Glowing honey cakes

Ingredients for 1 servings:

• 350 g honey
• 100 g sugar
• 100 g butter
• 1 tbsp cocoa powder or chocolate powder
• ½ bag of gingerbread spice
• ½ tsp potash
• ½ tsp ammonium bicarbonate
• 1 tbsp water
• 600 g flour
• Flour for the work surface
• 60 candies (colored fruit candies), unfilled

Instructions

Working time approx. 1 hour 30 minutes; Rest time approx. 2 hours; Total time approx. 3 hours 30 minutes

Tree or window decorations for eating

Heat the honey, butter, and sugar together in a saucepan over medium heat, stirring constantly until the sugar is dissolved. Allow to cool to lukewarm. Stir in the egg, cocoa, and gingerbread spice. Dissolve the potash and ammonium carbonate in a little water. Knead the mixture into the honey mixture along with the flour. Let it rest in the refrigerator for at least one hour. Roll out the dough on a floured surface to a thickness of about 2 mm. Use cookie cutters to cut out shapes such as hearts, stars, or flowers. Cut out the center of the cookies with a smaller cutter. Place on a baking sheet lined with baking paper. Pierce a hole in the top with a wooden skewer. Bake in a preheated oven at 180°C for about 4 minutes. Place a candy in the center of each cookie and bake for another 4-5 minutes. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet so they can be easily removed. Thread ribbons through the pre-pierced holes and hang the honey cakes from them. Store away from moisture, as otherwise the candy filling will become soft and sticky. Tip: If you want colorful fillings, you can also roughly crush the candies and mix them in a bag (e.g., yellow and red, green and yellow, etc.). The colorful crumbs will melt but won’t run into each other (yellow and red won’t make orange).