Cookie Christmas Tree

 A couple of years ago, my mom gave me a Christmas Cookie Tree Kit (by Wilton).  This year I finally decided to make one.

To make a cookie tree, you need a large cut-out cookie recipe that you love such as a gingerbread or sugar cookie recipe and a frosting. (My recipe uses 5 cups of flour to give you an idea of how large I mean.) I chose to make my all-time favorite sugar cookie recipe.  It's one from my high school Home-Ec teacher.  They taste better than the Lofthouse cookies, in my opinion.  The secret is sour cream.

I chose my grandma's ornamental frosting.  It's 1 egg white, 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar, and 1 cup powdered sugar.  I made two batches of frosting, but I really only needed one.

I cut two cookies from each cookie cutter size.  I used my grandma's ornamental icing that I use for Gingerbread men.   I piped white around each of the stars.

I filled the stars with green frosting and then put red hots on each of the tips.

I took the picture below so you could see a difference in the frosting after I adjusted it. I added some corn syrup to make the frosting a little thinner, shinier and smoother.   The cookie on the right was the frosting without the adjustment.  I liked the character the "before" frosting added, but I also like the smoother finish.

After the frosting dried, I began building the tree.  I stabilized the bottom cookie by putting some frosting on the tray so the cookie wouldn't move.  As you stack the cookies, be sure to place a large dab of frosting on the middle of the cookie before placing the next one on.  Alternate the stars, so they look like branches.

Instead of using both of the smallest cookies as branches, I used one as the star topper.  Since I forgot to set aside some frosting to dye yellow, I used the sprinkles that I had.  I stuck a toothpick in the bottom of the cookie and put it through the middle of my tree.
 

As a sugar-cookie lover, this tree looks so delectable.  My husband complimented it when he got home from work.  I'm still deciding who is going to get the tree.  I think I'd like to start a new tradition that we give a sugar cookie tree once a year to someone that we think really needs a lift or that we want to thank for a special reason.  We'll see.  :)