Janie, I made these this past Christmas. I saw instructions on another board. After poking a hole in the top of each gingerbread cookie with a wooden skewer, it said to bake them at 200 degrees for 4 hours. However, some people said that when they used these instructions, that their cookies fell apart, so I cooked mine at 200* for 3 hours. I used the pointed end of the skewer to make the hole. On the front of the box, it said that the cookies were "soft", but I thought mine were pretty hard, so the pointed end helped get the hole through. After baking and cooling, I dipped them in melted parafin wax, and laid them on waxed paper to dry. I used red satin ribbon for hanging. The cookies already have red and green sugar sprinkled over the thin coat of white frosting, so I didn't decorate them at all. Someone said they put a small strip of red fleece around the necks of their ornies. I hung mine on our tree early in December, and when we took the tree down in January, my cookies still looked perfect and smelled great. I chose not to save the ornaments, as I didn't want a food item in my storage area. I think they could have been frozen in a protective plastic container, and could have been saved for next year. My only complaint was that out of 2 boxes of 8 of the gingerbread cookies, I had only 7 that were not broken when I took them out of their little individual cellophane packaging. Good luck!

Thanks! AnnT's recipe is like the one I make, but with an extra half teaspoon of vanilla - close enough! So 9x13 it is, but how do you think that PB filling and frosting will freeze? I wanted to get all the baking done this weekend (have already made 3 crumb cakes), because I need to make 3 spinach/feta "quiches", 3 ratatouille/ziti dishes & 1 baked spaghetti dish on Wednesday/Thursday!

Thanks, lizbeth, I'll be sure to try that. I mostly try to keep the wrap off the top of cheesecake or a fancy decorated cake, and a small toothpick hole could easily be hidden in frosting. LindaC, that would figure, it would happen to me and I'd still get frosting all over the wrapping. Except somehow or another if I happen to have marshmallows, I can pretty much guarantee that they are stale, LOL. I use them in the summer for bonfires, I used them to try to teach the pigs to use a "nipple" waterer (I failed, but they really, really like marshmallows), I use mini-marshmallows for the bottom of a waffle cone to keep the ice cream from melting out. But, somehow, I always have some left in an open bag and those are stale. Sometimes worse than stale and moving right into "hard". (grin) Then they get melted in hot cocoa. Annie

H B - not 3 layers anytime I've made it. The frosting goes onto a warm not hot cake, while the frosting is warm. I typically begin to make the frosting when the cake comes out of the oven, I don't have it ready while the cake is still baking. Frosting sits on top the cake in a distinct layer per my recipe. I've never put cinnamon in mine either, the addition of cinnamon to chocolate makes me think a Hispanic flair...which would probably be good but I'm not sure why necessary with this cake. The cake is cake-like with the many I've baked. Dense, but distinctly cake.