As Justin and I were decorating this year's Christmas tree, I realized that we have some unique ornaments that we have made from food. This year's tree is 8 feet tall and our best by far!
Salt Dough Ornaments- circa 1999
My roommate, LG, and I made these ornaments out of salt dough during my first year of graduate school. We bought a fresh Christmas tree and didn't have many ornaments.We made the salt dough and rolled it out like cookie dough. We then cut it using cookie cutters. After baking them at low temperatures and cooling them, we decorated with paint. LG handpainted this heart ornament. We had hearts, angels, trees and some three dimensional ones like a birds' nest. I think we even used a garlic press to extrude the nest. Here is a link to the kind of recipe we used. I love having this ornament on the tree!
Macaroni Star Tree Topper- circa 2002
When Justin and I put up our first Christmas tree in Minnesota, we discovered that we didn't have anything to put on the top of the tree. Justin recalled making one of these in school and having it on top of his family tree. Out came the cardboard and some scissors to make the base. A little glue, a few kinds of dry pasta, and gold spray paint and voila- behold our tree topper until this day.
Christmas Cookie Ornaments- circa 2005
My tree decorating philosophy is to create a tree decorated with meaningful ornaments. I like multicolored lights with the eclectic collection but I also wanted to make a set of ornaments that had some continuity. Growing up, my mom had a collection of starched, crocheted snowflakes that were made by my Nonnie as well as a handmade angel. Because I can't crochet, I decided to bake these ornaments that I saw in a book called Decorating Cookies by Joanna Farrow. Actually, I had checked out this book from the library and I think it was called Decorating Biscuits because it was a UK version. The book seems difficult to find now and this was the only recipe I made.
My tree decorating philosophy is to create a tree decorated with meaningful ornaments. I like multicolored lights with the eclectic collection but I also wanted to make a set of ornaments that had some continuity. Growing up, my mom had a collection of starched, crocheted snowflakes that were made by my Nonnie as well as a handmade angel. Because I can't crochet, I decided to bake these ornaments that I saw in a book called Decorating Cookies by Joanna Farrow. Actually, I had checked out this book from the library and I think it was called Decorating Biscuits because it was a UK version. The book seems difficult to find now and this was the only recipe I made.
The cookies took about a few days to make and frost. The intense colors of the frosting required time to set up so that the colors didn't mix and even so, on a few cookies you can see some color diffusion. I also experimented with the design as you can see (click on the photo for a close-up).These cookies have lasted 3 years so far are holding up well. They are some of my favorites!
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