Christmas Tree Cookies

Merry Christmas everyone!
Here's sharing a Christmas Tree Cookies with you.

I adapted the recipe for the cut out cookies from Martha Stewart's Citrus Cookie Dough and the Chocolate Cookie Dough. Chill it, and roll it out in a floured surface. The cookie dough can be quite soft at times, I had to rub in more flour. Using star cookie cutter of various sizes, cut out according to your preference. Bake it at 190C for 15-18mins depending on the size of the cookies. Place the same size cookie doughs together. Do not mix various sizes as the cooking time is different.

To Assemble:
Chocolate Ganache
Colour Dragees
Crunchy Valrhona Chocolate Pearls
Chocolate Coffee Beans
White Chocolate Shavings
Cupcake Plastic Containers

1. Alternate the cookies from biggest (at the bottom) to the smallest (at the top) with citrus and the chocolate.
2. Put some chocolate ganache on the cupcake base and place the biggest star cookie on it to stabilise it.
3. Sandwich the cookies together using chocolate ganache. I used dark chocolate ganache. You may use white chocolate.
4. Alternating the colour dragees and chocolate pearls on the tip of the stars.
5. Topped the last star with chocolate coffee beans (or any other toppers you can find).
6. Lastly, sprinkle white chocolate shavings on the X'mas tree cookies.
7. Wrapped it up, and give it away!

Notes:

1. You can use any cut out cookie recipe to create the X'mas Tree.
2. I'm limited by the size of my cupcake plastic container. Your X'mas tree can be as high as you like.
3. Toppers can be anything, including a vertical star.
4. The design and creation is unlimited, be creative!

I'm submitting this to Aspiring Bakers #14: Creative Christmas Bakes (Dec 2011) hosted by Hankerie.

A winner for my homemade vanilla extract

Thank you to those who put in their comments, and their congratulation notes to me.

The winner* for my Homemade Vanilla Extract is:

Khim

Congratulations Khim! I shall email you and see how we can meet up for me to pass the vanilla extract to you. I hope you will like it!

*Note: I only include comments which mentioned how they intend to use the vanilla extract. I'll take the rest as a congratulation note to me. And I know most of you are happy with your own vanilla extracts. :)