DIY Cookie/Cake Stands and Chocolate Dipped Gingerbread Men…

 

I hope you all are enjoying all of your Christmas preparations.  It’s hard to believe it’s only six days until Christmas! Yikes!!

My daughter and I have been busy baking cookies and making fun cookie/cake stands to give as gifts this Christmas. A couple of years ago, I shared a tutorial for how to make these easy stands using fun and inexpensive melamine plates and bowls. This is my favorite way to give someone a plate of sweet treats.

Last Christmas, I posted the stands that we made and topped with packages of limited edition Candy Cane Oreo’s:

 

 

This year, I’m still doing a few of the stands with Oreo’s but I’m also doing a few stands with some homemade gingerbread cookies that we dipped in white chocolate and added gold sugar sprinkles.  These cookies are absolutely delicious and the sweetness of the white chocolate really compliments the bitter of the gingerbread:

 

 

I found these beautiful cream, gold and silver melamine plates at Target for $1.99 each that I just love:

 

 

I removed the stickers from the backs and spread a generous amount of E6000 glue to the center of the back of the bown.  I then put a little hot glue around the E6000 {I do not recommend mixing together!} and then I attached the bottom of the bowl to the bottom of the plate:

 

 

 

We allowed the stands a full 24 hours to completely dry and for the E6000 to fully set.  We did not add the cookies until the next day.

I filled my cookie stands with our white chocolate dipped gingerbread men and we also dipped some Candy Cane Oreo’s in the white chocolate too!  We sprinkled our cookies with gold sugar sprinkles.  We also added store bought truffles as well, to give a little variety to the stand:

 

 

 

We then wrapped the whole cookie tray with cellophane and tied a bow and three gold balls:

 

 

For some quick smaller bags of cookies, we wrapped six of our dipped gingerbread men in cellophane, tied with ribbon and attached a brown ornament ball:

 

 

We added the words “JOY” with small rhinestone sticker letters and that little project was from another post last year for how to monogram ornaments with rhinestone sticker letter found here.

For our dipped men, my daughter and I used the recipe for our gingerbread from the website The Joy of Baking, which was is delicious.  Any gingerbread recipe will work. We rolled out our gingerbread men kind of thick like this:

 

 

While the gingerbread men were cooling, We melted Baker’s white chocolate and we then dipped only the front of the men into the white chocolate:

 

 

 

We tried several different techniques to get the white chocolate smooth and even after we dipped and we found that the best way was just to hold the gingerbread upright over the chocolate and lightly shake off the excess chocolate for about 15 seconds:

 

 

We then placed all of our dipped guys and Oreo’s on wax paper and sprinkled with gold sugar sprinkles:

 

 

After about 20 minutes, we placed our cookies in the refrigerator for 30 minutes to help start the chocolate hardening process.

We waited until the next morning and we then packaged up our cookies:

 

 

 

Over the years, I have made these stands and have used them to give pies, cakes and various cookies.  They are also a great way to bring an appetizer to a party and leave the stand for the hostess.  So many possibilities and this glue technique will also work on glass as well.

Enjoy the rest of your week friends and I will be back again on Friday with a last minute gift project idea.  If you’re looking for any last minute holiday decorating ideas as you do your final fluff, you can check out my Decking the Halls post from Monday by clicking the image directly below:

Cheers!

Cyndy

Sharing this post with;
Home Stories AtoZ {Tutorials & Tips Party}
Somewhat Simple {Thanksgiving Link Party}
Skip to My Lou {Made by you Mondays}
Savvy Southern Style {Wow Us Wednesdays}
Shabby Nest {Frugal Friday}
Tatertots & Jello {Weekend Wrap Up Party}
Under The Table Dreaming {Sunday Showcase}