December 15, 2008

Gingerbread House Made with Love



About a week ago, TLMM used a pattern from a web site called Gingerbread Lane to make the parts for a gingerbread house.   This weekend, we assembled and decorated it!  


Icing (mortar):

1 box confectioner's sugar
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
3 egg whites


Put in mixer and mix on high speed for seven minutes.


Yes- seven minutes and then you have very thick icing ready to be piped on to the house sections to assemble!  We bought a piece of foam core at the office store to build the house on.  


Put 1/2 a cup at a time in a decorating bag.  


First, assemble walls, using the icing as glue inside and out.




Put on foam core and then use icing to secure.  Let the walls dry for 1/2 an hour or so until the icing hardens.  It has to be dry to make it stable enough to hold the roof.


Time for the roof.  Let it all dry for an hour before continuing to decorate.


We used a variety of candies to decorate!  Green and red M&M's, Nilla Wafers, Licorice, Gumdrops, pretzels (sticks- thin and thick), peppermints, spearmint leaves, coconut...


Icing the top of the roof covers mistakes which you will have no matter how good you are at building, it also makes the gingerbread house look snow-covered.


Building the fence!



Fence close-up.  Just have fun decorating using all the candy you want!  The decorating is the fun part.  Building it takes time and patience, but it was all worth it.  So check out the Gingerbread Lane website for the gingerbread recipes and more house designs, templates and ideas.   This was challenging, even for us adults- but also a lot of fun...and the eggs.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Your gingerbread house looks really awesome. You both did a great job.

C

Anonymous said...

Wish that I were there to help! This looks fabulous.
(: