Gingerbread Time of Year!

Cottage by the Sea

This year’s gingerbread house competition subject was “Cottage/Camp”.  I decided to recreate the first beach house that I stayed in.  Of course it doesn’t look exactly like the real one, but it’s close and I love it.  It’s not very Christmas-y but it has a bit of charm.

I sketched the house first, then figured out how I needed to lay it out and how big it could be to pack the most pow and also, to be sturdy enough to withstand driving it from point A to point B.  One I figured it out I had my boyfriend secure a base, cut it to size and drill a hole in the bottom so I could snake a light up through.

I made my gingerbread from a recipe that I’ve used for a couple years now.  It makes a good strong cookie.  I got the recipe from a gingerbread house workshop I attended.  If you are at all leary about building your own house, but you want to do it, I suggest an afternoon (or morning!) workshop.  Check your local Chamber of Commerce to see if there is one.  If not, suggest they schedule one.  Someone in your community is an expert.

I cut out the windows and doors and used Jolly ranchers (hammered in a plastic bag) the last four minutes of baking time to create a colorful façade.  I set the house up a little bit higher than level using a pan of rice crispy treats.  I made them without butter so they would be harder and hold the weight of the house.  I covered the sides of the house before I put them up – because it’s easier to do siding that way.  Then I ran the knife across it to look like wood planks.

The sand is ground up rice crispies and brown sugar stuck to icing.  The ocean is hard candy.  I pulled it out of the cookie sheet just before it was totally cooled.  It gave it a look of movement – which was totally unexpected, but totally welcomed!

I hope you like it!  Comments & questions are always welcomed – and encouraged.  Remember – it’s not too late to make your own gingerbread house!

Gingerbread Houses

Recently, for a contest, the kids and I and my significant other, made gingerbread houses for a local contest.  They made a house last year just for fun and then got to eat it.  They did such a great job for first timers that I thought they should do the contest this year.  When I asked them they jumped at the chance. 

The kids decorated a regular house with candy they helped pick out.  They used laffy taffy softened in the microwave for a front door and pretzels for a fence.    I taught them how to make a snowman out of the cement frosting and powdered sugar.  They got right into it, each kid taking a side of the house and working independently from each other.  It was fun listening to them chatter while they worked. 

Gaige wanted to quit after a while and when he finished his roof I told him he could.  Hannah took over from there.  She’s our little bohemian artist.  We know someday she will be running around barefoot selling her paintings while living off the land with like-minded friends.  When it was finished it was the sweetest little gingerbread house ever!

 

 

As for me and D, we chose to create a local landmark, our hometown corner store.  It has been around since forever, just under different management for different uses.  As soon as I heard about the landmark theme of the contest I thought of this place and knew we could make it.  As with any gingerbread house I have ever made, and there’s been quite a few, trial and error is a huge part of it, with error being easily erased with frosting!

Ever since I finally received my amazing KitchenAid mixer for Christmas several years ago from my fantastic boyfriend, making the dough and icing has been a pleasure!  I used to hate making it with a regular mixer because the dough is just too hard to maneuver and the icing takes forever!  Hence, two batches of gingerbread and four batches of icing this year – with a smile!

D has never made a gingerbread house before, much less helped, so he really got into it.  He rolled out the dough and cut along the pattern I made.  After everything was baked and cooled I frosted the walls, trying to make them look like smooth cinder blocks (didn’t work), and set up the building.  D wanted to make the air pump on the side of the building so while he did that I made the sign and secured the steps.  When it was done he decided it needed the gas pump and that pulled the whole thing together. 

I love how it turned out!  D was all hyped up about how great it looked and how we would win but I warned him that we were amateurs compared to others who entered the contest, so just feel good about the job we did.  When we dropped the houses off yesterday and he looked around at some of the other entries he started seeing what I was talking about.  I think we have the best little houses ever, no one can tell me different, and there is no need for a prize to make that so.

 

 

I’d love to know if anyone else out there does gingerbread houses and what some of their favorite ones were and what they looked like.  Please share!