Gingerbread Christmas Tree

Adapted from the December 2005 volume of Notebook

• Ready In: 55 mins
• Yields: 1 tree

Ingredients

• 500  g plain flour
• 1  teaspoon baking powder
• 1  teaspoon baking soda
• 3  teaspoons ground ginger
• 1⁄2 teaspoon cardamom
• 1  pinch salt
• 150  g unsalted butter, softened
• 175  g dark brown sugar
• 150  g honey
• 1  egg
• 1  egg white
• 240  g icing sugar, sifted, plus extra, for dusting
•  silver cachous, to decorate

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 180 deg Celsius.
2. sift flour, baking powder and soda, spices and a pinch of salt into a bowl.
3. Using an electric mixer, beat butter and brown sugar until fluffy. Add honey and egg. Beat until combined.
4. On low speed, beat in sifted dry ingredients until mixture comes together.
5. Divide the dough in half. Wrap separately in plastic. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
6. Trace 19 cm, 15 cm, 10 cm, 7.5 cm and 4.5 cm stars on to cardboard and cut out. For the 2 smaller sizes cutters may able to used.
7. Roll out dough halves until 4 mm thick. Using star templates and 7.5 cm cutter, cut out 3 stars of each size from dough. Using the 4.5 cm star, cut out as many stars as possible from the remaining dough.
8. Place same sized stars together, 3 cm apart, on baking paper-lined oven trays. Bake larger stars for 8-10 minutes; smaller stars for 5-7 minutes or until deep golden. Stand biscuits for 5 minutes. Transfer to wire racks to cool.
9. Place eggwhite in a bowl. Stir in icing sugar, 2 tablespoons at a time, until combined.
10. Stack the largest stars at offset angles, placing 2-3, 4.5 cm stars in between. Glue each layer with icing.
11. Continue stacking in decreasing size until all 7.5 cm stars are used. Finish with one 4.5 cm star flat and a second one upright. Use icing as 'glue' to decorate tree with cachous.
12. Tie up remaining small stars to look like gifts. Leave tree to set for one hour. Serve dusted with icing sugar.