Gingerbread Christmas Tree Decorations - and more!

Determined to change up the look of our Christmas tree from the usual red and gold bauble gleam, I went on a hunt for easy, innovative and original Christmas tree decorations, that wouldn’t cost me a lot of money.

Coincidentally, (I really want intending it), almost all my ideas turned out to be edible. Despite that not being the theme I was going for (I must really love food even subconsciously), this was a fun way to change up the look of the Christmas tree, and really get it ‘Beginning to smell a lot like Christmas’.

First and foremost I baked some gingerbread (recipe down below). The dough was cut into Christmas themed shapes like trees, stars, bells, hearts and stockings (I did forget gingerbread men and feel highly guilty). The finished gingerbread was decorated with icing sugar and other sugar decorations, and then I drove a ribbon through the holes in order to hang them up.

The decorating and baking of Gingerbread Tree Decorations are great activities to get kids into the Christmas spirit.

Additionally I am going to hang Candy canes, Cinnamon sticks and dried oranges on the Tree.

Dries Oranges are easily DIYed on a Weekend you don’t need to use your oven a lot. You simply slice them up, dab any excess liquid away with some kitchen roll, and bake them at a low temperature (not higher than 100°C) for 3-4 hours until they are dried. Be careful not to burn them, and do keep checking, once they begin to darken they should be done.

Gingerbread Christmas Decorations

Ingredients:

125g Honey (Vegan alternative: Any thicker Syrup)

50g Raw cane sugar or brown sugar

70g of Butter (Vegan alternative: Coconut oil)

275g Spelt flour

50g ground Almonds

1 heaped tsp of baking powder

1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder

1 tsp gingerbread spice

¼ tsp ground cumin

½ tsp cardamom

1 tsp vanilla exctract

1 egg (Or any Vegan alternative that works for you; must be binding, or the dough will crumble!)

Method:

1. Melt together the honey, sugar and butter over medium heat (Make sure it does not boil!) until dissolved. Leave to cool.

2. Combine all the dry ingredients: flour, almonds, cocoa powder, baking powder, gingerbread spice, cumin, and cardamom.

3. Add the cooled honey mixture, the egg and the vanilla extract and knead till smooth.

4. Cover in foil and let rest a minimum of 4 hours (best overnight)

5. Preheat the oven to 180°C

6. Roll out to a thickness of half a centimetre and cut into preferred shapes. Don’t forget to poke a hole in the place you’d like to hang it from! I did this using a conventional straw.

7. Bake the Gingerbread 12-15 minutes. At 15 minutes it’s quite hard once cooled, which is great for decorations, however if you’d like to eat it I suggest rolling it a bit thinner and baking it for 10 minutes instead.

8. Let cool and decorate!

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Em

12.12.2017

Berlin

#Christmas #DIY #Christmastree #gingerbread #driedoranges #decoration #budget