How to Host a Fall Bake-Off Party with Your Besties

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Come on, girls…get your aprons on! It’s time for a bestie bake-off!

As soon as the temperatures start to cool down, the leaves begin to change, and we officially can say it’s “sweater weather”, we know it’s time to invite our friends over for a fall bake-off party. It’s the perfect way to gather friends, make some delicious fall baked goods, and create memories with your besties.

Hosting a fall bake-off at your apartment or home is super simple to do. Today, we’re going to break down everything you need to host a bake-off party of your own. Everything from sending out official invitations, choosing the best fall recipes, and decorating your home for the competition to commence.

Keep reading to learn more and start planning your annual fall bake-off party.

More Fall Hosting Ideas:

How to Host a Fall Bake Off Party

Send Invitations

First things first, you’ll want to send out invitations to your friends. You can send these via text message, or if you’re feeling really official, you can send them to your friend’s mailboxes. However, you choose to send the invites is up to you, but you’ll want to make sure they match the occasion.

Here are some of our favorite fall invitations that you can customize to create the perfect invitation for your fall back off party:

Choose Your Fall Recipe

Next, everyone is going to be assigned to a recipe. There are a couple of ways you can do this, so you can choose the method you prefer for you and your friends to follow.

You choose one food for everyone to make different variations of.

For example, Everyone has the task of baking different flavors of cinnamon rolls. One friend would make pumpkin cinnamon rolls, the other would make classic cinnamon rolls, another would make maple bacon cinnamon rolls, and so on and so forth. Whatever food item you choose, everyone will make a different flavor or variant of that baked good.

Everyone makes a different fall baked good.

This is when everyone chooses to make a different fall baked good. Have your friends sign up for a specific item. Maybe someone wants to make pumpkin cookies, another wants to make pumpkin bread, and someone else wants to make caramel apple dessert bars. This could be a great way to bake a variety of items that everyone could share at the end of the day, too.

Recipe Prep Tips:

• It’s best to have everyone prep and bring the ingredients they will need for their individual recipe. To make things even easier for your friends, have them measure out all the ingredients to pack and bring to your house. This will cut down on prep time and make things go much more smoothly.

• Select a fall recipe from a cookbook you already own or from a seasonal magazine. There are several of our favorites below.

Decorate Your Space with Cozy Fall Decor

Since a bake-off is a fairly casual event with your friends, you don’t have to get too elaborate with decorations. However, we think it would be adorable to go with a bakery theme. Since you’re baking delicious pastries and baked goods, it only makes sense, right?

Add a cute bakery banner to your oven vent hood. Using a piece of butcher paper, create a handwritten menu with the bake-off items of the day. You could even designate a table for the judges to sit — do this by rolling out a tablecloth and setting the table with fall place mats and tableware.

Play Fall-Themed Music

Get in the baking mood by playing some fall-themed music. We’ve gathered a couple of our favorite fall playlists to turn on no matter the occasion. Opt for a casual fall pop playlist, or throw in some old classics for a cozy ambience as you and your friends bake the day away.

Bake & Judge Everyone’s Baked Goods

Once everything is in place — your home is decorated and your friends have arrived — it’s time to start baking. Take turns baking your food items in the oven. Once everyone is complete, it’s time to judge. 

You may choose your judges however you would like. Maybe you want two neutral friends who didn’t participate in the baking to be the judges. Or, you could even have everyone anonymously taste-test and judge each item. The judging process is totally up to you and will work best for your group of besties.

Send Home Goodie Boxes 

Lastly, as the day comes to a close, have a goodie box filled with leftovers from the bakeoff. There will most likely be plenty to take home, so everyone will have delicious baked goods to treat themselves for days after. 

These goodie boxes are perfect for your friends to package everything in.

Now it’s time to start taking action — your bestie fall bake off may just become a yearly tradition.