Earlier this week, I whipped up a huge batch of peppery, Chai-spiced gingerbread dough. Looking for a way to showcase this tea-infused recipe, I created some darling Standing 3D Gingerbread Cookies. These artful bakes are ideal for gift giving and to top it off, you’ll find a little gift hidden inside the teacup!
I like to call these Anna’s Favorite Teacups, as the Scandinavian design reminds me of Anna’s dress in Frozen. The craft starts with a teacup cookie cutter–it details an impression for the heart-shaped tulip on the face of the cup and also cuts out a handle. If you have your own designs in mind, feel free to use a plain teacup cookie cutter without piping outlines. For one 3D cookie, you’ll need to use 2 teacup cookies (1 decorated, 1 undecorated) and 2 saucer cookies. Round saucer cookies are stacked and glued (with royal icing) together, then wrapped in a single strip of decorative ribbon. An intricate ribbon design is ideal here–it will help to create a themed look to the teacup. Because the cookie stands upright by sticking 2 cookies together, we’re able to tuck a little unexpected surprise inside–a bag of tea! Pull out the tea tag so that people know there’s a hot cup to enjoy with their cookies. Now you know why these are Anna’s Favorites!

Standing 3D Gingerbread Teacups (Anna’s Favorite Teacups)

Makes 10 standing cookies.

Ingredients:

{Chai-Spiced Gingerbread Dough}

10 Tbsp unsalted butter, at room temperature

3/4 cup brown sugar, light or dark

1 egg, at room temperature

2/3 cup molasses

1 tsp vanilla extract

3 1/2 cups flour

2 1/2 Tbsp Chai spice

3 Irish Breakfast or Assam Tea Bags, tea finely grounded into a powder with a spice grinder

1/4 tsp salt

{Royal Icing}

1 1/4 cups powered sugar, sifted

2 Tbsp water

2 tsp powdered egg whites

food coloring

Equipment:

stand mixer, fitted with paddle attachment

plastic wrap

work surface, with bench flour

teacup cookie cutter

round cookie cutter, about 3″

large baking sheets, fitted with parchment

cap of container of sprinkles, to create impression on saucer

decorative ribbon

Directions:

1. Place the butter and sugar in a stand mixer, then mix until light and fluffy. Slowly add the egg, molasses and vanilla extract. Mix the dry ingredients together, then gradually add it to the butter mixture. Mix until just combined, scraping sides down occasionally. Place this dough in a large piece of plastic wrap, then place in fridge to cool completely, at least 4 hours.

2. Heat the oven to 350 degrees F. On a work surface, roll the dough out to 1/8″. Cut out 20 teacups and 20 rounds with the cookie cutters. Each standing teacup will require 2 teacups and 2 rounds. Bake the cut-outs on a large baking sheet for 8 minutes.

3. Remove the cookies from the oven. Upon removing, use a flat round to make an impression in the center of the saucer cookies. I use the cap of a container of sprinkles to do this. Push down hard in the center of the cookie while they are still warm to get the impression.

4. After the cookies have cooled completely, make royal icing and color as desired. Pipe some designs onto the teacup cookies. Only decorate 1/2 of the teacup cookies. 5. To make a standing cookie, take an undecorated cookie and place a tea bag in the middle of it. Place generous dollops of the royal icing on either side of the tea bag. While the icing is still wet, place a decorated teacup cookie atop the bottom one. Line them up to create the illusion of 1 cookie. 6. Allow the icing to dry completely before standing the cookie up. 7. Glue and stack 2 saucer cookies together. With more royal icing, attach a piece of decorative ribbon along the circumference of the stacked cookies. To finish, affix a teacup atop the finished saucer to create a Standing 3D Gingerbread Cookie. Enjoy!