Misshapen tree decorations, glitter encrusted cookies and a kitchen that’s had its very own white Christmas, flour-style. When children are involved, nothing ever looks quite like it does in the picture.

That doesn’t matter, according to best-selling children’s cookery author Annabel Karmel. The joy is in the baking, she says: “They get so much pleasure in making something and it’s good for their confidence.”

And you may be surprised by how much your little treasures can do.

“Kids can start cooking from any age,” says Karmel. “They can get mixing, rolling and kneading really early.”

The best way to prevent things descending into a food fight is to give them some individual responsibility, she adds: “They will take that really seriously and focus on it.”

So forget about the end result and enjoy the flour-strewn havoc of making edible decorations or snowmen cupcakes.

“People always like to think they’re going to make these faultless cakes and decorations, and they’re all going to look immaculate. But when you’ve got kids involved, it’s just not going to happen,” she says.

“Focus on the fact that cooking is a great way to spend some quality time with your children and that it drags them away from the PlayStation or computer for a few hours.”

Just be careful they don’t eat all those cake decorations before the cooking starts!

Annabel Karmel’s top five tips

• If you’ve got time, measure things out in bowls so you’re not dealing with massive bags of flour that could go everywhere.
• Things are going to get messy, so pop your kids into old T-shirts before they get mixing.
• Make an extra ‘taster’ cookie out of the leftover dough, so kids can try their creations straight out of the oven.
• Designate a corner of the kitchen for the kids, minimising the places they can wreak havoc.
• Always remember that hair should be tied back and hands washed before children get stuck in.

Stained glass window cookies

(Makes 25)

350g plain flour, plus extra for dusting

1tsp bicarbonate of soda

2tsp ground ginger

1/2tsp salt

100g butter

175g soft brown sugar

1 egg

4tbsp golden syrup

Different coloured fruit-flavoured boiled sweets

Narrow ribbon

Piped or writing icing to decorate (optional)

Pre-heat the oven to 180C/Gas mark 4. Get the kids to mix the flour, bicarbonate of soda, ginger and salt into a bowl. Rub in the butter until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs and then stir in the sugar.

Beat together the egg and golden syrup, then mix into the flour mixture to make a smooth dough. The mixture needs to be lightly kneaded – children will love having a go at this.

Give your kids a rolling pin and ask them to crush the sweets in their wrappers. Be prepared for some noise!

Sprinkle some flour on a clean work surface and roll out the dough until about 1/2cm thick. Using a selection of Christmas cookie cutters, ask the children to carefully cut out shapes from the dough. Transfer to lined baking sheets.

Cut out shapes in the centre of each biscuit, making sure you leave a good edge all around the biscuit. Completely fill the hole in each biscuit with crushed boiled sweets.

Get one child to make a hole at the top of each biscuit using a drinking straw, so that you’ll be able to thread a ribbon through it later. Bake for 11-12 minutes until golden.

While the biscuits are still warm, check the holes are still there, otherwise push a straw through again. Do not remove the biscuits from the baking tray until they have cooled as the boiled sweet centre needs to firm up. Once the sweets have hardened, gently lift the biscuits onto a wire rack with a palette knife to finish cooling.

Children will love decorating the cool biscuits with piped icing. Thread ribbons through the holes to make loops and invite the children to hang them on the tree!

Snowman Christmas cupcakes

(Makes 8-10)

100g softened butter or soft margarine

100g golden caster sugar

2 eggs

100g self-raising flour

1tsp baking powder

1tsp vanilla essence

Icing sugar for dusting

150g ready to roll white icing

3tbsp apricot jam

For the decoration:

Marshmallows

Red Fizzy Laces for the scarves

Tubes of coloured writing icing (black and red, available in supermarkets)

Sugar balls or silver baubles to decorate

Pre-heat the oven to 180C/Gas mark 4. Place the softened butter or margarine, sugar, eggs, flour, baking powder and vanilla essence into the bowl of an electric mixer and beat for a few minutes until the mixture is light in colour and fluffy.

Ask a child to line a bun tin with eight paper cases. Divide the mixture between them, filling the cases about two thirds full. Bake for about 20 minutes until the fairy cakes are risen and lightly golden.

Lift the cakes (still in their paper cases) out of the tins and leave them to cool on a wire rack.

Dust a clean work surface with icing sugar and roll out the icing to about 5mm thick. Ask one child to cut out eight circles using a small pastry cutter that’s the same size as the top of your cakes.

Put the apricot jam into a small dish and stir in one tablespoon of hot water. Brush this over the surface of the cakes and stick the circles of icing on top.

To decorate the cakes, give your kids marshmallows for the snowmen’s heads, black writing icing for the eyes, red writing icing for the smiles and sugar baubles for noses (stick them on with a blob of writing icing) and let them create their own character.

Stick the heads on the cakes using a little apricot jam, then stick on the sugar bauble buttons. Wrap Fizzy Laces around the snowmen’s necks for scarves.

Ginger and spice snowflake cookies

(Makes 15)

225g plain flour, plus extra for dusting

¼tsp salt

1tsp baking powder

1½tsp ground ginger

½tsp mixed spice

1 egg yolk, lightly beaten

50g unsalted butter

100g dark brown soft sugar

100g golden syrup

1tbsp milk

White decorating sugar for sprinkling

Tube of white writing icing

Narrow ribbon (optional)

Ask a child to sift together the flour, salt, baking powder, ginger and mixed spice.

Heat the butter, brown sugar and golden syrup in a small pan, stirring frequently until dissolved, then allow to cool for five minutes. Stir the syrup mixture, egg yolk and milk into the dry ingredients and form into a ball of dough. Cover with plastic film and chill for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 180C/Gas mark 4. Roll out the dough on a lightly floured work surface until about 5mm thick.

Children can cut the dough into snowflakes using snowflake-shaped cutters and arrange these on baking sheets that have been lined with baking paper. Use mini cutters to create the intricate snowflake detail (for easy release, spray the inside of the cutters with cooking spray).

Bake the biscuits for 11-12 minutes or until golden. Allow them to cool on the baking tray for five minutes and then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.

Empty the tube of white writing icing into an icing bag. Let the children pipe designs onto the snowflakes and sprinkle with decorating sugar.

Thread a thin ribbon around the cookies and then hang them on the Christmas tree, or store in an airtight tin until ready to eat.

• Annabel Karmel has launched her first iPhone App which is available in the App Store for £3.99, or for more recipes log on to www.annabelkarmel.com