Here it is: my first gingerbread house! I've made plenty of gingerbread men and gingerbread cupcakes but no house, until now! My BFF Donna bought me a clever kit with pre-baked gingerbread pieces and all the icing, candy and little plastic figurines to create a fun and easy gingerbread house without all the hassle. Yeah, right! I make mistakes ALL the time, and boy did i make a big one on this house! I sketched out my design on the computer and printed it out. Then i transfered my design to all the pieces with a sharp paperclip. Next i mixed up my royal icing mix and piped the whole thing out... the problem was that i used the roof pieces for the "walls" and wall pieces for the "roof" – ugh!!!
So my dad said the only way to fix it was to bake up new side walls and roof pieces to match my large size walls! I have never baked a gingerbread house before but i found this recipe for gingerbread and went for it. My dad made templates out of cardboard that proportionately fit with the odd sized walls. Everything baked up great and fit together fine! I used some white edible glitter on the snow to make it glisten. Powdered sugar lightly sifted over the roof created a snow dusted look. The only inedible thing on the house is the wreath. I snipped a piece of greenery off a fake pine tree and bent it into a circle. I glued it to the door with a big blob of royal icing and put little royal icing dots on top and finished with a sprinkle of edible glitter. My mistake turned into a good learning experience and i think i looks pretty good. If i can do it, anyone can do it - just go for it!! Enjoy!
So my dad said the only way to fix it was to bake up new side walls and roof pieces to match my large size walls! I have never baked a gingerbread house before but i found this recipe for gingerbread and went for it. My dad made templates out of cardboard that proportionately fit with the odd sized walls. Everything baked up great and fit together fine! I used some white edible glitter on the snow to make it glisten. Powdered sugar lightly sifted over the roof created a snow dusted look. The only inedible thing on the house is the wreath. I snipped a piece of greenery off a fake pine tree and bent it into a circle. I glued it to the door with a big blob of royal icing and put little royal icing dots on top and finished with a sprinkle of edible glitter. My mistake turned into a good learning experience and i think i looks pretty good. If i can do it, anyone can do it - just go for it!! Enjoy!
OMG how good!
Posted by: Trin | 12/20/2008 at 04:38 PM
[ci buono] Hey girlfriend,I can't believe you actually did the house! It looks fabulous! I shared it with the gals in the office, and they were amazed, said it was the prettiest one they've seen! Its very elegant and I love it all in white! Did you eat the spice drops and licorice or was it too old? Your dad amazes me, he should be named Mc Giver.Your BFF
Posted by: Donna Dee | 12/18/2008 at 01:41 AM
LOL - seriously, those pieces look identical but are, what, 1/2" different in size? Just enough to escape visual notice.At least you went about redoing your structure. I'd have just built a crazy lopsided house... maybe broken a wall just for sport!
Posted by: LeendaDLL | 12/15/2008 at 04:49 PM
LeendaDLL- Thank you SO MUCH for letting me know that i'm not the only one!!! I felt like such a loser after i used the roof for walls! Ack!
Posted by: anna | 12/15/2008 at 02:29 PM
ya know, they really ought to imprint ROOF on those pieces - a friend and I had a similar problem with a kit. Luckily, we figured it out before we'd put on much icing. Then we each decorating a side. It ended up looking like it was done by a schizophrenic 2 year old.... but that was the general outcome of most of our holiday craft sessions so we were proud of ourselves.Yours is BEEEAUTIFUL!
Posted by: LeendaDLL | 12/14/2008 at 07:44 PM
Beautiful! Your GH would so go with my Christmas theme. It came out so elegant, display it proudly.
Posted by: Steffy | 12/14/2008 at 09:06 AM
Oh, it's gorgeous!
Posted by: TheFiercestCalm | 12/14/2008 at 07:36 AM
Oh, how lovely! I've always wanted to build one myself.
Posted by: dearbarbz | 12/14/2008 at 07:04 AM