This Artist’s '12 Days of Crustmas' Series Celebrates Christmas With Pie

From big to small, each of the snowflakes on this pie crust is created using cookie cutters, then dusted with sanding sugar. Inside the sparkly crust is a blend of three batches of apple pie filling, all tinted a different shade of green, to the delight of the ombre lovers in your life.

You can use a simple berry blend filling that pairs well with cinnamon or cocoa powder when making this “ugly sweater” pie design. To get this crust, give your entire pie top an egg white wash before poking holes and layering different paper cut outs on top. When you’re ready to reveal the crust design, use a sharp knife or pin to lift off the cutouts and sprinkle it with cinnamon. 

While Clark-Bojin encourages you to experiment with figurative and geometric patterns, to re-create this sweet and tart holiday pie’s swirl, you’ll want to etch the spiral shape on the bottom of your dough-lined pan. Using egg whites as glue, place strips of dough along the line of the spiral and fill either side with your cherry and apple filling.

Mincemeat pie is an old favorite that pairs well with this classic crust design, created by tracing a large flower shape and using smaller cookie cutters, straws, and piping tips to poke out holes. The holly leaves, a decorative staple of the holiday season, were made using plunger cutters, with the berries hand rolled and colored using gel food coloring mixed with vanilla extract.

Try your hand at a plum filling with this stenciled pie crust to turn any ballerina into the Sugar Plum Fairy. To create this crust that’s sure to sweep any eater off their feet, cut out shapes using transparency sheets and place them over the dough (much like you do with paper cutouts) before filling the shapes with a sprinkling of cinnamon.

Let your gaming and holiday geek collide with a pie crust that combines old pixelated arcade games and snowmen. Create your snowman by marking off a series of tiny squares in your pie dough with a pastry cutter before rolling across the dough one way, then turning the cutter perpendicular and rolling again. You’ll want to color the squares and bake them separately, only adding them to the top when your pie (such as sweet potato) is fresh out of the oven.

If you’re looking for a dessert you can eat with your hands these three-inch high house pies are for you. Created using a silicone baking mold, you can decorate them once they’ve cooled, just like a real Gingerbread House. Food coloring, frosting and tiny candies are all great ways to spruce up your tiny edible dwelling.

Put on your favorite Christmas tunes as you hunker down to create this hand-molded, pre-baked cherry pie. To create the crust, you’ll need a ruler, a shallow egg white bath (to keep your words from cracking) and a template guide to ensure you have the right spacing and spelling. If you want your words to pop, use a bright berry filling.

This holiday dessert is perfect for those who want a pie that’s just as fun and creative, but less time consuming and simpler to make than “Let It Snow.” Resembling everyone’s favorite “winter” birds these penguin pies were created with pulverized Oreos mixed with butter for the shell, chocolate melted and set into “penguin shapes,” and a sweetened cream cheese filling for the soft white belly.

Similar to the Penguin pies, this crust celebrating the beloved Christmas tree was created by piping melted chocolate onto a parchment sheet with a guide layer underneath. Once the sheet has chilled, pick up the pieces and transfer them to the pie, such as one with a peppermint brownie filling.

Inspired by The Nightmare Before Christmas, you’ll need to have some advanced pie sculpting skills to re-create Tim Burton’s rosy-cheeked Santa. The checkerboard pattern, on the other hand, only requires a ruler, some light scoring, and food color painting. Honor Jack Skellington’s appreciation of Christmas by choosing a red filling like raspberry, or try something more Halloween-ish in color, like peach or blackberry.

Again, you’ll need either a lot of patience or some advanced crusting skills to make this adorable snow fox the centerpiece of your Christmas dinner table. You’ll want to use cutouts to create your fox, and a slightly less sweet filling to balance out the icing sugar paste and sanding sugar coating topped with sprinkles for a holiday glint.