Are you searching for a nice and unique Christmas decoration? A decoration that not only beautifies your home, but also smells wonderful? Try our 3D-Gingerbread Christmas Tree!

 

 

Centuries of Pleasure: The Origin of Gingerbread

 

 

Gingerbread – before this honey cake flavoured with various spices became popular in Europe, it appeared in China already in the Medieval Period. 

However, the dough that is used today for baking small cookies or as decoration is different from the original recipe.

There are for example two different forms of gingerbread in Germany. A soft form and a harder form. The soft form includes for example brown gingerbread or wafer gingerbread cookies. The harder form is particularly associated with carnivals and Christmas markets, which are held in many German towns. They have a decorative shape and are decorated with sweets and icing.

The tradition of cutting out gingerbread with cookie cutters has its origins in this time period and has spread to many countries. The most famous example is the gingerbread man. This cookie was traditionally dipped in port wine. The roots of this tradition can also be found in Nordic countries such as Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland. These biscuits are baked and decorated at Christmas time.

You can decorate your festively laid table or windowsill with this 3D-Gingerbread Christmas Tree. Glue your own gingerbread Christmas tree together, your children will be for sure delighted! 

With our special cookie cutters 3D Set (Tree) that you can find in the “Cookie Cutters 3D Set” category on our website (chezvera.com), it's child's play. You can easily cut out all the cookies thanks to our cookie cutters of various shapes and sizes.

 

 

Ingredients:

 

Gingerbread dough:

500 g Flour (T45)

140 g Icing Sugar

100 g Butter

2 Eggs

2 tbsp. Cocoa Powder

1 tbsp. Baking Powder

1 tbsp. Special gingerbread (or a do-it-yourself mixture – aniseed, cloves, cinnamon, star anise etc....)

2 tbsp. Milk (if necessary)

Royal Icing:

1 Egg White (medium)

200-300 g Icing Sugar

Lemon Juice

Water (if necessary)

 

Method:

 

Gingerbread dough:

Mix all the ingredients together thoroughly, form the dough into a ball and let it rest in the fridge for 24 hours.

Royal Icing:

Sift icing sugar. Lightly whip an egg white and mix with sugar until a white cream is formed. Add a few drops of lemon and, if necessary, add a few drops of water.

 

Roll out the rested dough to a thickness of about 3-5 mm. Cut out the appropriate number (see instructions) of star-shaped and circle-shaped cookies for your gingerbread Christmas tree.

 

Do not forget: Using a circle-shaped mini cookie cutter, cut out a small circle in the middle of each cookie. You will use these circles later for building the tree trunk.  

 

Then remove the cookies from the oven and let them cool properly. Fill the royal icing into a piping bag and decorate your cookies. If a piping bag is not the right choice for you, you can also use a brush. Decorate each star-shaped cookie separately and after that glue the cookies together with your royal icing.

 

You can make your tree like a professional with the help of a wooden stick:

 

1. Put a large star-shaped cookie on the wooden stick.

2.  Spread the royal icing on the bottom of a circle-shaped cookie and glue it to the star.

3. Spread the upper side of the circle with the royal icing as well.

4. Place another star-shaped cookie on top of it.

5. Continue in this way until there are no cookies left.

 

Tip: You can stack the stars differently. The points of the upper star can overlap with the points of the lower star or they can be stacked in a zigzag pattern.

 

And how do you usually make your gingerbread Christmas tree? Share your ideas with us on Facebook or Instagram!