I'm sure you'll agree that these Gingerbread Christmas Trees look incredibly festive. I'm here to tell you that they also taste sensational and are easier to make than you might expect.
My mum makes incredible gingerbread houses and trains at Christmas time. They've been a favourite for years! They are sometimes tricky to put together, though. Yes, I'm speaking from experience. A few years ago my little gingerbread house went back to a flat pack the next day.
Here, I've used my mum's gingerbread recipe but have instead stacked different sized star shapes to form Christmas trees. They still look and taste so impressive but are much easier to assemble.
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Ingredient notes
This recipe spices things up with both ground ginger and mixed spice. You'll also need some other standard baking ingredients, noting that the golden syrup can be substituted with treacle. A full ingredient list and quantities can be found in the recipe card at the end of this post.
The above image shows the gingerbread biscuit ingredients only. You'll also need these things to make the buttercream: unsalted butter, icing/powdered sugar, milk and vanilla extract.
To decorate as pictured, you'll also need: silver patty pans, gold food glitter, Christmas-themed sprinkles and icing sugar.
Equipment
You'll need this special equipment for this recipe:
- nest of star cookie cutters (5 or 6 sizes)
- small sieve
- stand mixer or handheld electric beaters.
How to make Gingerbread Christmas Trees
Okay, it's a bit of a process. But it's worth it when you have everyone admiring those gorgeously festive trees sitting on the Christmas table.
Making the gingerbread biscuit mixture
Start by creaming the butter and sugar (see image 1). Add the eggs and vanilla extract and beat well until combined (see image 2). Warm the syrup a little, then add to the mixture and beat again (see image 3). Fold in the sifted dry ingredients, ⅓ at a time, and then form the mixture into two balls (see image 4). Wrap in plastic food wrap and place in the fridge for about an hour.
About 10 minutes before you take mixture from fridge, pre-heat oven to 170 degrees celsius / 340 degrees fahrenheit (fan-forced) and grease and line 3 baking trays.
Rolling out the mixture and cutting out stars
Roll each ball of mixture out on a floured surface. Aim for a thickness of about ½cm (see image 5). Cut out star shapes (see image 6). You'll need two of each size for each tree, apart from the smallest star - you'll need only one.
Use a metal spatula to carefully transfer the star shapes to the prepared baking trays. Arrange stars by size so that similar-sized stars are placed on the same trays.
Baking your gingerbread
Bake for 10-15 minutes or until a rich golden colour. The baking time will depend on several factors including the size of the biscuits.
TIP: You will need to remove the tray containing the smaller stars earlier than tray containing larger stars.
Allow to cool on trays for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely (see image 7).
Making the buttercream
Beat the butter, vanilla extract and milk until light and fluffy. Add the icing sugar a little at a time, beating on low speed. Once combined, beat on high speed for 2-3 minutes.
Assembling your trees
TIP: Here, I built the trees on a flattened silver paper patty pan. Just cut from the edge to the start of the flat centre several times so it can be flattened and start by piping a small amount of buttercream in the centre of the patty pan (see image 9).
Build your tree by piping a small amount of buttercream in the centre of one of the largest stars. Place another of the largest stars on top with the points of the star in between the points of the bottom star (rather than being aligned) (see image 9).
Continue to do this for each of the star sizes apart from the smallest star. Coat the smallest star in gold food glitter and place in an upright position at the top of the tree (in a small amount of buttercream in the centre of the highest star biscuit that makes up the tree). See image 9 for visual instructions.
Decorating
Pipe small amounts of buttercream on the points of the stars (now the branches of your Christmas tree) and add Christmas-themed sprinkles or cachous). Dust each tree with a little icing sugar (using a small sieve). See image 9 for visual instructions.
Allow 12-24 hours setting time.
Storage
You can bake the biscuits in advance and store (un-iced) in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks. Freeze the (un-iced) baked cookies in freezer bags or an airtight container for up to 3 months.
Store gingerbread trees in an airtight container for up to one week.
More Christmas magic
Looking for more showstopping Christmas desserts?
Made this recipe and love it? Please take a moment to rate the recipe and leave a comment below. It’s such a help to others who want to try the recipe. (And it really makes my day to hear how Nana Ling's recipes are being made, shared and loved all around the world! - Libby x)
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Gingerbread Christmas Tree Recipe
Equipment
- nest of star cookie cutters (5 or 6 sizes)
- stand mixer or handheld electric beaters
- small sieve
- silver or gold paper patty pans
Ingredients
Gingerbread
- 125 grams butter
- ½ cup brown sugar, firmly packed (100 grams)
- 1 egg (60 grams)
- ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ cup golden syrup (65 grams) (or treacle)
- 2 ½ cups plain flour (360 grams)
- 3 teaspoons ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon mixed spice
- 1 teaspoon bicarb soda
Buttercream Icing
- 125 grams unsalted butter
- 1 ½ cups icing sugar / powdered sugar (225 grams)
- 1 tablespoon milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Decorating
- gold food glitter
- Christmas-themed sprinkles and/or gold or silver cachous
- 1 tablespoon icing sugar / powdered sugar
Instructions
Gingerbread
- Cream butter and sugar.
- Add eggs and vanilla extract and beat well until combined.
- Warm the syrup a little, add to the mixture and beat again.
- Fold in sifted dry ingredients, ⅓ at a time.
- Form mixture into two balls, wrap in plastic food wrap and place in fridge for 1 hour.
- About 10 minutes before you take mixture from fridge, pre-heat oven to 170 degrees celsius / 340 degrees fahrenheit (fan-forced) and grease and line 3 baking trays.
- Roll each ball of mixture out on a floured surface to a thickness of about ½cm.
- Cut out star shapes. You'll need two of each size for each tree, apart from the smallest star - you'll need only one.
- Use a metal spatula to carefully transfer the star shapes to the prepared baking trays. Arrange stars by size so that similar-sized stars are placed on the same trays.
- Bake for 10-15 minutes or until a rich golden colour. (Baking time will depend on several factors including the size of the biscuits. You will need to remove the tray containing the smaller stars earlier than tray containing larger stars.)
- Allow to cool on trays for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
Buttercream
- Beat butter, vanilla extract and milk until light and fluffy.
- Add icing sugar a little at a time, beating on low speed. Once combined, beat on high speed for 2-3 minutes.
Decorating
- Build your tree by piping a small amount of buttercream in the centre of one of the largest stars. Place another of the largest stars on top with the points of the star in between the points of the bottom star (rather than being aligned). Continue to do this for each of the star sizes apart from the smallest star. Coat the smallest star in gold food glitter and place in an upright position at the top of the tree (in a small amount of buttercream in the centre of the highest star biscuit that makes up the tree).
- Pipe small amounts of buttercream on the points of the stars (now the branches of your Christmas tree) and add Christmas-themed sprinkles or cachous).
- Dust each tree with a little icing sugar (using a small sieve).
- Allow 12-24 hours setting time.
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