1-Start by preheating your oven to 375°F to get everything ready for baking these gingerbread star trees. In a large bowl, mix the flour, baking soda, salt, and spices to ensure they’re evenly combined. Then, in a mixer, blend the melted butter, sugar, molasses, and eggs until smooth, gradually adding the flour mixture to form a firm, non-sticky dough.

2-Once the dough is ready, roll it out to about 1/4 inch thickness on a floured surface. Use graduated star cutters in sizes from 8 to 2 inches to cut out shapes, aiming for around 20 cookies in total. Place these on parchment-lined baking sheets and chill them for 10 minutes to help them hold their shape.

3-Bake the small and medium cookies for 6 to 10 minutes, and the large ones for 10 to 15 minutes, until they’re golden and firm. Let them cool completely on wire racks before moving on to decoration. For added fun, for more cookie ideas, check out our peanut butter blossom cookies recipe, which pairs well with holiday baking.

4-Now for decoration: Knead the fondant and roll it to 1/8 inch thickness, then cut shapes using the same star cutters. Attach these to the cooled cookies with piping gel, and press one dragee onto each star point. Let them set for 20 minutes while you prepare the royal icing by beating the meringue powder, confectioners’ sugar, and warm water until stiff peaks form.

5-To assemble the tree, stack the stars from largest to smallest on a flat serving platter, using royal icing between layers. Reserve the smallest star to stand upright on top, secured with royal icing dots, and let the whole structure set for about 2 hours. This dough can also make about four dozen 3-inch cookies if you’re not building a tree, adding to its versatility.