Homemade Christmas Ornaments (Part 1)

We have decided to make all new homemade Christmas ornaments for our tree this year. We started out with these button wreaths:

I got the idea here. Virgil had the idea of inserting red buttons to represent berries. And since I had a lot of white buttons, I decided to do some white wreaths as well. I think they turned out quite charming!

And since were talking Christmas, here's a yummy holiday recipe too. I made this tonight and it is DE-LICious! I got this recipe from Gooseberry Patch Homespun Christmas recipe book. It's a winner and something that will reappear come December!

Gingerbread Coffee Cake
1 c. water
1 c. molasses (I used sorghum..and maybe those are the same thing...I don't really know! Ha!)
1 t. baking soda
1 c. brown sugar
1 stick butter, softened
2 eggs, beaten
2 c. flour
1 T. baking powder
1 t. ground cinnamon
1/4 t. ground ginger
1/4 t. ground cloves

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 13 X 9 baking pan. Bring water and molasses to a boil. Stir in baking soda. (Ummm...make sure the pan you use is large enough to handle the bubble up..I had a bit of an overflow!) Let cool. Beat sugar, butter and eggs in a bowl. In another bowl, combine flour, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, cloves. Beat flour alternately with molasses, half at a time, into butter mixture until well mixed. Pour into the prepared pan.

Topping:
1/3 c. flour
1/3 c. sugar
1/3 t. ground cinnamon
1/3 t. ground ginger
1/2 c. chopped walnuts (I used a mixture of walnuts and pecans)
3 T. butter

Combin flour, sugar, cinnamon, ginger and walnuts in a bowl. Cut in butter with a pastry blender until mixture is coarsely crumbled. Sprinkle over gingerbread. Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes. (Watch the time. I baked mine for exactly 40 minutes and it was a little darker on the edges than I would have liked. I would try 30 -35 minutes and add more time if necessary.)

Glaze:
1 c. powdered sugar
1 1/2 T. milk
1/2 t. vanilla

Whisk sugar, milk and vanilla in a small bowl until soft enough to drip from a spoon. If needed, add more milk. Drizzle over top of lukewarm cake.

Enjoy!
~ @my