Gingerbread Christmas!

Oh holiday baking... I love how this time of year everything smells like sugar and spice and warms your heart along with your kitchen. Spending Christmas in California this year was definitely different, but the gingerbread treats I made tasted like home.

The first ingredient you always need when baking around the holidays... alcohol. With the hard pear cider poured, it's time to start baking! Cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, and ginger. The perfect mix of spices to start gingerbread!Mixed with eggs, butter, molasses, and sugar and you have cookie dough!Ready to be rolled into beautiful Christmas stars...Baked....And decorated with royal icing!Cute little Christmas puppies got to sample a star each.And there was some extra dough so I made some Christmas trees too!Then I got started on gingerbread cupcakes. They started out very similar to the cookies with all the same spicesSifted together.Mixed with wet ingredients, and poured into pretty gold liners.While they cooled, I made some cinnamon cream cheese frosting to pipe on top. Which I did with a few puppies "helping" me.Then they got topped with a little gingerbread star!

They are the perfect mix of holiday spice to finish Christmas dinner! Hope everyone had a great Christmas!