Gingerbread Christmas tree recipe

1. Follow the recipe for the basic gingerbread dough mix (it's best to do this the day before). When you're ready to make your gingerbread Christmas tree, remove the dough from the fridge. Preheat the oven to gas 4, 180˚C, fan 160˚C. Print and cut out the Gingerbread Christmas tree template.
2. Roll out the gingerbread dough between two pieces of nonstick baking paper to a thickness of 5mm. Remove the top piece of paper and cut out 19 star shapes as follows: 3 x 19 cm (7.5 in) across tip to tip; 3 x 14.5 cm (5.75 in); 3 x 11 cm (4.25 in); 3 x 7.5 cm (3 in); 3 x 5.5 cm (2.25 in); and 4 x 4.5 cm (1.75 in).
3. Sort the larger stars into one batch and the smaller stars into a separate batch as they have slightly different cooking times. Bake the stars until golden brown and firm to touch, removing the smaller batch from the oven as soon as they are done and leaving the larger stars for a few minutes longer. Leave the pieces to cool.
4. Make up the royal icing to pack instructions. To assemble the tree, take one of the 4.5 cm (1.75 in) stars and outline and fill it with royal icing so you have a white star. This is the star for the top of the tree. Set aside to harden.
5. Take the board you are going to display the tree on and place a little icing on the surface to fix the base cookie in place. Place one of the 19 cm (7.5 in) stars in the centre of the board. Repeat this process until all three of the 19 cm stars are stacked, positioning the stars at alternating angles so the points are not all directly above each other. Leave to set.
6. Next you will need three of the 14.5 cm (5.75 in) stars. Place a small amount of icing on the underside of one of the stars and position in the middle of the top star already stacked on the board. Repeat this process until all of the 14.5 cm stars are stacked, again positioning the points at alternating angles so they are not directly above each other. Leave to set.
7. Carry on with the same process and layer the 11 cm (4.25 in), 7.5 cm (3 in), 5.5 cm (2.25 in) and 4.5 cm (1.75 in) stars on top of each other until all the pieces are done.
8. Pipe a small amount of icing onto two of the points of the white star you made earlier and position it on top of the tree with the icing. Hold it in place until it sets.
9. Pipe small dots of icing onto the tips of each stacked star and place a chocolate gold pearl into the centre of the icing dot. Finally, dust the stacked stars very lightly with icing sugar.

Download the Gingerbread Christmas tree template here