Since our daughter was supposed to be born on Christmas day (she arrived Dec 8), my husband and I really wanted to do either a present or a Christmas tree. We finally decided on a tree made out of gingerbread cookies cut out with cookie cutters (two each of each size), and a simple vanilla cake with a whipped cream center as the “tree skirt”.
I made the cookies beforehand (with the help of my daughter’s Aunt Desi, as no matter how hard I tried I couldn’t make them thin enough!), and the round cake, which I flattened by running a knife along the top of the pan before I removed it. I then frosted the round cake with simple white vanilla frosting.
We iced each individual cookie with green icing and started stacking! This was a slow process, as we were terrified of the tree falling! We finally got the whole thing put together (we didn’t use toothpicks to hold it together. We relied on the icing, and we placed M&M’s in the center of the cookies and along the edges (looked like ornaments) to help bolster up the cake).
My husband then went to work as the master decorator, and we had a beautiful result! The cookies were the hit of the party! All the kids had green mouths by the end of it (and most of their parents, too!). This is an easy cake to make, especially if you have some teamwork!
It was truly an awesome cake!!!