My Aunt Barb and Aunt Denise had the fabulous idea of taking the Wedding Cake Cookies I wrote about previously, and turning them into a fabulous Christmas cookie. These would make wonderful little gifts. As before, there is a good amount of labor involved in putting them together, but I think the results are worth it.

When we got to our thanksgiving destination, they were making these, so I had to grab the camera and document the process for you guys. And of course I got roped into doing a few myself too!

The instructions are below the How To picture below. Click through to see larger.

Directions:
1. Make/bake your sugar cookies ahead of time. You’ll need Star shaped cookie cutters in 4 sizes. You’ll need 8 cookies per tree, 2 in each size. Here’s some star shaped cookie cutters- hey, you can always reuse for the 4th of July!
IMPORTANT: Your cookie dough recipe should not have any leavening in it (ie no baking powder or baking soda), so the cookies bake flat–here’s one.

2. Icing – Use green food coloring to tint your icing green. We used a buttercream I think, but it really shouldn’t matter, as long as the icing dries hard. Ice the largest cookie first, then ice the second of the same size. Immediately press the iced cookie on top of the first one, centering the points of the stars between the ones of the previous layer, so they do not overlap. Continue building the tree in this manner, with successively smaller stars. Mine were messier than Jennifer’s, hers are the prettier ones! But exactness isn’t needed, just make sure you ice the tips since that’s what shows.

3. Decoration – You can decorate any way you like, but we used packaged royal icing flowers, which you can purchase from a cake supply shop or online. Just google royal icing flowers. Just press one on top while the top star’s icing is still wet. We had some sugar stars we considered standing up on the top of the tree, but we didn’t try that while I was there.

4. Trunk. the original idea didn’t include a trunk, but the boxes they were packaging them in for gifts were tallish, and they decided the tree needed to be taller. Hence, a stem made from a mini Reese’s Cup and glued on with icing! Mmmm always nice to add chocolate anyway, right?

5. Packaging – They used clear acetate favor boxes ordered online, tied with a gold ribbon. Let the tree dry thoroughly before transferring to packaging. Use icing to ‘glue’ the tree to the bottom of the box.

Related:
Wedding Cake Cookies Tutorial
Blueberry Pie Tutorial

Hope you find this useful! If you try it, be sure to let me know…
Later this week we’re doing Oatmeal cookies, so Stay Tuned! (Don’t miss anything – Subscribe!)

Instructable HERE!

These might be related posts, too:

1. Christmas Cookie Tutorial – Make Oatmeal Cookies!
2. Holiday Cookies – Christmas Tree
3. Wedding Cake Cookie Favors
4. How to Make Oatmeal Cookies (a Dabbled re-run)
5. Tutorial – Make a Blueberry Pie!