Halloween Gingerbread Tree

A while ago, I made some sugar diamonds for fun. I told my assistant that I didn’t know what to do with them and she suggested using them as leaves. And that was how this gingerbread tree came to being.

I decided to let a spider live in the tree, and his name is Alexander. Because I couldn’t think of any other names that rhymed with spider.

Gingerbread Tree

Ingredients and Equipment (for one tree)

Gingerbread Tree Template (click link to acquire)
70g butter
50g brown sugar
2 tablespoons golden syrup
150g plain flour
1 tablespoon ground ginger

Method

1. Preheat oven to 160°C (fan-forced).
2. Cut tree template out and set aside.
3. In a saucepan, melt butter, brown sugar and golden syrup together until it becomes a thick sauce. Add flour and ginger and mix until it forms a dough.
4. Roll dough out immediately in between two non-stick baking sheets and place template on top of dough.
5. Using a sharp knife, cut the outline of the tree and remove all the surplus dough. Do not transfer tree cutout. The tree should be baked on the very same sheet it was cut on to reduce any distortion. Repeat with second tree template.
6. Place baking sheet on a baking tray and bake for 15-20 minutes or until firm and slightly brown. Leave to cool before removing from tray.

Royal Icing

Ingredients

1 egg white (not all will be used)
100g icing sugar
Food colouring of choice

Method

1. Add food colouring to icing sugar and using a teaspoon, gradually add a little egg white at a time while mixing until the desired consistency is achieved.

Ombre Sugar Diamonds

I will be doing a separate post on this later this week so stay tuned for that!

Chocolate Decorations

Equipment and Ingredients

25g dark chocolate, melted
5g white chocolate, melted
Black food colouring
Cocktail stick
Waxed paper

Method

1. Pipe chocolate on waxed paper into the shape of a spider’s web. I did it free-hand but if you would prefer to have a template one is easily available by doing a Google Image Search.
2. For the spider, pipe a round circle and then draw out 8 legs out from the body. Leave to set. Then, use white chocolate to pipe the eyes of the spider. Dip the tip of a cocktail stick into some black colouring and dot the eyes on.

Assembly

The video at the top of the page outlines the assembly of the tree. If you have any questions feel free to leave a comment and I’ll get back to you!

Photography

I didn’t do anything special for the photography this time – just cardboard as the background and light coming from the right hand side of the image.

Settings

ISO:100
f: 2.8
Lens: 60mm 2.8f
Camera: Canon 7D
Exposure: 1/50 seconds
Temperature: 6000K

This was my very first Halloween project. In Australia, it isn’t a very big thing so nobody really goes all out but I have to say that I enjoyed it and might try to squeeze another one in before October ends. Maybe. Can’t believe it’s almost the end of the year!