Gingerbread Advent Wreath

Are you looking for a DIY Christmas table centerpiece? Make this easy gingerbread advent wreath with real candles! Watch this easy video tutorial!

It has somehow become a tradition in my family to make the advent wreath out of gingerbread cookie dough.

I made my first gingerbread advent wreath about 10 years ago and since we have made/baked one every year. We (anyone who is in charge of baking & decorating the wreath – this varies every year) try to experiment and decorate it differently or use new cookie cutters to get a unique look every time.

This is a very simple gingerbread cookie wreath that can be made with your kids who can also help you decorate it. Here the tea candles are baked together with cookies but you can simply glue them onto the wreath using a bit of royal icing. I hope this gingerbread wreath tutorial will help you visualize the whole process.

To make this gingerbread advent wreath you will need:

• A Toothpick
• 4 Tea Candles
• Royal Icing (see the recipe below)
• Gingerbread Dough
• Christmas Themed Cookie Cutters of Your Choice
• 20cm (8inch) Cake Tin
• Round Cookie Cutter
• A Zip-Lock Bag
• Scissors

Substitutions:
A toothpick can be substituted for a skewer or a cake tester.

If you don’t have a 20cm (8inch) cake tin, check if you have a mixing bowl of roughly the same size. Note that you can use a larger cake tin/mixing bowl but I don’t recommend using a smaller one as it would be very small and you will need space for the candles and cookies.

Round cookie cutter is handy but you can use a glass instead. All you need to do is make a hole in the middle so it looks like a wreath so a glass will do the trick.

How to make gingerbread advent wreath:
Have a look at this video for a step by step tutorial on how to prepare and bake this advent wreath.

Watch the video for this tutorial:

You will need to bake the wreath and the cut out cookies. Now the wreath should be thicker than the cookies so I suggest you divide baking in two parts. First bake the wreath separately and afterwards bake the gingerbread cookies. This way you won’t end up with burnt cookies! Also note that it takes about 8-10 minutes for the cookies to bake. However, the wreath will take longer because it’s thicker.

Decorating gingerbread wreath with Royal Icing

Decorating with royal icing is very easy (see below the recipe). You will need scissors, a zip-lock bag (or a small plastic bag) and a toothpick. The toothpick will help you to spread the icing around, to fill the gaps. As for the zip-lock bag – make sure you cut only a tiny hole in one of the corners when decorating. Smaller hole will make the ornaments look neater, lovelier.

Royal Icing recipe:
15ml (0.5fl oz) Egg White (1 very small egg)
100g (3.5oz) Icing Sugar

Method:
Beat the egg whites until fluffy (not stiff or white, just fluffy). Sift in the icing sugar & mix until smooth. This royal icing should be quite thick.

Divide this royal icing into 3 bowls.

2 TBSP go in bowl 1 (For Gluing – if you think it’s not thick enough, add some more icing sugar).

4-5 TBSP go in bowl 2 (For Spreading the icing over the cookies – thin it with some lemon juice – it should be runny but not too much)

The rest of the icing stays in the original bowl (For outlining & decorating the cookies & wreath).

Note:
Eggs vary and so sometimes you get more or less egg whites in them. If feel like your icing is still too runny, add more icing sugar.

This is a simple gingerbread wreath tutorial. It is easy to follow and not that time consuming because most of the time you will be icing gingerbread cookies and not actually decorating them.

I hope you will give it a go and if you do, let me know what you think or send me some photos of it.

Happy Baking with Happy Foods Tube!

Browse more Holiday Recipes & Ideas.