You can’t see it from here but hanging along the top of the dresser is a whole string of gingerbread men Christmas decorations.
Let’s have a closer look…..
There they are.
I like things made out of gingerbread at Christmas. It holds just the right amount of nostalgia for me without making one look like one collects dolls as a hobby.
Never understood that.
If I gain an understanding of that I’ll let you know and be sure to explain my epiphany but please don’t wait too long for it!
ANYWAY………
To make these little fellas you will need to use my recipe for the gingerbread house.
- Makes at least 24 gingerbread men.
- Pre-heat oven to 220c / 425f
- Start by mixing up your dough and then rolling it out onto a well floured surface with a rolling pin
- I rolled the dough out until it was about half a centimeter thick
- I then used my gingerbread man cutter to cut out the shapes (although that’s Jodie’s hand in the picture as I lost my third arm in a recent shopping trip)
Tip: You could also use different sized gingerbread men cutters to vary the sizes of your decorations
- Then I put the gingerbread men onto a greaseproof baking tray ready for the oven
- In order to be able to hang my gingerbread men when they were baked I pierced a small hole through the top of each head just before I put them in the oven.
- I used a knitting needle for this as it made a clean and neat hole but a sharp knife would work too
- It is important that you make the hole before you bake the men as the dough will be too brittle and may crack after being baked.
- I baked the small men for 10 minutes and allowed them to cool down on a wire rack once removed from the oven
- Once the gingerbread men had totally cooled I set about decorating them
- I used pink, blue and white icing and piped the ice into place using a piping bag
- As additional decorations I used some mini silver, pink, blue and green sugar balls, some mini marshmallows and some mini edible stars and candy canes
- Keeping it Christmassy the whole time
- Once my gingerbread men were decorated and the icing had dried I threaded coloured string through each one so that they would be ready to hang.
Tip: you may like to thread the string onto your gingerbread men before decorating them if you are worried about the icing spoiling
And here they are, looking down at us all from the dresser in my kitchen. Some are decorated a little more abstract than others…and the one below bears an uncanny resemblance to Leigh Bowery in his Clothes Show heyday!
If you make them different sizes you can get some real characters going. This one has been left out on a limb here…..
…..but due to the fact that I iced smiles on to their faces I’ll never know if they feel any differently.
What am I talking about?…….
THEY’RE GINGERBREAD!!!!
*************************************************
Join my Facebook page!
Cherry Menlove
Promote your Page too
Feel free to add me to your links list. Here it is ! - http://www.cherrymenlove.com/
Facebook – Please feel free to join my page
Twitter – please feel free to follow me
Hey Cherry, I was just wondering if these gingerbread men are also good for eating
I’ve got into the biscuit-pop phase and would love to make gingerbread men lollipops for Christmas as gifts xx
I know what you’re up to, Cherry. You are going to inform us that at last you know why you love gingerbread figures. You are going to make hundreds of them every year with two precious little children starting this Christmas, right?
That is so fabulous and I am so happy for you! And they are going to love, love, love helping you, I know, I did it for years and years, too. Now, here is an innocent observation from experience, and, certainly not to insinuate anything at all, but here is a (famous) quote from me, the old curmudgeon. Ready? Here goes.
” There are TWO kinds of Christmas cookies, the cute ones and the ones that TASTE good!” Children don’t realize that, of course, so carry on! You are in for more “specialness!” Savor every moment, I know you are! Oh, darn, now I miss my all grownup kids. But…if they come home a few days before Christmas we will be making the “cute” ones, too.