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Gifts for a baker that are not one more thing for the cupboard

Somebody who bakes has carried a cake to every birthday on the street, and nobody has ever arrived at their house carrying something for them to eat. That is the gap this page is for. So I do not pack flour, tins, a whisk or anything else a baker would use, partly because they have all of it and better than I could buy, and mostly because it would be one more thing to feed other people with. I pack every box myself here in Canada and write your message onto the card by hand before the lid goes on.

No flour, no tins, no gadgets. This page feeds the person who feeds everybody. I pack every box by hand here in Canada.

Nine boxes for feeding the person who bakes, at $99, $119 and $189, and seven of the nine come in two sizes.

The drawer is already full. That is the whole reason this page is the way it is.

The Breakfast in Bed Box, a gift box packed by hand in Canada
An example of the card, written in your words

Mateo. You feed all of us. Somebody feed you.

Love, the Halls

The Breakfast in Bed BoxTwo sizes, $99 or $119.From$99Buy now, $99: The Breakfast in Bed Box, $99

The boxes I would send somebody who bakes

These are filed under housewarmings and thank yous in my catalogue. They are here because they are aimed at the kitchen and at the person standing in it, rather than at the baking itself.

Showing all 9

Which one, then

Three honest angles on this, and none of them is a tool. Breakfast, because somebody who bakes does it before anybody else is up. The kitchen itself. And simply being fed for once. The amount is a separate question, and how much to spend on a gift in Canada has a page of its own.

For the morning they are already up in

Three boxes from $99 to $119: the Breakfast in Bed Box, the Cozy Warm Start Box and the Leisurely Morning Tea Box. Anybody who bakes is downstairs before the rest of the house. The first of these is the closest thing I pack to a breakfast box and the only one here with syrup in it.

For the kitchen rather than the baking

Three boxes from $99 to $119: the Sweet Scent Home Box, the Kitchen Welcome Box and the Premium Welcome Home Box. A candle, good towels, a board, the dull half of a kitchen that never gets bought as a present. Somebody who bakes every weekend spends more time at the sink than at the mixer.

For being fed for once

Three boxes from $99 to $189: the Sweet Thanks Box, the Sweet & Savory Gourmet Box and the Gourmet Treats Box. Things somebody else made, which for a person who bakes is genuinely a novelty. The last of these is the fullest box on the page and the only one that reaches its top price.

Two sizes on a box, and where the bigger ones are

The boxes on this page run $99, $119 and $189, and seven of the nine come in two sizes. The larger size of a box is everything in the smaller one and about two more things, picked the way the rest of it was picked. On this page the larger size means more to eat. None of it ever becomes a piece of equipment.

Eight boxes on the site run a ladder of three sizes instead, and the luxury boxes at the top of it are the fullest things I pack. If you came here meaning to spend more than this page asks for, the links under this are the shortest way there.

Somebody has to write it down eventually.

You type the message when you order, up to 280 characters, and I write it out in pen on a real card. People who bake for everybody else get thanked constantly and in passing, on the way out of the door, with a mouth full. A card is the version of that which is still around in March.

If you are stuck, people write things like:

"You feed all of us.""Nobody ever feeds you.""Nothing in here needs baking."

If the box is decided and the card is the part you are stuck on, here are a few you can send as they are, or change at checkout.

  • For the family baker"You have fed this entire family for twenty years. Somebody feed you for once."
  • For somebody who brings the cake"You bring the cake to everything. Nothing in here needs baking. Sit down."
  • For a new baker"I am told the drawer is already full, so this is for eating instead."

The card, the tissue, the tape and the rest of what happens to a box before it leaves.

An example of the card, written in your words

You have fed this entire family for twenty years. Somebody feed you for once.

Love, the Halls

Other things they might be into

Baking usually travels with two other things and both have a fuller shelf than this one.

If they cook as much as they bake, the boards and the things to put on them are on the page for somebody who cares what they eat.

If the baking is in aid of having people round, the page for whoever always hosts is written about the table rather than the oven.

And since nobody bakes at six in the morning without a cup beside them, the coffee boxes are a straightforward second option.

Questions people ask me

Is there anything in here to bake with?

No. No flour, no tins, no whisk, no scraper, no scales, no vanilla. There is no baking equipment in my catalogue at all. Anybody who bakes regularly owns better equipment than I would choose and a drawer that will not close, so this page goes the other way instead.

Then what makes it a gift for a baker?

That somebody who bakes is always the one feeding other people and hardly ever the one being fed. Every box here is either breakfast, the kitchen around the baking, or good things somebody else made. Write that on the card and it is a better gift than a tin they already own in two sizes.

Is there a cake or anything baked in the box?

Nothing fresh, no. Everything I pack is shelf stable, because a box that has to be eaten this week is a job rather than a present. What is in these is the sweet and savoury sort of thing that keeps, plus one box with pancake mix and syrup in it, which is the nearest anything here gets to an ingredient.

What are the two sizes?

The larger size of a box is everything in the smaller one and about two more things, picked the way the rest of it was picked. The boxes here run $99, $119 and $189, and seven of the nine come in two sizes. Each box has its own page, and that page says what is in it, so you can check that it really is what this one claims.

How does it get to them?

Shipping is free anywhere in Canada and a box is 1 to 7 days in transit. There is no same-day option and no arrival date anywhere on this page. There is a field at checkout where you pick the delivery date you would prefer. No price on anything inside the box, so it opens as a gift rather than as a number. All sales are final, so check the address before you order.

The cupboard is full and the baker is hungry

There is a particular drawer in the house of everybody who bakes. It has four sets of measuring spoons in it, three pastry brushes, two things whose purpose nobody remembers and a piping set still in the box from four Christmases ago. All of it was a gift. All of it was well meant. None of it was needed, because the person doing the baking bought the version they wanted years ago.

Meanwhile that person has carried a cake to every birthday on the street, fed the whole family at every holiday, and been thanked eleven hundred times on the way out of a door by somebody with their coat half on. Nobody has ever arrived at their house carrying something for them to eat.

That is the entire idea behind this page. Every box here is packed by hand in Canada and sent with a card written out by hand in your own words. Shipping is free anywhere in Canada and a box is 1 to 7 days in transit. If you would rather choose from everything, every box on the site sits in one grid sorted by price.

While you are here

If you are not sure which box to send somebody who bakes, tell me who it is for and roughly what you want to spend and I will tell you what I would pack. I read every message myself, at team@swipegifts.com.