Building Gingerbread Houses

Parent Cafe
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<p>Just wanted to report back on my gingerbread house project!</p>

<p>I ended up using the instructions and gingerbread recipe from the King Arthur flour web site.</p>

<p>I baked pieces for ten houses over a three day period. I cut out pieces using a cookie cutter set made specifically for gingerbread house production, although I shortened the length of the house. (For anyone who wants to try this, roll out the dough as thin possible, and you should get about three medium size houses per batch of gingerbread.)</p>

<p>A brave friend of mine volunteered to come over and help me put the houses together. We used the Royal Icing recipe recommended by many here (thanks especially to Sunnyflorida!) Fortunately the houses stuck together pretty well without requiring too many prop ups, as we never did find anything the right size upon which to rest the roofs.</p>

<p>We also melted Lifesavers together to make windows.</p>

<p>I had purchased plastic boxes at Target and placed each completed house in a box and then squirreled them away. (At this point they looked a lot like birdhouses. The windows ended up being round as I couldn’t find something square to cut out windows with and as a result used a biscuit cutter instead.)</p>

<p>I bought A TON of candy: Necco wafers, peanut butter cups, gum drops, reese’s pieces, chocolate chips, peppermints, twizzlers, candy canes, M & Ms, nonpareils - also thin pretzel rods to use as “logs” and coconut to sprinkle as snow.</p>

<p>To pull this off as a surprise party, I told my daughter family friends were coming over for the afternoon. Her sister then called her into their bedroom on a ruse. So the guests arrived and surprised my d in her room. We then scurried around to bring out the houses and candy, make the icing etc. After the house decorating, we had a Yankee Swap (I provided the gifts), then fondue and cupcakes.</p>

<p>The kids did a beautiful job decorating the houses. I was quite impressed! It was interesting to see the variation amongst all the decorating approaches. </p>

<p>My daughter was really, really pleased with the party.</p>

<p>Afterwards my husband said he had been skeptical about the gingerbread house decorating idea, but agreed it had been a big hit.</p>

<p>Thanks everyone for your advice and support! I wouldn’t have had the courage to do it without you! Special shout out to sunnyflorida for her tips!</p>

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<p>A little late to respond now that the event is over but some hints for others. Mini colored marshmallows make for a great roof, colorful and light and easy enough for a 2 year old. (That was a long time ago!) The gum that comes in colored stripes, can’t remember the name, can be cut into strips and to make nice shutters. We’ve also used smarties and red hots successfully. Royal icing is like glue if made correctly.</p>

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<p>Sounds great, fendrock! For future reference, if you happen to have any around Duplos–the oversized legos for toddlers–are great for cutting out rectangular doors and windows. :)</p>

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<p>Once over Christmas break, I got a call from my daughters and their friends at home…wanting to know where the glue gun was…when asked why they said they were building gingerbread houses…</p>

<p>Dont think thats how its normally done, but let me tell you that house stayed intact until the spring when we threw it in the field for the birds…</p>

<p>Funny I had forgotten that till I read this thread!</p>

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<p>If you are feeling more ambitious next year :D, you could try Rose Levy Beranbaum’s recipe/process to make Notre Dame Cathedral from gingerbread. In the cookbook Rose’s Christmas Cookies (which is a great cookbook, by the way). I have looked the recipe over a few times, but it is for people who have wwaaayyy too much time on their hands.</p>

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<p>Gingerbread cathedral ?! :eek:</p>

<p>I think I would be stymied by the gargoyles…</p>

<p>Here’s a link to some pictures of gingerbread landmark buildings constructed by Type A / Overachiever types:</p>

<p><a href=“http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://bp2.blogger.com/_HGy4B5TgO1c/R0n7bsqFnwI/AAAAAAAAACM/jTmSnFt-GpU/s320/Notre%2BDame%2BCathedral%2BGingerbread.jpg&imgrefurl=http://church-ladies.blogspot.com/2007_11_01_archive.html&usg=__ZLWLGc4gKn3VanDlX70IJBa3zEE=&h=234&w=320&sz=21&hl=en&start=2&sig2=jdplyaYjd4HyhG8lBAM9Hg&tbnid=w64bOs9yTbdbUM:&tbnh=86&tbnw=118&prev=/images%3Fq%3DNotre%2BDame%2BCathedral%2Bgingerbread%26gbv%3D2%26hl%3Den&ei=0iMxS3SD0JQH0OWQlwc[/url]”>http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://bp2.blogger.com/_HGy4B5TgO1c/R0n7bsqFnwI/AAAAAAAAACM/jTmSnFt-GpU/s320/Notre%2BDame%2BCathedral%2BGingerbread.jpg&imgrefurl=http://church-ladies.blogspot.com/2007_11_01_archive.html&usg=__ZLWLGc4gKn3VanDlX70IJBa3zEE=&h=234&w=320&sz=21&hl=en&start=2&sig2=jdplyaYjd4HyhG8lBAM9Hg&tbnid=w64bOs9yTbdbUM:&tbnh=86&tbnw=118&prev=/images%3Fq%3DNotre%2BDame%2BCathedral%2Bgingerbread%26gbv%3D2%26hl%3Den&ei=0iMxS3SD0JQH0OWQlwc&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>Yup, I think that might be the photo from the cookbook! The image at the top of the page on that link, I mean.</p>

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<p>It was probably built only once using a team of cooks and structural engineers.</p>