My little one LOVES to help me bake cookies…well, at least she starts off telling me she does. She looses interest pretty quickly. Well, ever since I made her these pretend gingerbread cookies, she’s been having way more fun “cooking”. She bakes them in her play kitchen and then we have faux hot cocoa and cookie parties.

These little guys are so easy to make. You can really make any shape cookies you want and decorate them with whatever paint you have as “frosting” I used…

• 2 tiny bricks of oven setting clay in any neutral browns or beiges to look like cookie dough
• Cookie cutters of your choice
• parchment paper
• wax paper
• paint in colors of your choice

Roll your clay in between two sheets of waxed paper. This stuff picks up everything and I mean EVERYTHING including any inks (I let Olivia roll some leftover clay on our table and it picked up the ink from the contact paper), so I recommend rolling it in between something like waxed paper.

Cut out your shapes and put them on parchment paper over your cookie sheet. This stuff is not edible, so I do not recommend using your silicone baking sheet or even putting them directly onto your cookie sheet.

Bake your shapes according to the package instructions. I baked mine at 270f for 30 minutes.

Once they’re cooled, you can paint them in any designs you want! I just freehanded the gingerbread design onto my cookies. You could also add a top coat if you’d like to seal it all in. I didn’t do this step and the paint is rubbing off a bit in some spots. I like the way that it looks though, it adds a little bit of character.