A Little Cabin in the Woods ….made of Gingerbread!

August 25, 2015 by Kristine Leave a Comment

Welcome to a Little Cabin in the Woods, a log cabin constructed from a gingerbread house kit, brown royal icing, and pretzels. We’ll add a winter covering of snow in the next blog entry, but for now it looks warm, cozy and perfect for the Fall.

To embrace the autumn look, add mellowcreme or jelly pumpkins. Put sprinkles that look like Fall leaves under the windows instead of the wintertime holly leaves and berries.

The kit supplied these gingerbread pieces. We’re going to modify the cookies a bit to create a larger house.

Create the Side Panels

Cut triangles from the front and back panels to square off the sides.

First, mark the cut lines with a pencil. Second, microwave the cookie for 15-20 seconds to soften it. Third, use a serrated knife with light sawing motions to cut the cookie. If cutting through your particular gingerbread piece proves too difficult, score and then snap the pieces.

Create the Front and Back Panels

We’re going to turn the roof pieces into the front and back panels of the house. Turn the roof panels sideways. Use a pencil and straightedge to draw a line marking the height of the first story (before the sides triangle in). Use a serrated knife with light sawing motions to cut the cookie. Again, if cutting through your particular gingerbread piece proves too difficult, score and then snap the pieces.

The roof piece on the left has been trimmed.

Here are the four sides of the cabin.

Create the Fireplace

Go ahead and trim one of the extra house pieces, in this case a side, to use as a base for the fireplace. You don’t need it yet, but the counter is covered with crumbs. What’s a few more?

Meet the Pretzels

You’ll need the three sizes of pretzels pictured below. The biggest ones are the thickness of your index finger and make a perfect roof. The medium sized sticks cover the four sides of the house as edible logs. The thin pretzel sticks outline windows and doors.

Make Brown Royal Icing

For Royal Icing instructions, click here.

Cover the Sides with Pretzel Logs

Spread brown royal icing on the two side cookies and press in pretzels. Stagger the logs as a bricklayer would. Score and snap the pretzels with a serrated knife to create custom lengths.

Here’s the important part —-

The logs must end flush with the sides of the cookie.

No overhang allowed.

Cover the Front and Back with Pretzel Logs

Here’s the important part of the front and back —-

The logs need to extend beyond the right and left sides of the gingerbread cookie.

I used about 3/4″ of overhang on each side.

When you assemble the house, the extra pretzel length covers the rough edges of the adjoining sides.

Check out the pieces. The top two cookies are sides and the bottom rectangles are the front and back of the gingerbread house.

The photo below shows a corner of the house. See the door on the front and the jellybean fireplace on the side? Check out the overlap at the corner; the front pretzel sticks extend to cover the rough edges of the side.

Build the Fireplace

Attach the gingerbread piece we cut with brown royal icing. Cover the gingerbread with black, white, and brown jellybeans.

At the top of the fireplace, continue adding jellybeans to form the chimney.

Add a Front Door and Windows

Attach small, yellow gum squares as window panes. Outline the windows with lengths of tiny pretzel sticks. Attach a set of pretzel sticks to form a door.

Attach holly berry and leaf sprinkles under each window. At this point, I added an extra pretzel under the window to provide a better platform for the holly.

Let it Dry

Wait to assemble the house until all of the royal icing has completely dried.

Assemble the Gingerbread House

For Assembly Instructions, click here.

The picture below details how the pieces fit together. Take special note of the corners.

Another view of a corner–

Let it Dry

Attach the Roof

It’s time for a confession. I attached the pretzel roof after piano, after dinner, after homework, after midnight. I didn’t take any photos. Use plenty of brown royal icing and choose the straightest pretzels. You can see that the large logs almost exactly fit across the length of the roof.

Stay tuned for snowfall and decorations………..

Kristine

Candy Wafers Tutorial – Make Your Own Gingerbread House Shingles

June 15, 2015 by Kristine Leave a Comment

These sweet candy disks have added whimsy, charm, and a touch of nostalgia to gingerbread houses for over fifty years. In decades past, I would buy an entire box of the rolls down at Eckerds Drugs each December. At some point though, the rolls of candy disappeared from my local shops.

Why not make my own? I did.

It was so straightforward, simple, and easy that I’ve done so every year since.

Candy wafers are a snap to make!

You’ll need four ingredients: powdered sugar, cornstarch, unflavored powdered gelatin, and water. Go one step further and add flavoring oils to change a simple roof tile into a tasty treat. Peppermint is my favorite.

Recipe for Candy Wafer Dough

2 lbs powdered sugar

1 cup cornstarch

1 packet powdered, unflavored gelatin

1/2 cup hot water

a few drops of flavoring oil (optional) such as Lorann Peppermint Oil

Put 1/2 cup hot water in a small glass bowl. Sprinkle the packet of powdered gelatin over the top of the water. Let this sit for a few minutes to allow the gelatin to bloom. Use a small silicone spatula to stir and smear the remaining gelatin into the water. Microwave the bowl for ten seconds at a time if you need heat to help the process.

Pour the entire 2 pound bag of powdered sugar into the bowl of a stand mixer. Mix in one cup of cornstarch.

Run your stand mixer on the lowest speed, and slowly pour in the gelatin mixture. Use the spatula to scrape the last bit of gel out so you use absolutely all of it. Your mixer will start to struggle — turn it off. Notice that I used the paddle attachment, but I strongly recommend using the dough hook if you have one. Briefly turn the mixer to medium speed to create a rough dough.

There are two ways to keep the dough from sticking to the counter and your hands …. a dusting of cornstarch or thin film of white vegetable shortening. Before you remove the sugar dough, use one hand to spread a thin layer of Crisco over your counter. Leave the shortening and cornstarch standing by.

If you used the dough hook, by all means let your mixer do the kneeding. Otherwise, use a plastic scraper or the edge of a plastic spatula to scrape the dough out of the bowl and off the paddle. Drop the dough onto the greased counter. Grease your other hand, then knead the dough until it’s smooth and elastic. Add a little cornstarch if it’s too loose and a little water if it’s too stiff. Use the scraper to remove any dough that sticks to the counter.

This is the dough before kneading. See how rough it looks?

Here’s the dough after kneading. Nice and smooth.

Form the dough into a ball and cover it with a thin film of shortening. Wrap the dough tightly in plastic wrap. Air causes this dough to crust almost immediately. The shortening and plastic together form a double layer of protection.

Ideally, you should let the dough rest overnight.

But look at your counter! Why make the same mess twice? I cheat a little and color it immediately.

Color the Dough

Make a thick log of dough and slice it into six sections.

Remove the largest section, cover it with a thin layer of shortening, and wrap it tightly in plastic wrap. This will be your white dough. Cover the other sections tightly until you’re ready to color each one.

Starting with yellow and moving towards the darker colors, color sections yellow, orange, pink, green, and purple. If you can locate a roll of genuine Necco Wafers, use them to match the colors. I found this roll at a Fleet Farm in Wisconsin, and carted it 1300 miles home in my suitcase.

Cover the work surface and your hands with a thin layer of shortening. Use a toothpick to add paste food color to the dough and knead it in. Add small amounts of cornstarch to help keep the dough from sticking. Use a dough scraper or the edge of a pancake spatula to scrape the dough off the counter.

As you finish each color, cover the ball of dough with a thin layer of shortening, and wrap it tightly in plastic wrap. Wipe down the counter and scraper and wash your hands between each color.

*** Please note: the colors will fade as the dough dries. ***

***Make the dough several shades darker than you need for your finished wafer.***

This seems especially true for pink. The photo below compares the color of the damp ball of dough to the dried wafer.

On the other hand, orange seems not to lighten much at all so color your dough the almost same shade as a finished wafer.

Cut the Candy Wafers

Dust your surface lightly with cornstarch.

Start out with a ball of dough the size of a large egg. Roll it out to wafer candy thickness. As you roll and cut, you’ll see how quickly the dough crusts. In the photo below I had time to cut all eleven pink circles before the dough crusted.

Press the round cutter down, then press and turn the cutter to make a clean cut. As a bonus, rotating the cutter often lifts the wafer up — you can just tap the cutter to release the dough.

Strange as it sounds, I find it easier to push the discs up through the top of the cutter rather than out the bottom. I might cut two or three discs before tipping the cutter and letting the wafers fall out into my hand.

Transfer the discs onto a waxed paper covered cookie sheet. Make sure you’ve got them right-side up. The right side has a nicely rounded edge while the underside has a less appealing sharp edge.

Let the Candy Wafers Dry

Drying time depends on the relative humidity in your house. I live in a tropical climate, so I always place the candy wafers under the business end of a fan; ceiling or portable.

Look at the photo below. Three of the wafers are wrong-side up. Notice the darker, damp dough on the undersides? Even when the discs dry completely, the color can remain uneven.

Dry the wafers right-side up until the bottoms have crusted to maintain uniform, smooth colors. Test the underside of a wafer with your fingernail. If they’re dry enough to turn you won’t be able to scoop out slivers of dough.

The candy wafers below are not dry enough to turn!

When the bottoms are no longer damp, flip the discs or shuffle them randomly with a spatula to allow the backs to harden. And they will harden. These candy wafers dry rock hard, just like the originals. The complete drying process will take 24+ hours, depending on humidity.

When you gather up the dry wafers for storage, put them in a bowl or box loosely covered with a cloth. This allows any remaining dampness to evaporate.

The really great thing about these? Make them ahead of time — way ahead of time. Completely dry wafers last for months when stored in a cool dry place.

Kristine

Fiona’s Cottage – a St. Patrick’s Day Gingerbread House

June 8, 2015 by Kristine Leave a Comment

The first Shamrock Shack used only a small portion of the green candy stacked on our gingerbread bookcase (containing, not made of). Books do occupy the other bookcases, but these shelves houses candies, sprinkles, chocolates, and sugars in every color of the rainbow.

Again, again, and again, it rained. My fledgling photography skills demand natural light, and I had none. So the next sections contain only detailed photos with descriptions. I’ve had to add several links to tutorials elsewhere on The Gingerbread Journal for basics like icing work and assembly.

Fiona’s Gingerbread Cottage uses pieces from a gingerbread house kit. If you don’t have a kit handy, bake gingerbread pieces using the pattern for Anna’s House here.

For Royal Icing instructions, click here.

For Assembly Instructions, click here.

To see the tutorial for the first St. Patrick’s Day house, click on Shamrock Shack.

Decorate the Front of the House

I did take the time to color the royal icing brown. The brown color camouflages the bits of icing that squish out from under the candies. Small dots of white icing work also, but I prefer to firmly cement things in place with larger glops of brown. Shiny, smooth candies such as the gum balls need more icing than rough items like the gumdrop hearts.

Slice green marshmallow ropes into door-length sections and ice them in place.

Top the the door with a green gumdrop fruit slice.

Surround the door with green and white candies. Here I’ve used heart shaped gumdrops, green gum balls,white hearts, green beads from a candy necklace, metallic green dragees, and green and white sugar pearls.

Use white icing to attach four green, heart-shaped sprinkles (the shamrock) to a white candy wafer. Attach this to the marshmallow door.

Add the front window when you do the side windows.

Attach three green heart-shaped candies and a green metallic dragee over the window.

Decorate the Sides of the House

Use brown royal icing to attach a green foil-wrapped chocolate coin for the window.

Score a white candy wafer down the middle with a sharp knife. Snap it to break it into two half-circles.

Four green, heart-shaped sprinkles with the points together in the center form the small shamrocks on each shutter. Attach the sprinkles with white royal icing.

Use brown icing to attach the shutters on both sides of the window.

Decorate the Back of the House

Use brown royal icing to attach rainbows of candy across the back of the house.

You’ll need bigger dots of icing to attach anything smooth or shiny.

Slice the gumdrop fruit slices in half to make them thinner and lighter.

I found the small square gum pieces at Dollar Tree.

Let it Dry!!!

This “Let it Dry” instruction merits at least three exclamation points because we just attached relatively large, heavy candies. The icing must dry completely before you assemble the house.

Assemble the House

For Assembly Instructions, click here.

Score and break four green candy canes to the correct length to cover the joints of the four walls. Beware — humid air will dissolve candy canes into a sticky, gooey, mess. If you don’t want to gamble with the weather, leave the canes wrapped in the clear cellophane. Make absolutely certain that you warn the gingerbread house’s ultimate consumers that the inedible cello wrap is still there! You can attach the candy canes as you cement the four walls together, or attach them later when you add the roof or landscaping.

Let it Dry!!!

The structure, including the roof, must stand tall, strong, and dry before you add the weight of the M&M’s.

Tile the Roof

Starting at the bottom edge of one roof panel, use at generous amount of brown royal icing to attach green (mint) M&M’s in a straight line. Generally speaking, M&M’s make excellent roof tiles. These mint-flavored, green-colored chocolates however, aren’t identical. Their size and shape varies just enough to be annoying. I picked through my bag to gather the best of the lot, but as you can see above the tiles don’t line up well. When this blog makes it big, I’ll have to send a note along to the factory requesting “pretty” M&M’s. Do your best.

On the next row of shingles, offset each chocolate candy to stagger the lineup.

Continue to the top of the roof panel, then shingle the other side.

Cover the roof’s edges with green royal icing shells.

Add Landscaping

Surround the house with green spearmint leaves and gumdrops. Add gum balls for a dash of color.

Use green and gold foil-wrapped candies such as these to create trees.

Use a chocolate coin the for front doorstep.

Break the sticks off of two rainbow-colored, twirled lollipops and attach them on either side of the door.

Kristine

A Gingerbread House for St. Patrick’s Day – The Shamrock Shack

June 2, 2015 by Kristine Leave a Comment

When kids are around, there’s no day ending in ‘y’ that isn’t a good day for jokes or for candy. So before I show you how to make this green-and-rainbow Shamrock Shack, I’ll share the comedic bounty.

Why can’t you iron a four-leaf clover?

(Because you shouldn’t press your luck!)

How can you tell if a leprechaun is having a good time?

(He is Dublin over with laughter!)

What is Irish and left out on the lawn all summer?

(Paddy O’Furniture!)

Collect Green, Rainbow-Hued, and Gold Candy

Examine your Gingerbread House Kit pieces,

or Bake Your Own

Most factory baked gingerbread pieces have mechanically embossed windows and doors. If you prefer to start with a clean slate, simply turn the pieces over and decorate the wrong sides.

A word of warning – -please take the pre-made icing and put it directly into the trash bin. I’ve found the industrial icing doesn’t dry well.

If you prefer to bake your own gingerbread, use the template for Anna’s House here or under the Patterns tab at the top of the page.

Find a Base

The cake plate under my Shamrock Shack has upturned glass edges, so I added an overturned glass relish dish to the top of the plate. This lifts the gingerbread house above the plate’s raised edges, adds height to the scene, and lends a smooth curve to the surrounding lawn. Use low-temp hot glue to join the relish dish and cake plate. When you’re finished displaying the house, it’s a simple matter to peel away the glue.

Make Royal Icing

To save some time, I’m going to direct you to a royal icing recipe and tutorial from Marian of Sweetopia.

Click here for royal icing recipes on www.sweetopia.net.

You can see some of Marian’s fantastic-amazing-astounding gingerbread houses here.

You’ll want to make two consistencies of icing. Use medium thick icing to attach candy. Use thick icing as cement to join the four walls and roof of the house.

Load a disposable decorating bag with medium thick white icing, and prepare to decorate! Cut a small bit from the end of the bag to create a small hole. To prevent the seam of the plastic bag from interfering, trim a small slice away from the end as in the photo below.

Note: Often, I use brown icing to attach candy to brown gingerbread. The excess that squeezes out shows less if its color matches the underlying cookie. You can do this too – use brown and a touch of egg yellow paste or gel food coloring.

Decorate the Front of the House

Unfortunately, this tutorial has no step-by-step photos. It’s rained for days, and days, and days. I’ve given up on getting sufficient light during assembly for photographs. You’ll see that I resorted to photos in the backyard during a break in the clouds to capture the finished houses. Instead, let’s look at close-ups of each house panel.

Pipe a rectangle of white royal icing for the front door and cover it with sanding or table sugar.

Edge the door with a rainbow of large confetti sprinkles.

Arrange green candy corn pieces into a half-circle above the door. Ice a green confetti sprinkle and green dragee in it’s center.

Ice a green gumdrop heart on the door and add a green dragee for the doorknob.

Arrange white gum squares into a window.

Position sections of twisted marshmallow ropes on either side for shutters. Embellish the window with green sugar pearls and candy hearts.

Cut a green gumdrop fruit slice in half (to thin it). Cut sections of the front apart into individual hearts with two lobes each. Position four of these hearts to form a shamrock. Trim a thin length of green fruit slice and use this for a stem.

Decorate the Sides of the House

Arrange white gum squares into a window.

Position sections of twisted marshmallow ropes on either side for shutters. Embellish the window with green sugar pearls and candy hearts.

Decorate the Back of the House

Use white royal icing to attach rainbow colored jellybeans to form a fireplace and chimney.

Make shamrocks with green gumdrop hearts or with green fruit slices (as you did for the front of the house).

Let it Dry

Let the décor on your four walls dry thoroughly before you assemble the house.

Assemble the House

I’ll to direct you to my Valentine’s Day House Tutorial, Part 2 for assembly instructions.

The dimensions and methods with both houses are identical.

Let it Dry

Make certain that the four walls and then the roof have dried completely before you decorate the roof.

Decorate the Roof

Use a sharp knife and cutting board to split each fruit slice candy in half. The thinner fruit slices add less weight to the roof and look more in scale with the size of the house.

Spread a thin layer of medium consistency white royal icing on one side of the roof. Smooth the icing carefully with a long knife or spatula. Try to maintain a consistent thickness of the icing layer. Your goal is to add only enough icing to cover the brown cookie completely. Extra icing will bulge out from under the fruit slices.

Press the fruit slices into the roof in lines. Use the same light pressure to attach each candy.

Repeat to cover the other side of the roof.

Outline the roof’s edges with white royal icing shells, zigzags, stars, or dots.

Add the Landscaping

Break the stick off of a rainbow colored lollipop and attach the lolly as a front doorstep.

Surround the house with green gumdrops, spearmint leaves, and gum balls.

Working in small sections, pipe green royal icing stars around the house to cover the overturned relish dish. Immediately add confetti sprinkles before the icing crusts. Push gum balls into the bottommost ring of stars so they rest where the relish dish and cake plate meet.

Turn over two gold foil wrapped Rolo candies so they resemble flowerpots. Pipe a star of green icing and push in a large flower candy. Put one on each side of the door.

Kristine

Valentine’s Day Gingerbread Houses, A Collection …..

May 9, 2015 by Kristine Leave a Comment

Around the beginning of February, our household emerges from the mad rush of Winter Holidays. Instead of thinking, “Eleven more months until Christmas,” I’m usually itching to make another gingerbread house – or six (insert an audible sigh here from The Husband).

And ……luckily for me, this is exactly when our neighborhood elementary school has its major fundraiser each year. Games, a chili cook-off, and an auction all funnel money towards a wish list (a needs list, really) the teachers themselves compile, and to PTA programs that enrich our school and community.

So,

My gingerbread fascination transforms icing and cookies into four-square balls, math manipulatives or books for the literacy lab.

Fundraisers take note: people do spend money on Valentine’s Day. It can be an expensive holiday. They could buy flowers from a national chain, stuffed animals sewn in China, or Home-Baked Love that comes straight from your kitchen. I’d rather have that money go to the schools!

Here are some Valentine’s Day Creations from years past.

A Sweet House for Your Sweet Heart – A Gingerbread House for Valentine’s Day,Part 2

May 8, 2015 by Kristine Leave a Comment

Building a Gingerbread House for Valentine’s Day, Part 2

Welcome back, it’s time to build!

If you haven’t already, click on Part 1 to see the first half of this tutorial where we decorate the four walls of the gingerbread house.

Question: Is the icing on your gingerbread house front, back and two sides completely dry?

If so, it’s time to build.

Assemble the Gingerbread House

You now have four gingerbread house pieces, lying flat, artfully encrusted with candy.

To cement these four walls together, you’ll need stable, thick royal icing.

So, how thick is thick?

The icing should support a spoon as in the photo below while still being loose enough to squeeze through a decorating bag.

Click here to visit a wonderful royal icing recipe / tutorial from the incomparable

Marian of Sweetopia.net.

While you’re in Sweetopia, don’t miss Marian’s fabulous gingerbread houses; click here for a link.

Load the royal icing into a disposable decorating bag, and cut a medium-sized bit from the end. You’ll want to squeeze out lines of icing roughly the size of your pinky finger.

Locate a coffee cup that can help support the walls from the inside.

Estimate the size and placement of the four walls, and pipe the outline on the plate. In the photo, I’ve only piped icing for three of the walls because we’ll add icing to the last one as we put it in place.

Lay down a placemat or soft towel, and gather your walls. They should be completely dry. Turn over the back panel of your house and lay it gently on the towel. The extra padding cushions your candies, icing, and décor. Don’t worry if a tasty tidbit should pop off. You can reattach it later.

Pipe a line of thick, white royal icing down both of the sides.

Set the back panel into the icing on the base, and press it down firmly. Use the coffee cup to help you support the wrong side of the cookie. Press a side panel into place on the base and against the line of icing connecting it to the back. Add the second side panel. If you need additional support on the outside of the house, use small cans of tomato paste or condensed milk. If you have strong, thick, stable royal icing the cans are unnecessary.

Now you have a three-sided house.

Pipe a thick line of white icing on the base. Pipe two thick lines down both sides of the front panel (just as with the back) and press the front into place.

Adjust the alignment of the four walls, and finesse it into the proper square shape complete with right angles in every corner. Remove the coffee cup.

As you can see in the photo, there will be white icing squeezing out everywhere. This is good! You need plenty of icing to act as your house’s mortar. If you think there might not be enough mortar, squeeze some extra icing on the house’s interior joints.

If you wish to tidy up the visible joints, wait five minutes then use your fingers or the tip of a knife to coax off the rinds of excess icing.

Embellish the Corners

Cut swirled marshmallow canes in half lengthwise.

Pipe white icing onto each corner joint and press in two marshmallows to cover the joint.

Let the House Dry at Least 30 Minutes

And it never hurts to wait longer!

Put your feet up, relax, eat bonbons, lose yourself in a really good book, arrange tickets to your vacation home in Bali, you know ……. the stuff all moms do at midnight or when the kids are in school.

Attach the Roof

Pipe large zigzags of icing along the roof angles of the house. Press one and then the other roof panel into the icing. Press or support the roof panels for 30 seconds to make certain they don’t slide. Pipe a line of icing along the roof ridge to cement one roof panel to the other.

Allow the House to Dry Completely

OR

Add Landscaping

Let the royal icing ‘cement’ dry so the house is solid before you add any candy to the roof.

If you’d like to continue decorating, it’s fine to skip ahead to landscaping.

Use white royal icing to attach

gumdrop shrubs and spearmint-leaf trees,

a pink, fruit-slice candy walkway, and

pink gumdrop fences on either side of the walkway.

Decorate the Roof

The roof is my favorite part! You have so many candy roof tiles from which to choose.

You’ll notice that I couldn’t decide on just one candy, so I made one roof with pastel conversation hearts and one with non-pareil covered chocolate discs.

Use medium dots of royal icing to attach the shingles. Use brown icing with the conversation hearts if you wish to camouflage the excess that squeezes out from under each candy.

Notice that while the conversation hearts march up the roof in neat lines, every other row of chocolate discs starts and ends with a half-disc. This offsets the rows for a scalloped look.

To make the halves, score the back (chocolate side) of each disc with a sharp knife. Then snap the disc in two. You may need extra halves to finish up the last top row at the roof ridge.

You can add height and flare to your house by lining the roof ridge with candy.

Trim the edges of the roof with sprinkles, sugar pearls, tiny M&M’s, sixlets, beads from a candy necklace, or any other small bits of colorful sugar. You can also pipe a simple shell, dot, or star border with royal icing.

Kristine

A Sweet House for your Sweet Heart – a Gingerbread House for Your Valentine, Part 1

May 6, 2015 by Kristine Leave a Comment

Shortly after the New Year, brightly colored Valentine’s Day candy appears on store shelves.

If you’re in luck, the Christmas goods are still on clearance.

I found several types of factory-made gingerbread house kits at 75% off and the thought hit me, why not use them for Valentine’s Day houses? Yes, they do taste like cardboard, but for $2.50 and zero baking time, the kids can enjoy the charm of a quaint little Valentine’s Day cottage and eat only the candy that adorns it. If you prefer to bake your own gingerbread, use the template for Anna’s House here or under the Patterns tab at the top of the page.

Examine Your Kit

Most factory baked gingerbread pieces have mechanically embossed windows and doors. If you prefer to start with a clean slate, simply turn the pieces over and decorate the wrong sides. The cookies below have a striated pattern that resembles boards or logs.

A word of warning – -please take the pre-made icing and put it directly into the trash bin. I’ve found the industrial icing doesn’t dry well.

Find a base

A cake stand, overturned plate or baking dish, or foil-covered cutting board all make great bases. The one base I never use is the flimsy plastic contraption included with the gingerbread house kit. It’s an insecure platform on which to mount your masterpiece.

Make Royal Icing

To save some time, I’m going to direct you to a royal icing recipe and tutorial from Marian of Sweetopia.

Click here for royal icing recipes on www.sweetopia.net.

You can see some of Marian’s fantastic-amazing-astounding gingerbread houses here.

You’ll want to make two consistencies of icing. Use medium thick icing to attach candy. Use thick icing as cement to join the four walls and roof of the house.

Create the Window Boxes

Cut a green tootsie roll into three sections. Roll and squeeze each section into a rectangular shape, and press in some flower-shaped sprinkles.

Create Windows and Shutters

Use a sharp knife to split square, yellow gumdrop candies. This makes the windows thinner and lighter. Cut yellow-striped gum sticks into the proper size for shutters.

Decorate the front

Join two pink wafer cookies with icing and attach them as a door.

Pipe small dots of white icing and attach flat white mints (or white candy necklace beads) around the door.

Attach three red candy hearts above the door. I did switch to brown icing so the excess wouldn’t show. Larger dots of icing hold the candies more securely, and brown icing lets you do that and still appear tidy.

Attach a large red marshmallow heart over the door.

Attach a white heart to a pink candy wafer, and place this on the door. Use a pink heart sprinkle with a pink dragee for the doorknob.

Use white icing to attach the two yellow jelly windows on either side of the door.

Split two pink fruit slice candies in half with a knife (to make them thinner), and attach the front portions over the top of each window.

Tip: White icing behind the semi-translucent candy helps the light reflect through them and builds brighter colors.

If you wish, switch back to brown icing, and attach the gum-stick shutters on each side of the windows. You may need, as I did, to cut these shutters slightly more narrow to fit the front windows.

Attach the tootsie roll and flower window boxes under each window.

Decorate the Sides

Attach the windows, shutters, pink fruit slices, and window boxes to the side gingerbread panels.

Decorate the Back

Create flowers with an assortment of small candies to cover the back of the house.

Let it all Dry

Let the décor on your four walls dry thoroughly before you assemble the house.

I’ll see you again on Part 2!

Kristine

The Great Gingerbread House Question

December 27, 2014 by Kristine 1 Comment

“That’s beautiful! Can we eat it?”

This question echos through every Christmas in my memory. Mom made so many gingerbread houses. After oooohing and aaahhhing, each family would ask the same question.

“That’s beautiful! Can we eat it?”

“Of course you can,” Mom would gush modestly, “Enjoy!”

Why Blog About Gingerbread Houses?

My mother’s gingerbread artistry graced our home for decades, and I still consider making gingerbread houses one of my favorite parts of Christmas. As a child, I snipped photos of gingerbread houses from magazines and pasted them into notebooks. Now I marvel over (and Pin) the masterpieces that so many generous sugar artists share on the Internet.

I think about gingerbread houses often. Too often, if you ask my family. I browse the web for new ideas. I google contest names to see the entries. I make houses for gifts and fundraisers throughout the year. I periodically find myself with a gingerbread idea and struggle to find a suitable recipient.

“I wish I could come over and see how you do this,” people say, but of course the magic happens in many steps over a number of days.

Only moments ago (pause to wipe flour from forehead) I finished writing a book about gingerbread houses. Though the book itself has been swaddled in brown paper, tied with a red string, and sent merrily off to the publisher, my mind still teems with ideas. Our living room teems with boxes of leftover candy. Though The Family points out that leftover candy beats leftover meatloaf, you can imagine the scene.

So,

Armed with a list of potential projects and a cornucopia of sweets, I’m off on a mission to share what I’ve learned with all of the other gingerbread nuts out there.

Plan for The Gingerbread Journal

The Gingerbread Journal will inspire your imagination with creative designs, dazzle you with gorgeous photos, respect your time with concise instructions, and share amazing gingerbread creations from across the globe.

Share Photos of My Gingerbread Houses

I can’t wait to post photos of new ideas! Until then, I’ll put photos from Holidays Past in the gallery.

Share Gingerbread House Tutorials

I want to lead you through the steps of creating your own sweet masterpiece. I’ll also link you up with tutorials and templates from other gingerbread builders.

Share New Designs for Christmas and Other Holidays

Although Christmas is the traditional time for gingerbread, cookie houses bring just as much joy in the Spring, Summer, and Fall. If you’re like me, you can carve out more time then anyway. Valentine’s Day, Easter, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, the Fourth of July, Halloween, and birthday celebrations are all great times for gingerbread.

Provide Quick Access to the Gingerbread Creations of Others

The Gingerbread Journal will introduce you to some pretty amazing sugar artists who generously post photos of their own gingerbread gems. There is so much talent, creativity, and skill on display. These bakers have websites and blogs that will knock your gumdrops off!

I’ll also share the fruits of my Pinterest passion with thousands of links to gingerbread houses of every size, shape, and season. 56 boards (and counting) organize photos by the type of design — gingerbread bird houses, gingerbread cuckoo clocks, and lighted gingerbread houses to name just a few.

Introduce My Book

I’ve always had a hard time keeping secrets, and A Year of Gingerbread Houses is no exception. It will be on booksellers’ shelves (storefront and online) in September. An editor at Lark Crafts (a division of Sterling Publishing which is a subsidiary of Barnes & Noble) noticed my work on Flickr. She asked me to write a book! Isn’t that incredible?

If you love gingerbread, you’ve come to the right place.

Kristine