Gingerbread Man Place Card Cookies How-To

You will need:

• Small Gingerbread Man Cookie Cutter
• Crinkle Rectangle Cookie Cutter Set
• 1 bag Royal Icing mix
• Super Red Food Color
• Super Brown Food Color
• Icing Double Holly and Berry Decorations
• No Fail Sugar Cookie Recipe
• Parchment Paper
• 3 Decorating Squeeze Bottles

Instructions:

1. Make No Fail Sugar Cookie Dough. Cut out as many crinkle edge rectangle and gingerbread men shapes as you can. Make sure you have an equal number of each. Bake cookies on parchment paper and let cool on a wire rack. Fancy Idea: Use Boy and Girl Gingerbread shapes to customize the place cards one step further!
2. While cookies are cooling, prepare the royal icing (instructions on the bag). After following the instructions, slowly mix in water a teaspoon at a time until a consistency somewhere between "heavy cream and ketchup" is reached. Divide the icing into three separate measuring cups (cups with a spout work best). Dye the icing in the desired color(s). We love the Super Brown Food Color for the Gingerbread Men and Super Red Food Color for the red writing. Fill squeeze bottles with icing - this is where the cup with the spout comes in handy! You can also mix in flavored oils to add extra flavor to the icing. We love lemon oil and almond oil.
3. Begin by icing a base layer on each cookie (white for the rectangles and brown for the gingerbread men), starting with the orange top of the candy corn. Let the orange layer dry before moving onto the next layer and then continue with other layers in other icing colors after waiting 20 minutes for the first layer to dry. Please view this link on our blog: Decorating with Royal Icing 101, to view some great tips and techniques for decorating with royal icing. Add sanding or sparkling sugar and even quins and sprinkles to wet icing for a unique look.
4. Attach gingerbread men cookies to rectangles with additional royal icing. Attach Double Holly and Berry decoration with additional icing as well.
5. Let cookies dry overnight or for at least 6 hours until the icing is firm to touch. Don't worry - your cookies will not dry out. The icing holds in the moisture.
6. Stack cookies and store them in an airtight container until used as place cards or eaten.