Homemade Gingerbread Ornaments

Megan H. 

Guest Blogger of the week Megan H. shares tips from her home to making homemade gingerbread ornaments that don't fall apart in a crumbling mess before you can get them on your tree. Hope you enjoy!

Homemade Gingerbread Ornaments

Our tree was looking pretty bare on ornaments this year so my husband and I decided to whip up some cookies to beef up the tree a bit and fill in some of the bare spots. I searched for a gingerbread recipe online for a while I chose this one and I am so glad I did, it is so easy to put together and smells delicious in the oven and on the tree.

Here is the cookie link:

http://www.thekitchn.com/-holiday-guest-post-from-4-104132

Cookie Tips:

Be sure to roll out the dough to a 1/4", this allows the cookies to be lighter so they won't weigh down your tree branches. Be sure to poke a hole in your cookie, we used the end of a chop stick, it worked great. Don't poke your hole too close to the edge of the cookie.

Here is the icing link:

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/royal-icing-i/

 Icing Tips:

I didn't have a pastry/piping bag so I used a gallon sized zip-lock bag and cut the smallest hole possible in the bottom corner. Be patient with your designs/patterns on the cookies. A few of my first ones I struggled with until I could get the feel. I looked online for some icing pattern inspiration but couldn't seem to find any so we thought up some on our own. Here are a few we really liked:

Starfish

Simple Outline

Double Star

Snowflake

Dot

Swirl

Although the icing sets up really quick, I put mine in the fridge for a few minutes to ensure they were hard before I tied on the raffia. Any kind of holiday ribbon would look great on the cookies as well, I love how the raffia gives it a rustic country look (and we already had it some on hand).

Hope this simple decoration helps warm your home this Christmas Season as much as it has ours. Enjoy!

Bonus ornament tip:

 

We kept the stump of last years tree and made it into one of our first ornaments. 2012 stump is in progress. 

You could also use cookie ornaments to make a garland, put in a wreath on your table or door, or use on your mantel. They look great anywhere.

We chose to do stars-you can do any shape that you have a cookie cutter for.