopping dessert by Covent Garden restaurant, Ave Mario.

Christmas tart

Fill a shop-bought tart case with brandy-soaked dried fruit and two types of almond for an effortless festive dessert, best eaten with brandy butter.

Pandoro semifreddo

This easy yet standout pandoro recipe is sure to bring the wow factor to any Christmas table. The chocolate and amaretto semifreddo is all encased in an Italian pandoro bread and topped with a crown of crunchy pistachios.

Ecclefechan tarts

A must-try alternative to festive mince pies, flavoured with very strong tea, grape molasses and brown butter.

Christmas crumble

Expand your Christmas repertoire with this festive take on your fave pud. Use up left-over mincemeat – jarred or homemade – for extra flavour.

Lebkuchen

Honey-sweetened German treats spiced with cinnamon and ginger, lebkuchen are famously festive biscuits. Bake a batch this winter to really get into the Christmas market spirit.

Vegan raspberry and lemon trifle

Impress your guests with this classic layered dessert. The easy homemade custard uses vanilla-flavoured soya milk and gives a traditional flavour and colour to the custard.

Caribbean rum cake

This decadent and boozy cake from Caribbean chef Keshia Sakarah is fed with spiced rum and traditionally served during the festive season.

Panforte

This Italian dessert is popular during the festive season. Chewy, nutty and sweet, it's packed with pistachios, almonds and dried fruits.

Florentines

A great little Christmas treat to bake at home. Hang them from ribbons as an edible Christmas tree decoration or stack them on a plate and enjoy with a comforting cup of tea over the festive season.

Christmas fudge

Christmas biscuits

Looking for a foodie festive activity to do with children? Our spiced Christmas biscuits make perfect edible decorations to hang from your tree or mantle. You can leave them out for Santa or wrap them up as a gift, the possibilities are endless!

Rum and raisin cake

Stir up this make-ahead Christmas cake with a spiced, boozy twist and your kitchen will be filled with alluring, festive smells.

Chocolate yule log

Need a show-stopping dessert recipe to impress guests over the Christmas period? Check out our indulgent festive yule log with a boozy Baileys cream and crunchy hazelnut brittle, the perfect festive bake.

Baileys chocolate tiffin

Looking for an easy edible gift to give friends over the festive season? Check out these indulgent chocolate tiffins with our favourite Christmas drink in solid chocolate form. You don’t have to include the edible glitter but it does give added bling. Check out our other Baileys recipes here.

Christmas cupcakes

Looking for Christmas treats to bake? Soak up the cuteness of our melted chocolate snowmen cupcakes. These easy-to-make cupcakes are great fun to bake with the whole family and make for quick and easy Christmas party food.

Street cart soft pretzels

Soft yet slightly chewy, with a dark golden skin from being boiled before baking, these pretzels are slow-fermented for a richly flavoured dough. Finish with fat crystals of salt.

Indonesian pandan, raspberry and white chocolate blondies

Pandan and raspberries give a colourful and festive edge to these blondies, while the tartness offsets the sweet white chocolate perfectly.

White snowball cake

Need a show-stopping cake to serve family and friends over the festive season? Check out our indulgent white chocolate Christmas cake recipe. It might not be snowing outside, but one bite of this cake and you'll feel like you're in a winter wonderland. Filled with coconut and covered in white chocolate, it's sweet and indulgent.

Sour cherry stollen bars

Looking for Christmas treats to bake? Jazz up your stollen this Christmas with our easy sour cherry flavoured bars. The ingredients list may look lengthy but it’s all about building up the textures and flavours to make this the most moreish bar ever – way better than regular stollen. Check out our best cherry recipes here.

Snowball madeleines

Give the English madeleine a festive spin by infusing with the flavours of a classic snowball cocktail.

After Eight cake

This showstopping cake is a glorious combination of chocolate and mint that makes an excellent dessert for a festive party.

White chocolate cranberry cheesecake blondies

Make your blondies extra special with a festive sprinkling of cranberry flavour and a swirl of decadent cheesecake filling.

White Christmas cake

Want a show-stopping easy Christmas bake? Check out our super light vanilla cake, an easy alternative to serve on Christmas Day in place of a normal fruit cake. In order to keep the colour as white as possible, use a very light-coloured butter such as Lurpak or keep beating the butter until it lightens in colour. Looking for other show-stopping cake recipes? Click here.

Mexican chocoflan

This festive flan cake, featuring chocolate, caramel and cinnamon, is known as 'flan imposible' and combines two popular Mexican desserts.

Black cake

Make this classic Caribbean as a Christmas cake alternative – featuring port, dark rum and dried fruits, it's rich and decadent (and amazing at Christmas).

Black forest gateau

Turn the clock back with our nostalgic black forest cake with a modern twist.

Christmas rocky road

Traditional digestives are swapped for ginger biscuits, whilst cranberries and pistachios add some festive colour in this crowd-pleasing Christmas rocky road.

Whisky crumble mince pies

We've added a splash of booze and morello cherries to this classic Christmas treat and topped with buttery crumble for extra indulgence.

Moldavian layered pie with hemp cream

Traditionally made on Christmas Eve in Eastern Romania, this pie sees layers of flatbread soaked in a honey syrup and spread with a hemp seed filling.

Rum and almond fruit cake

Want an easy fruit cake with no fuss? Impress your guests this Christmas and jazz up your cake with rum and a simple almond buttercream. Make it now or save the recipe to whip up an easy Christmas baking idea.

Nepali spiced fruit and nut tart

Cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger give this nutty tart a real festive edge. With a kick of spiced rum, it's a grown-up dessert that's perfect for Christmas.

Baileys truffles

Treat someone special this Christmas with these melt-in-the-mouth chocolate truffles with a boozy kick from Baileys cream.

Gluten-free mince pies

Christmas baking, gluten-free style. These boozy mince pies with meringue tops don't compromise on flavour or texture, plus they look impressive, too.

Boozy mincemeat pie

Want a boozy pie to feed a crowd over the festive season? Our elegant recipe turns the humble mince pie into a fantastic Christmas dessert. Use shop-bought shortcrust pastry and a good-quality mincemeat to save time. Finish with a dusting of silvery icing sugar. Click here for other exciting sweet pie recipes...

Chocolate-dipped honeycomb

Looking for easy edible gifts for Christmas treats to bake at home? Ready in 20 minutes, our quick and super fun honeycomb recipe is dipped in dark, milk and white chocolate, the perfect Christmas treat for someone with a sweet tooth. Try one of our other edible gift ideas here...

Russian honey cake

Check out our impressive Russian cake recipe with moreish burnt-honey icing. This layer cake takes a bit of effort to make but it's the perfect cake to show off to friends and family for any special occasion over the festive season. This Russian honey cake recipe is created by original GBBO winner and expert baker Edd Kimber.

Baileys fudge

Homemade fudge is a great little sweet treat for Christmas. Perfect with coffee to finish off a meal or as an energy booster, it keeps for up to a month in an airtight container. Plus we've got an easy how-to video and it only requires 4 ingredients, the perfect festive bake.

Spiced rum bamkuchen

Present this show-stopping dessert on Christmas Day for an impressive festive bake, packed with golden marzipan and dark rum. Slice it open to reveal the many layers which will wow your guests. It might take a bit of time to prepare, but it's worth the effort! Try more of our boozy cake and bakes here.

Clementine yoghurt cake

Move over Christmas fruit cake, our gluten free festive clementine cake is in town and it's zesty and super moist. Slice it up and watch everyone come running for a piece of this fruity and sweet, yogurty deliciousness.

Mini Viennese mince pies

How do you make mini mince pies taste even better? Add even more buttery goodness with a Viennese swirl biscuit topping, zesty oranges and boozy amaretto of course!

Cranberry and ginger tiffin

Make this simple, indulgent tiffin to treat someone you love this Christmas. You can swap the white chocolate for dark or milk – go for the recipient’s favourite. The cranberry and ginger flavours really lift the buttery biscuit. Ready in only 30 minutes.

Gingerbread Advent cookies

Looking for fun Christmas baking ideas? Make your own edible Advent calendar with our quick and easy gingerbread cookie recipe. The kids can eat them one day at a time or all at once! We have more biscuit recipes here.

White chocolate roulade with Baileys

Treat your loved ones to a great dessert with this luxurious festive bake made with white chocolate and Baileys. It's easy to make and requires very little effort – prepare it next time you host a festive dinner party.

Chocolate, hazelnut and cinnamon kugelhupf

Kugelhupf is a light Christmas cake similar to brioche or baba and is popular in central Europe. This version is made with chocolate, hazelnut and cinnamon, a great alternative to the traditional British Christmas cake recipe. Plus, it's easy to make, too.

Christmas muffins

These tangerine and marzipan muffins are easy to make and ready in under an hour – serve with an afternoon cup of tea or for an indulgent festive breakfast treat.