Cookie Trees

I save the gingerbread house construction for Christmas and create Cookie Trees for Thanksgiving. It becomes an activity even the youngest of hands can help with. The process of building may take up to an hour, but well worth it. You will need:

• 2 16 ounce boxes confectioners' sugar
• 6 egg whites
• 3 Styrofoam cones, ranging in height from 7 inches to 12 inches
• 4 12 ounce boxes vanilla wafers or other small, flat cookies

1. Beat all but 1/4 cup of the sugar with the egg whites until stiff.
2. Spread a thin layer of the frosting on a cone (one cone at a time)
3. Working from the bottom up, overlap cookies, using more frosting as necessary.
4. Repeat for the other 2 cones.
5. Use a small sieve to dust the trees with the remaining sugar.

Straight pins can be used to hold the cookies in place while the frosting dries. The trees look pretty classy on the dining room table as a centerpiece. Sometimes I forget to remove them so I buy pins that have colored ends to look like ornaments.