Holiday Treats 2023

Cakesicles from Marrie's Custom Desserts, Perth, Australia

Cakes by Ella's Creamy Creations, Pretoria, South Africa

Gingerbread Cupcakes with White Chocolate Frosting
by Lindsay and Lauren at Pallas and Parchment

Gingerbread Sheet Cake with Frosted Maple Syrup Cookies
by Jenn Davis of Two Cups Flour

White Christmas Cake with Cranberry Orange Filling and
Whipped White Chocolate Ganache Frosting from
Traci and Caylie Crossland at Baker's Table

Advanced Gingerbreadology

Manor house by Shelby Bowers of The Sugar Scoop

Country house by Shelby Bowers of The Sugar Scoop

Log cabin by Three Pixie Lane

Log cabin by Three Pixie Lane

Gingerbread candy Fallingwater

NYC brownstone by Kitchen Table Scraps

Gingerbread Japanese temple

Mid-century house by Judy Kim for epicurious

Bavarian chalet by Sprinkle Bakes

Greenhouse by Merja Erkstrom at Silverödlan

Christine's Christmas Castle

The beautiful and wildly talented artist, photographer, baker, and author of the cookbook DECEPTIVE DESSERTS Christine McConnell has created quite a spread for the holidays. Her Victorian-verging-into-Gothic-by-way-of-Tim-Burton take on the traditional gingerbread house turns into a stunning Gingerbread Castle populated with a Chocolate Reindeer Cake, Almond Brownie PineCone Critters, a Shortbread Christmas Tree surrounded by Grandma Millie's Fudge and Eggnog Fudge Presents, and a Sugar Cookie Guillotine (ringed with Peanut Butter Snowballs) to punish a very naughty snowman...

Recipes for this entire spread are available at food.com:
http://www.food.com/article/christmas-gingerbread-castle-279

Visit Christine's amazing, immensely entertaining Instagram for more photos of clever food, especially Halloween-themed treats:
https://www.instagram.com/christinehmcconnell/

And purchase a copy of her DECEPTIVE DESSERTS book at her website:
http://www.christinehmcconnell.com/

Embroidered Cookies by Judit Czinkné Poór of Mézesmanna

Hungarian chef Judit Czinkné Poór has a background in porcelain painting which explains how she is so facile with a bag of royal icing when making her incredible gingerbread cookies. They look like traditional Eastern European embroidery and lace.

https://www.facebook.com/Mezesmanna
https://www.instagram.com/mezesmanna/

Gingerbread Houses 2015

Holiday Treats 2014

My first clear memory of winter—probably around 1968 or so—is connected to our house on West Main Street. My mother hung wreaths of red, crinkled cellophane with a single tiny red bulb in the front windows. We had a fireplace and my mother and father helped me make a long chain out of colored construction paper to hang from the mantel. Mom made her Christmas butter cookies and I associate their warm, safe smell and luscious, enveloping taste exclusively with Christmas. We mixed white frosting with food coloring to get red and green and I got to frost a few cookies, and then sprinkle on the multi-colored decorations. I ate several before bed each night with a glass of milk and it was heaven. And of course, Santa had to have some on Christmas Eve so my mom and I would leave a little plate for him—and a carrot for the reindeer.

Mom’s Christmas Butter Cookies
Sift together three cups of flour, one teaspoon of baking powder and half of a teaspoon of salt. Then cream together one cup of butter and three quarters of a cup of sugar; stir in one unbeaten egg, two tablespoons of milk and one and a half teaspoons of fine vanilla extract and mix well. Add the dry ingredients a third at a time. Chill the dough for one hour. Roll the dough onto a floured surface with a floured rolling pin. Roll to one-eighth of an inch thickness. Use cookie cutters and place them on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake them five to eight minutes at 350*, watching carefully. Frost and decorate. Enjoy.

JEF

Gingerbread 2011

Cabins, houses, chalets...works of art in their own right.