Gingerbread Cookie Place Cards

6 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp baking powder
2 sticks butter
1 cup dark brown sugar
4 tsps ginger
4 tsps cinnamon
1½ tsps cloves
1 tsp pepper
1½ tsps salt
2 eggs
1 cup molasses

In a large bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, and baking powder. Set aside. In an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Mix in spices and salt, then eggs and molasses. Add flour mixture; combine on low speed. Divide dough in thirds; wrap in plastic. Chill for at least 1 hour.

On a floured work surface, roll dough 1/8-inch thick. Cut with a knife into equal rectangles, using a template to cut strips, then cross-cut. Transfer to ungreased baking sheets; refrigerate until firm, 15 minutes. Heat oven to 350 degrees.

Bake 8 to 10 minutes, or until crisp but not darkened. Immediately upon removal from the oven, use a straw to poke holes in two top corners of each cookie. Let cookies cool on wire racks.

Use Sugar Cookie Icing to pipe the names of your guests and decorative borders on half of the cookies; decorate the remaining rectangles as desired (borders, acorns, asters, leaves, turkeys, etc.), as these will be the backs of the place cards and seen by guests on opposing sides of the table.

Assembly: Cut approximately 6" - 7" pieces of thin, satin ribbon in a number to match your number of guests. Place one name cookie and one decorated cookie back-to-back, thread a ribbon through the holes you made with the straw in the top corners, and tie in a knot. (After tying, trim ribbon to even lengths.) This enables the cookies to stand on the table as an easel.

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