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redblaze's lament over a gingerbread house kit last week, here's the recipe I've been successfully using for years.
The gingerbread in this is different to the sort you get in shops. This is much heavier. I suspect this is in fact real gingerbread. Fresh out of the oven it goes rock hard, but softens in the air over a few days. So it's best made a few days before Christmas. Plus then the wonderful smell permeates the house and makes it smell really christmassy!
The recipe says to let it cool a bit before cutting it, but I have found even waiting that long makes the edges too hard to cut. I always lightly scribe the pattern into the gingerbread with a sharp knife just before I put the tray into the oven. Then I cut to those lines as soon as I take it out.
You can NOT use frosting to 'glue' these houses together. You have to use Royal Icing, which goes rock hard and holds it all together very nicely. I have found (depending on the size of the house; little ones are not as much of a problem) that when you stick the roof panels on, they need to be chocked up from the bottom edge until the icing sets, or their own weight makes them slide off. I tend to use gingerbread scraps for this as the distance between the 'ground' and the roof edge can vary. I also like to leave the roof to set overnight. That way I can be sure it won't suddenly slide off when I glue the chimney on and put the finishing touches of icing and lollies along the ridge.
Here are some of the cakes I've made over the years-
This was a church I made for my kids school. (complete with jellybaby parishoners! ;~) )
After a few yrs making houses, I got bored and decided to make Rudolph and the sleigh instead!
And it's not just limited to gingerbread houses. I've made lots of different styles for my kids birthdays, including Rugrats, Are Real Monsters, Superman, Batman, Sesame Street and this Godzilla one -
I even made a Stonehenge for Halloween 2004! :~D
One year I did small(er) houses as gifts. That was some production, I can tell you! Unsurprisingly I ran out of space to house the bloody things and ended up with an entire village on my kitchen table!
You can see the sorts of lollies I use here -
I often fill the empty space inside the house with sweets as well; specially if the house is a gift. I did have a notion to make the Ark of the Covenant (a`la Raiders of the Lost Ark) one year, and fill it full of snakes, but decided it probably wasn't appropriate for Christmas. Heh.
Anyway, on to the recipe!
Hope you enjoy it! :~)
redblaze's lament over a gingerbread house kit last week, here's the recipe I've been successfully using for years.The gingerbread in this is different to the sort you get in shops. This is much heavier. I suspect this is in fact real gingerbread. Fresh out of the oven it goes rock hard, but softens in the air over a few days. So it's best made a few days before Christmas. Plus then the wonderful smell permeates the house and makes it smell really christmassy!
The recipe says to let it cool a bit before cutting it, but I have found even waiting that long makes the edges too hard to cut. I always lightly scribe the pattern into the gingerbread with a sharp knife just before I put the tray into the oven. Then I cut to those lines as soon as I take it out.
You can NOT use frosting to 'glue' these houses together. You have to use Royal Icing, which goes rock hard and holds it all together very nicely. I have found (depending on the size of the house; little ones are not as much of a problem) that when you stick the roof panels on, they need to be chocked up from the bottom edge until the icing sets, or their own weight makes them slide off. I tend to use gingerbread scraps for this as the distance between the 'ground' and the roof edge can vary. I also like to leave the roof to set overnight. That way I can be sure it won't suddenly slide off when I glue the chimney on and put the finishing touches of icing and lollies along the ridge.
Here are some of the cakes I've made over the years-
This was a church I made for my kids school. (complete with jellybaby parishoners! ;~) )
After a few yrs making houses, I got bored and decided to make Rudolph and the sleigh instead!
And it's not just limited to gingerbread houses. I've made lots of different styles for my kids birthdays, including Rugrats, Are Real Monsters, Superman, Batman, Sesame Street and this Godzilla one -
I even made a Stonehenge for Halloween 2004! :~D
One year I did small(er) houses as gifts. That was some production, I can tell you! Unsurprisingly I ran out of space to house the bloody things and ended up with an entire village on my kitchen table!
You can see the sorts of lollies I use here -
I often fill the empty space inside the house with sweets as well; specially if the house is a gift. I did have a notion to make the Ark of the Covenant (a`la Raiders of the Lost Ark) one year, and fill it full of snakes, but decided it probably wasn't appropriate for Christmas. Heh.
Anyway, on to the recipe!
Hope you enjoy it! :~)
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