The season of giving is almost here, and December always feels magical. People start baking and sharing treats with friends and family—even those who rarely bake the rest of the year. There’s something about the holidays that makes giving homemade sweets feel extra meaningful.
I love to give fudge, pies, cake balls, and—most of all—cookies. I don’t have a single favorite; I enjoy making a variety. This year I wanted to make people smile, so I created a batch of tiny gingerbread faces to kick off the season.
I prefer making smaller cookies so I end up with larger quantities: plenty to share and a few to keep. I originally planned full gingerbread men, but decided to make only the heads for three good reasons:
- More cookies per batch.
- I could focus on facial details and expressions.
- Less piping, which cuts down on crooked icing lines.
The warm aroma of ginger, cinnamon, and cloves is irresistible—can you smell it already? Mixing the spices directly into the flour infuses the dough and makes the cookies deeply flavorful.
I used a small round cutter to create the base for each face. Working small gives you blank little canvases to decorate, and I like to sketch ideas first. I draw several circles on paper, try different sprinkle placements, and use those sketches as a reference when I start piping. That process helps keep the designs consistent and saves time once I begin decorating.
I always get a little nervous just before piping—I imagine perfect lines, then my hands get shaky and the lines wobble. Practice helps, and sometimes a lightly floured cutter pressed on the edge of each cookie gives a faint guideline that can steady your piping.
After piping the details, I add sprinkles for accents. I prefer using small confetti sprinkles and tiny shaped pieces because they’re quick to place and give precise shapes for cheeks, eyes, and bows without needing to mix multiple icing colors. Jumbo flower sprinkles work wonderfully as bows or hair accessories, and black confetti sprinkles saved from Halloween come in handy for eyes and other dark details.
These “gingerheads” are so charming—big smiles, rosy cheeks, and tiny bows make them instant mood lifters. They’re perfect for gifting and sure to brighten someone’s day.
Once I finished the gingerbread heads, I switched to snowman faces. For these, I experimented with an icing consistency somewhere between outlining and flooding. Rather than piping an outline and waiting for it to dry, I outlined and filled immediately so the edges stayed smooth and the tops puffed slightly. It worked well—filling while the outline is still wet creates a seamless, puffy look.
While the icing was wet I placed sprinkles, sugar crystals, and even coated sunflower seeds to form hats, scarves, and facial features. Place them carefully and let everything dry completely before piping any final details. For one snowman, I used tic tacs as earmuffs—their size and color were just right, even if they’re not a traditional gingerbread decoration.
For more structured elements, pipe the bottom half of the face first and let it set. Then outline and fill the hat or other shapes, and while the icing is tacky, dip the area into sugar crystals. If a shape loses definition, gently reshape it with a toothpick.
These cookies were incredibly fun to make and surprisingly colorful even though I used mostly white icing. Simple sprinkles in a variety of sizes and shapes are all you need to create adorable, festive designs—no advanced cookie-decorating skills required.
Recipe: Gingerbread Cookies
Gingerbread Cookies
Ingredients
- 5 cups all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 3 teaspoons ginger
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon cloves
- 1 cup butter, slightly soft
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 cup molasses
Instructions
- Sift flour, baking soda, salt, and spices together in a medium bowl and set aside.
- Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg, then the molasses, mixing until combined. Gradually add the flour mixture and mix until a dough forms.
- Divide dough into four portions and shape each into a flattened disc.
- Wrap each disc in plastic wrap and refrigerate for several hours or overnight.
- When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
- Roll out each disc between two sheets of parchment paper. Lightly flour the sides of the paper that touch the dough to make releasing easier. Cut out shapes and save excess dough for reuse.
- Leave cutouts on the parchment and transfer to a baking sheet.
- Bake for 8–9 minutes, then cool on a wire rack.
Notes
For royal-style icing: mix 4 cups confectioners’ sugar with 4 tablespoons meringue powder and about 4 tablespoons water. Add water a teaspoon at a time if it’s too thick, or more sugar if it’s too thin. Use a #2 tip for outlines and a #3 tip to fill in. Confetti sprinkles in varying sizes and shapes make excellent cheeks, eyes, and bows.
P.S. Here’s a peek at my typical sprinkle mess. I usually put sprinkles in the caps of their containers so I can sort and find colors quickly, but when I get impatient everything ends up scattered. I do waste a lot of sprinkles that way.
Do you give goodies during the holidays? What’s your favorite sweet to share?