Note: This recipes is best done over 3 days so plan accordingly.

Day 1: Make the Dough

• Using a stand mixer or a hand mixer, cream the butter and sugar.
  18 tablespoon granulated white sugar, ¾ cup unsalted butter
• Beat in molasses and buttermilk.
  18 tablespoon molasses, ¾ cup buttermilk
• Add flour, ginger, baking soda, salt, and baking powder. Stir until fully combined.
  6 cups flour, 1 tbs ginger powder, 1 ½ teaspoon baking soda, 1 teaspoon salt, ¾ teaspoon baking powder
• Divide the dough into three and wrap each portion with plastic wrap, forming a disc. Refrigerate for 3 hours or overnight.

Day 2: Bake and Decorate

• Preheat oven to 375°F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
• Roll dough to ¼-inch thickness for soft cookies. * Dip your cookie cutter in flour, then cut* the dough, cutting two of each size stars, and place on a prepared baking sheet. I find dipping my spatula in flour helps it get under the star. *
• Work in batches since you will be cutting a total of 20 stars. Bake similar sized cookies on the same baking sheet.
• Bake 6-10 minutes for small cookies and 10-15 minutes for large cookies.
• Once baked, transfer cookies to a cooling rack. Allow cookies to cool completely before stacking. While cookies are cooling make your frosting.
• In a stand mixer, whip your butter on medium high speed until the butter is light and fluffy.
  3 cups butter
• Alternate between adding the powdered sugar 1 cup at a time and the heavy cream 1 tablespoon at a time until all is mixed in. Once mixed, scoop out ~2 tsps of white frosting and set aside (I like to save this to decorate the star topper).
  15 cups powdered sugar, 15 tablespoon heavy cream
• Then add the vanilla, salt, and green food coloring gel. Start with 1 teaspoon of gel, then add more until it is the color you want.
  4 tbs vanilla, Pinch salt, 1-1 ½ teaspoon Dark Green Food Coloring Gel*
• Once cookies are cooled, decorate each one by filling a piping bag with frosting and using a star piping tip to create stars and swirls. Add sprinkles after frosting each cookie before the frosting dries.
  Christmas Candy or Sprinkles
• To decorate the star topper, coat one of the two smallest cookies with the reserved white frosting then press into a small dish of gold sanding sugar or sprinkles.

Day 3: Assembly Of The Tree

• Place a dollop of frosting on the bottom of one of the largest stars, then place on plate or cake stand where it will be displayed. This will help it stay in place.
• Then stack each decorated cookie of same or one size smaller on top of each other, alternating the points. Check the tree as you build it so that you make sure it is straight.
• Once assembled you can either leave as is or lightly dust with powdered sugar, using a fine mesh sieve, to give the look of snow.
  Extra Powdered Sugar as snow