Ginger spice cookie houses 200g butter softened 200g brown sugar 1 egg lightly beaten 400g plain flour sifted 1 tablespoon crushed ginger (I use the ones from the jar) 2 tsps of All spice (or you can mix some cinnamon and clove together to make up 2 tsps) 1 tablespoon Golden syrup Template for the house can be found on Torie Jayne's blog 1) Cream butter and sugar untill mixed and creamy but do not overbeat. 2) add egg untill combined and then sift in the flour, ginger and All Spice. 3) mix with your hands till a dough forms, if its a little dry add the 1 tablespoon of syrup. Gather into a ball, wrap in clingwrap and pop in the fridge for atleast 1 hour. 4) Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celcius 5) Roll out dough to about 5mm thick and cut out gingerbread house shapes. Template can be found on Torie Jayne's blog, its still by far the cutest and easiest template to make and use :-) 6) Pop on a tray lined with greaseproof paper and bake for 12-15 minutes (my oven is gas and it took 15 min) This yields 2 small houses or 1 big house. Its more a ginger spice cookie recipe rather than a proper gingerbread recipe as I find it is sturdier than the standard gingerbread recipe. I found it easier to use with less breakage when handeling the different walls and roof pieces. It also remains flat and won't spread while baking. Oreo pops I made for Kindy 2 packets of Oreo cookies 3/4 packet cream cheese 1 bag of Nestle milk chocolate buttons 1 bag of pretzels, broken in half to form antlers 1 bag of mini m&m's 50g of white fondant (for the eyes) 22 x lollypop sticks 1 x styrofoam dummy cake (for pops to dry on) black edible texta 1) In a food processor mix the 2 packets of Oreos untill it resembles fine crumbs 2) add softened 3/4 packet cream cheese and mix into the Oreo crumbs till a soft dough forms 3) roll round balls the size of a standard walnut and pop them on some greaseproof paper and pop them in the fridge for 10 minutes. 4) Remove your Oreo balls from the fridge and set aside. Melt bag of nestle choc buttons in a medium bowl (make sure its clean and dry) 5) Now dip each lollypop stick in the melted chocolate and then pop them into each Oreo ball. Leave to harden for 5 minutes. 6) Dip each Oreo pop in the melted chocolate and gently tap on the side of the bowl to remove excess chocolate. While the chocolate is still soft (but not dripping) pop a mini m&m for the nose, place the pop upright in a styrofoam dummy cake and gently press in some pretzel antlers. 7) Let the pop dry completely. 8) Once dry, roll out tiny balls of white fondant and stick 2 balls onto each pop with some sugar glue to form the eyes. Use a toothpick to indent the pupil, I also used a toothpick dipped in black food colouring to emphasise each pupil. 9) Using a black edible texta draw each mouth on the pops. MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE :-) xxx Leoni