My Favorite Kind of Tree

That tree would be one you can eat! Like a cookie in the shape of a tree.  I'm totally borrowing from my friend Lisa. She made these trees last year and I decided to make them this year.  I documented all the steps.

First you start with some cookies. I find it best to make these during naptime or else I would be down a few cookies!

 Then you whip up a batch of royal icing. And then you start outlining the trees.

After they are outlined, you can flood the cookies.

After this step, I leave the cookies to set overnight. You could stop here because they look pretty nice and they taste just as well.  But then the fun starts - decorating the trees! First you add some garland.

Then come the ornaments (or lights):

And finally you can top them with stars.

 I tried a few different types of decorations before I settled on the ones I made above.  Here are my "practice" cookies.  It's always good to have a few of these, so you can eat them and then give away the "nice" ones!