Building houses-Gingerbread style

Gingerbread House = Almost an epic fail.

Here it is - our first not so emazing Gingerbread House... Note the cute little mail box J made.

I woke up on Christmas eve with this wise idea that I would make a gingerbread house (as if I had nothing better to do on my first day of holidays).  After some sweet talking of my partner, consulting my nanna for any tips (only to learn that she had never made one) and quickly “googeling” recipes and templates (which my Nanna had no idea that you could actually do); away we went.  What we learnt very early on is that the design is the key, not necessarily the batter itself and that the design actually takes some calculated thought and even a ruler (which my mother rushed to save me with one). 

The batter we used was quite simple (see attached) http://emazinglysweet.blogspot.com/2012/02/gingerbread-recipe.html. 

However when making the gingerbread house ensure that you have all the templates stencilled correctly and that when using this stencil you ensure that the batter goes over a little bit so that it can be accurately cut later once the biscuit as cooled.  This method (which is not one that I used) will ensure you do not have massive big gaps in your wall requiring you to use off cuts of cookies to “reinforce” shall we say the house.  After realizing that we had cut too many templates, we had just enough batter but we didn’t allow for a roof pitch (as we had not idea what that was) we decided to just try and build it without decorating first.  Not a wise idea. 

We used royal icing that we made (see attached recipe)  as the glue and a number of tins of food to try and stabilise it.  We got it together somehow (and probably with too much icing) and then realized the complexity of decorating the house whilst it was standing.  For example, and for everyone’s entertainment, this involved trying to go against gravity and putting sprinkles on a wall of a built house by flicking sprinkles with a spoon (almost like catapulting them at the house) and hoping they stick (which then involved vacuuming up sprinkles from throughout the house).

My tips would be don’t wake up all ‘inspired’ on Christmas Eve to make a gingerbread house without checking:

Make sure you cut the windows out first!

a)     that you have a ruler to measure the template with or a mother near by to bring you one;
b)    all of the ingredients (or again a mother who will bring you that extra cup of brown sugar);
c)     ensure you have the required amount of lollies rather than whatever was hidden in the house on the day;
d)    learn about pitches of houses or ask someone who knows what they are and there purpose to ensure that you have a design that will actually stand;
e)     overlap the batter to ensure so that you can cut them to an accurate size later as this will prevent massive gaping holes in your house;
f)     don’t think it will take an hour or two to whip up as J and I ended up spending six hours doing this; and
g)    don’t document any of this if it ever happens to you J

In then end this was the product – maybe we could call it a haunted gingerbread house.  However – it tasted absolutely fabulous as I continued to munch on it for days after! It was a great addition to the Christmas table and my partner and I actually had lots of fun making it, he even wants to design this year’s one (key word “design”).  My family enjoyed sneaking as many lollies off of it as they could throughout the day without making it collapse, my brother enjoyed smashing it and it was hilarious to see everyone laughing as the numerous tins of odd food were revealed from its inside.  There in those moments was the joy in making everyone’s Christmas emazingly sweet.

Note gaping holes in the wall :)