Gingerbread Lollipops

I chose to make these gingerbread lollipops for a recent fundraising sale at church because they are what I call a simple showstopper — Attention getting, yet quick to make.

The sticks that I used are candy apple sticks which take the heat of the oven and have a semi-pointed end that's easy to insert into the cookie.

Really, the only real trick to making these is to cut your cookies extra thick to accept the stick and then it's just two color wet-on-wet decorating and some basic packaging.

Here's how I made them:

Cut gingerbread rounds thicker than the diameter of the sticks you want to use.  Insert a stick into each cookie, pressing gently until it's more than half-way through it. Check the back of the cookie and if you see thin areas, you can press in a bit of extra dough for support.

Place the cookies on a parchment lined baking sheet and bake.

To decorate, add a touch of royal icing at the base of the cookie for extra support and then outline and fill the cookie. Immediately pipe on a spiral of another color and that's all there is to it. Leave the cookies to dry completely at room temperature.

Once dry, the cookies are super sturdy and easy to pick up.

I wrapped the gingerbread lollipops for the fundraising sale by clipping the adhesive strip off of a self-sealing cellophane bag and sliding it over the cookie. Then, I tied on the bag with a piece of ribbon and that's all there is to it!