Every December, my kids ask to make gingerbread houses. Three to be exact. Well, one just wants to eat candy. And I groan.
I want to make this Christmas project happen for them and every year I try a new strategy. “Easy” graham cracker houses? Tried it. Fancy pre-made kits? Been there. Hit Pinterest for frosting that might actually hold tings together? Done.
Despite my best efforts, we always end up with collapsing walls, slipping candies, impatient kids, and caving houses. We valiantly try to complete the project, the kids hoping we’ll actually have a house to show at the end. The project generally concludes with a pathetic little house and kids pirating all of the candy. I vow to never make a gingerbread house again.
Then last week I found a genius solution while scrolling through my Facebook feed. Buzzfeed shared 38 Clever Christmas Food Hacks, the first one being ice cream cone Christmas Trees. If you visit the original recipe, you’ll find a much more complex idea and I might have noticed that you actually need sugar cones, rather than the waffle cones mentioned by Buzzfeed. I’ll admit that I simply looked at the photo and took it from there.
My kids are 3, 6, and 8, so I went as simple as possible. Looking back, I think the original idea of melting almond bark and dipping is probably better than spreading frosting. The trickiest part is spreading the frosting and the scale of candy to ice cream cones (even trickier with smaller sugar cones, I imagine). We also had to trim the bottoms of waffle cones to make them stand, but you could use them if you did the cookie filling and sticks (too much work!). We’ll know better next year.
What You Need:
1 package sugar cones
1 to 2 containers of white frosting or melted almond bark
1 bottle green food coloring
2 to 3 small icing tubes in various colors
Candy Decorations. Ideas include mini M&Ms, Reeses Pieces, Chocolate Chips, Candy Canes, Spice Candy, Dots, Hershey’s Kisses, Licorice.
(Optional) Coconut, marshmallows, sprinkles
Paper Plates
Parchment Paper or placemats
Directions:
Lay out parchment paper or placemats for each participant to contain the mess. Give each person a paper plate.
Divide the candy decorations into easily accessible small bowls throughout the table.
Mix the green food coloring with frosting or almond bark to desired green.
Spread frosting on paper plate.
Flip over cones in frosting on plates and frost or dip into almond bark.
Apply candy decorations as desired.
Why I Love This Project:
No assembly required here to make Ice Cream Cone Christmas Trees and no sharing necessary. Each child can build their own Christmas forest and decorate to their heart’s content. Eating the decorations along the way was encouraged and no one worried about the end result. We simply wanted to have a stress-free, holiday family night and this made that possible.
Leave a Reply