This is one of those facepalm why-didn’t-I-think-of-that? projects: Heidi at My Paper Crane came up with the brilliant idea of drawing skeletons on gingerbread cookies. They’re adorable.

It strikes me that you could take this a step further and do gingerbread in a variety of anatomical-textbook cross sections: Do some as skeletons, others with internal organs, etc.

This is a good excuse to make gingerbread cookies without waiting for Christmas, too (although I fully plan to do a few skeletal reindeer come Christmastime). Here are a couple of recipes to get you started:

Molasses Gingerbread Cookies – These are a little softer and more cakelike than traditional crisp gingerbread.

Gingerbread Cookies – These are the crispy variety. The same page includes a recipe for decorating icing and also a citrus sugar cookie recipe if you don’t like gingerbread (heretic!)

If you don’t have a piping bag for the icing, put it in a plastic baggie and snip off one corner. Make sure you don’t make the hole too big, since you’ll want a fairly fine line to draw the individual bones.

Bonus Link: When I was looking around for a gingerbread cookie recipe, I ran across instructions for decorating a haunted gingerbread house. So cute!