This Christmas tree of cookies is what your holidays have been missing. So stunning to behold. So surprisingly simple to assemble. Sugar cookies and royal icing. Done.
This Christmas tree of cookies is actually spectacularly simple to assemble despite looking so stunning. It’s simply star-shaped sugar cookies stacked and glued together with royal icing. Easy peasy. Doesn’t matter whether the Christmas cookies are lavishly decorated or simply dusted with confectioners’ sugar. Originally published December 8, 2011.–Renee Schettler Rossi
How To Create Cookies That Look As Stunning As This
If you’ve never undertaken cookie decorating before, all you need is a little confidence. Well, okay, that and a steady hand. And the right how-tos. So what we’re giving you here is less a recipe than a decorating how-to, because chances are you’re already pretty adept at making sugar cookies. Instead, you’ll find everything decorating-related that you need—minus that steady hand—here and in the tips found at the Basic Royal Icing Recipe on the site (see link below in the ingredients list). You can do this.
Christmas Tree of Cookies Recipe
Ingredients
- Your favorite roll-out cookie or shortbread dough in any flavor, whether chocolate, sugar, gingerbread, or some other snazzy incarnation, enough to make at least 36 cookies
- 1/2 batch Basic Royal Icing
- Optional embellishments: Confectioners’ sugar, glitter sugar, shiny baubles and snowflakes
- Toothpicks or slender wooden skewers, for when your outlining gets a little sloppy and needs to be erased
- Cookie Cutters: Up to 6 different-sized 5-pointed stars
- Pastry bag or a resealable plastic bag with the tip cut off, for piping icing
Directions
- 1. Roll out your cookie dough on a lightly floured work surface to the thickness specified in the recipe. Cut about 5 or 6 cookies in each star size—maybe a few more to allow for breakages and decorating goofs. Bake as directed. Let cool.
- 2. Outline each star with white piping icing. If desired, dust the cookies with silver glitter sugar and add a silver bauble to each star point using white piping icing as glue. Let dry.
- 3. Take a pretty plate and, starting with the largest stars, stack them on top of each other using white piping icing to “glue” each layer together and giving each additional star a quarter turn to make the helix shape. Let dry completely about halfway through so you have a stable platform on which to stack the smaller stars. It’s a good idea to make this tree close to where you’re going to eat it.
How To Embellish This Christmas Tree Of Cookies
- Sift confectioners’ sugar over the entire tree to make it look like a frosted fir.
Squeeze trails of multicolored royal icing (piping icing) all over the tree. Add glitter sugar and tiny shiny baubles, snowflakes, or any other exciting Christmas decorations to the trails before they set.
Ice each star with a glitter-frosted white pattern and stack with pretty candies.
Hungry for more? Chow down on these:
If you make this recipe, snap a photo and hashtag it #LeitesCulinaria. We'd love to see your creations on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.
This is gorgeous! This might very well be my son’s 1st birthday “cake” since he’s a winter baby.
Stunning idea, NakedBeet!
Do you think I could make these with a honey biscuit recipe?
Hi Chris, any good study cookie or biscuit should be fine. I would stay away from soft cookies as they may become droopy when assembled.
That’s adorable. Very clever. :-)
Thank you, Bobi! And so easy, too!