It's a bold statement, but we're going to say it: This is the only homemade gingerbread cookie recipe you'll need in your baking repertoire. By varying the shapes and decorating choices, this delicious gingerbread cookie recipe works for every occasion and celebration, so you can tailor it according to your needs. Lucky you.

Classic gingerbread men Image Credit: Charity Mathews, Foodlets.com

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Things You\’ll Need

• 3 cups flour

• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda

• 1/4 teaspoon salt

• 1 tablespoon ground ginger

• 2 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

• 1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

• 1/2 cup brown sugar

• 1 egg

• 1/2 cup molasses

• 2 teaspoons vanilla

• Zest of 1 lemon

• Cookie cutters

• Baking sheets

• Parchment paper, silicone mat or extra butter for greasing the baking sheet

• Royal icing (optional)

Step 1: Start With Dry Ingredients

In a large bowl or standing mixer, combine the dry ingredients: Flour, salt, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt and spices.

Tip

For more intensely flavored cookies, add more spices.

Step 2: Add the Wet Ingredients

To the same bowl, add your butter, egg, brown sugar, molasses, vanilla and lemon zest. Mix until your dough comes together. Just beyond the stage seen in this photo, it'll become shiny and more like play dough.

Step 3: Let It Rest

Shape your dough into a log, wrap it in plastic wrap and let the whole thing rest at room temperature for 1 hour (or you can leave it out for up to 8 hours if needed.)

Step 4: Roll the Dough

Working in two batches, roll out your dough with a rolling pin. It should be about 1/4 inch thick. If the dough sticks to your rolling pin, use just a little extra flour on the pin.

Tip

Instead of using lots of flour to create a non-stick surface, roll your dough on the same piece of plastic wrap you just unwrapped it from. It won't stick.

Step 5: Cut and Bake the Cookies

Using a cookie cutter, cut out your gingerbread men from the rolled dough. Place the cookies about an inch apart on a baking sheet lined with either silicone, parchment paper or greased. Bake for 7 to 9 minutes (depending on the size of your cookies) at 375 degrees Fahrenheit.

Tip

To make holiday ornaments, use a straw to cut out a hole for ribbon BEFORE you bake the cookies.

Step 6: Allow to Cool

Whatever shape you choose, cool the cookies completely on a wire rack before frosting.

Step 7: Decorate!

Use a small tipped pastry bag to make lines, polka dots or any other finely detailed pattern. Royal Icing is the best choice because it becomes very firm when dry.

Tip

For a quick decorative touch, melt chocolate chips in a glass measuring cup in the microwave, 30 seconds at a time then stirring to prevent scalding. Drizzle the chocolate over your cookies, or dip half of each one into the liquid chocolate. Alternately, add candies for more color and texture.

Bonus

For a year-round treat, try these same gingerbread cookies studded with chocolate Kisses. Roll a small amount of dough into a ball, about 1-inch in diameter, and flatten it out a bit with the palm of your hand. Bake for 7 minutes and immediately after the cookies come out of the oven, press a Kiss into the center of each one.

Gingerbread cookies with chocolate Kisses Image Credit: Charity Mathews, Foodlets.com

By using this one recipe, you can create several treats for many occasions, all year long.

See? It really is the only homemade gingerbread cookie recipe you'll need!

Gingerbread cookies in all shapes & sizes Image Credit: Charity Mathews, Foodlets.com

Things You\’ll Need

• Fine sieve

• Saucepan

• Butter

• Spoon

• Whisk

By correctly combining flour and milk, you can prepare smooth, lump-free sauce. Image Credit: Jupiterimages/Goodshoot/Getty Images

By following the correct techniques to combine flour and milk, you can create a smooth mixture that is free from lumps. Both flour and milk serve as a base for preparing sauces or batters for a variety of recipes including white sauce, pancakes and as a thickener in soups and stews. Maintaining the right temperature of the ingredients when combining the flour and milk will prevent your mixture from forming lumps and ruining your recipe.

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Step 1

Pass the flour through a fine sieve. This will give it a fine texture and get rid of any existing lumps.

Step 2

Heat a saucepan on low heat. Add butter. Let it warm for 1 minute until it melts to form a thick liquid. Take the saucepan away from the heat source.

Step 3

Add 1 heaped spoon of plain flour. Whisk the flour with the melted butter. The contact with heated butter will prevent the flour from forming lumps.

Step 4

Set the saucepan back on medium heat. Pour in cold milk, a little at a time, continuously whisking until you get a smooth paste. The cold milk and constant stirring will separate the starch granules in the flour and prevent lumps from forming. Remove the saucepan from the heat source. Use the mixture as desired in your recipe.

Tip

You can pass the flour through a very fine colander if you don’t have a sieve.

Easily create a cheese sauce by adding grated cheese and a dash of mustard to the prepared mixture.

Finely dice a handful of fresh parsley and add to the prepared mixture, to create a parsley sauce to serve with fish.

The ever-popular ladybug is believed to bring good luck. Seeing one, or having one land on you, could mean finding true love, financial success or winning the big game. But while the jury is still out on the ladybug's ability to grant your wishes, these adorable ladybug cupcakes are sure to bring you luck—because they're easy to make and yummy to eat. With their spotted red wings and happy smiles, they're perfect for Valentine's Day, birthday parties, showers or any springtime occasion.

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Things You\’ll Need

• Cupcakes

• Frosting

• Black fondant

• Red fondant

• Rolling pin

• 2 1/2-inch round cookie cutter

• Small round pastry tip

• Candy eyeballs

Step 1: Bake Cupcakes

Using a homemade recipe or a cake mix, bake cupcakes. I made strawberry cupcakes from a cake mix, as the pink color works so well for the ladybugs. If you're feeling extra ambitious, add some chocolate chips to the batter so the cupcakes will be spotted just like ladybugs. The trick in keeping the chocolate chips from sinking to the bottom of the cupcake is to use the miniature-sized chips and coat them in flour before adding to the batter.

Tip

Don't fill the cupcake wrappers with too much batter, as you don't want the cake to be too rounded on top. A flatter cupcake makes a better ladybug.

Step 2: Lightly Frost Cupcakes

Apply a very thin layer of frosting on the cupcakes. The main purpose of the frosting is to hold the fondant that will go on top of it, so you need very little. If you overdo the frosting, it may seep out the side when you add the fondant. Because the frosting isn't the main attraction of this cupcake, I used store-bought frosting instead of making it from scratch.

Step 3: Add the Black Layer

The base layer of the ladybug will be the black fondant. Fondant creates a smooth, professional look and is as easy to work with as Play-Doh. While you can make fondant and color it from scratch, it's easiest to buy pre-colored fondant from the crafts or kitchen supply store.

Start by rolling the fondant flat with a rolling pin to about 1/8 inch, and no thicker than 1/4 inch. If your rolling pin sticks to the fondant, sprinkle some confectioner's sugar on top of it.

With a 2 1/4-inch diameter round cookie cutter, cut circles in the fondant. Depending on the size of your cupcakes, you may need a larger cookie cutter, so experiment with different sizes.

Place the black fondant circle on the cupcake, allowing the frosting to hold it in place. Hold on to the excess black fondant. You'll need it later for the dots on the ladybug wings.

Step 4: Add the Wings

Roll out the red fondant into a thin layer as you did the black fondant.

With the round cookie cutter, cut red circles out of the fondant. Save some rolled fondant for the ladybug's mouth, which we'll make at the end.

To make the wing shape, we need to remove a segment of the red circles. Position the same cookie cutter over the red circle, overlapping about one inch in, and press down. You're left with what looks like a moon that's been partially eclipsed.

Cut each of these red wing shapes in half with a knife.

Dab the backs of the red wings with a little water, and position the red wings on top of the black layer of fondant, splaying the wings outward. The water will hold the two layers together.

Step 5: Add the Dots

With a small round pastry piping tip (I used a no. 12 tip), punch holes in your extra rolled black fondant to make dots for the wings. The fondant can get stuck in the tip, so just pop it out with a skewer or toothpick if that happens.

Apply the dots to the wings, moistening the backs of the dots with a little water to help them adhere. Add three dots per wing.

Tip

You need very little water to make the fondant attach to itself. In fact, if there's too much water, it will get messy. To control the amount of water, I moistened a small piece of a paper towel and used that to apply the water.

Step 6: Add the Eyes

Moisten the backs of two candy eyeballs and apply them to the front section of the ladybug, directly on the black fondant. Press down firmly to strengthen the hold. You can find candy eyeballs in the cake decorating aisle of the supermarket or crafts store.

Step 7: Make It Smile

As you can tell, our ladybugs are not anatomically correct. So in the spirit of anthropomorphism, let's give them a nice, big smile. With the larger end of the round pastry tip, cut out circles from the leftover rolled red fondant.

Use the same end of the pastry tip to remove about three quarters of the red fondant circle, leaving a smile shape.

Moisten the back of the smile with a little water, and apply it to the "face" of the ladybug under the eyes.

With cupcakes this adorable, people will be swarming for them.

You can cook brownies in a cupcake pan. Image Credit: MarinaZg/iStock/GettyImages

Baking individual brownies in a cupcake pan is not only simple but the results can be served in many ways: with a scoop of melting ice cream, under a dollop of freshly whipped cream, or frosted to perfection. For this tutorial, we use a boxed brownie mix and include some tips for transforming the mix into the richest, most decadent cupcake-shaped brownies you've ever eaten.

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Note: If you prefer to make your brownies from scratch, here is the *only homemade brownie recipe you'll need**.

eHow may earn compensation through affiliate links in this tutorial.

Things You\’ll Need

• Cupcake pan

• Baking spray with flour or cupcake liners

• Box of store-bought boxed brownie mix

• Optional: icing and sprinkles

Step 1: Preheat the Oven

When baking brownies in a cupcake pan instead of in a large pan, bump up the temperature for a perfect result. For example, the instructions on the store-bought brownie mix we used here called for baking at 350 degrees F, so we baked at 375 degrees F.

Step 2: Prepare the Pan

Since you'll be baking individual brownies, you want to be sure that your pans are greased thoroughly. Use a baking spray with flour to easily coat each cup quickly.

Tip

For a colorful presentation, use paper or foil cupcake liners but to get more of those famous brownie "edges" skip the liners and use this spray method instead.

Step 3: Play Around With the Brownie Mix

To make a boxed brownie mix taste even more decadent, try one (or all!) of these following flavor boosters:

Substitute With Buttermilk: Replace the water or milk called for in the recipe with buttermilk. Its tanginess will match beautifully with the chocolate.

Double Up On the Chocolate: For an outrageous chocolate experience, add about 1/3 cup of chopped chocolate to your batter. Be sure to get the shavings in there too. They'll melt right into the brownies for another level of chocolate flavor.

Try a Little Coffee: Adding a teaspoon of brewed coffee brings out the chocolate in your entire batch of brownie cupcakes. It's delicious!

Step 4: Measure Each Scoop

To ensure that each brownie will be about the same size, ladle out the batter using a 1/4 measuring cup. Scoop out the batter with a small silicone spatula, right into the prepared cupcake pan. Each cup should be about 3/4 full.

Step 5: Bake Your Brownies

You'll only need to bake your cupcake brownies for 25 to 30 minutes. Keep an eye on them. When the tops are cracked and firm to the touch, they're done.

Step 6: Cool on a Wire Rack

One of the benefits of making brownies in a cupcake pan is how much easier they are to get out of the pan. Let the brownies cool for only 2 to 3 minutes before turning them out on a wire rack to cool completely before icing.

Decorating Tips for Your Brownies

If you want to pipe icing on top, it's easy to make your own pastry bag with any sandwich-style bag. Fill with frosting, work the frosting down to one corner and snip the edge with kitchen scissors.

Adding sprinkles but don't want to make a huge mess? Place your wire rack above a baking sheet to catch all the stray sprinkles.

Or use larger candies which only require a few to get the job done.

If You Liked That, You'll Love This…

Top those brownies off with this delicious easy to make whipped cream frosting.

Also, did you know muffin pans aren't just for cupcakes, brownies and muffins? Here's how to use a muffin pan to cook hard boiled eggs. It's so simple, it's silly.

Buy materials for this tutorial:

Cupcake pan