For all my love for baking, I hadn't tried my hand at making cookies ever. And I guess I never would have, but for my daughter's lovely paediatrician who gifted me Wilton's Christmas Tree cookie cutters. That was just the nudge I needed to start making cookies!!

The holiday lights cookie tree is made from gingerbread cookies. I used the Wilton recipe that came with the cookie cutters. You can find the recipe here. The only change I made was to use butter instead of shortening. However, I did need a bit more of flour than what the recipe indicated, I wonder whether this was because of the change I made. Also, I didn't need quite as long to bake the cookies, I baked them till they browned along the edges and firm in the centres. These cookies expand on baking so make sure you keep enough space between cookies on the baking sheet, else the cookies will stick to eack other (been there, done that!!).

I am not really a big fan of gingerbread cookies, but I really loved these. Soft and chewy, the cookies have very subtle flavours and the spices are not overpowering - in fact, the aroma of the cookies as they bake is heady! But the best part of baking these cookies was watching my daughter have a blast using the cookie cutters!!

For making the cookie tree, I used 20 cookies (2 of each size). However, instead of icing the cookies individually, I stacked them up together and then piped leaves in green buttercream. I melted white chocolate and drizzled it over the cookies for the snow.

And well yes, I am sending this off to:

Cookie Baking Event hosted by Sharmi
Cookies/Biscuits Fest hosted by Saroja
Santa's Holiday Challenge hosted by JZ