Helps to Make the Season Bright
I'm baking today and just did battle with a gingerbread house. Next year when the kid talks me into making a gingerbread house, someone please beat me with a bag of gingerbread house icing. Being as the icing feels like a boudin, weighs more than El Salvador and adheres to exactly nothing, that should remind me.
I've got a blog in me, but it comes after the baking. And then the drinking to forget the baking. See you in a couple of days.
I've got a blog in me, but it comes after the baking. And then the drinking to forget the baking. See you in a couple of days.
posted by Unknown at 1:29 PM
15 Comments:
Uh-oh. I've got to make TEN gingerbread houses for my daughter's friends to decorate at her fifth birthday party on Saturday. That'll be a beating I won't forget.
I highly recommend those already put together wilton houses you can buy at tj maxx and marshalls for not too much. Last year we had one that was already baked and we just had to glue it together (which I did a lousy job of) but this year I went for the preassembled one. Way better. My daughter is much younger than yours too, so her patience for these things is pretty limited.
The closest I've come to that in years is eating a gingerbread pop tart. Sounds like quite an experience. I can just visualize it from the description. haha
I hopped on over after not checking on my Twitter feed (must break the habit), and a mini blog is still appreciated. :-)
Nancy - Have you considered using graham crackers held together by cream cheese, with canned frosting as the base for the sprinkles, etc.?
This year I tackled a gingerbread house with two three-year olds. I used marshmallows melted in the microwave with a touch of milk instead of Royal Icing. Worked kind-a well, super sticky but you have to move fast to use it up before it sets up, plus it is way messy. IF you add powdered sugar it might have been less stringy, anyways if you ever get sucked into it again you now have icing Options.
Why does anyone want a gingerbread house?
I've made gingerbread houses with my nieces and nephews and it's all about the icing. If it's not right then the fun project is a chore.
Sara J -- it's not about having the house, it's all about the fun of decorating it with little kids and watching their imaginations go wild.
At least that's the reason I have done the houses.
We make 'em every year with graham crackers. Now that I've discovered powdered egg whites (by Wilton), my icing is super fantastic and appropriately sticky. Try it next time! (Our first year the whole gingerbread neighborhood collapsed and fell into the icing lava flow!)
Why does anyone want the house? Because they make a hilarious display and great memories!
perhaps mix a bit of Gorilla Glue in with the icing? It'll still be stuck together long after your own house has returned to the earth.
May the Force be with you...
I ditched the gingerbread and make rice-krispy treat houses instead. Those "walls" are super sturdy and are just as much fun to decorate. Plus I think they taste better once you eat them!
Anon 3:58, you triggered an "ah-ha!" moment. Marshmallow fondant is easy to make and is, basically, food Play-Doh. I bet it would work really well as mortar or a base for sprinkles. Here's the recipe I've used:
http://whatscookingamerica.net/PegW/Fondant.htm
I watched a gingerbread house competition on the Food Network a few days ago. Magnificent! Old Victorian houses, town squares, carousels (that actually spun), etc.
These folks train for this event.
I can barely get my presents wrapped in time to be opened Christmas morning. It's not unusual for the tape to still be warm as the recipient is ripping the paper.
Merry Christmas!
Get some little milk or cream cartons (the school lunch size) graham crackers, paper plates and a bunch of candy. Use the milk carton as a base, ice it to the paper plate, stick the walls and roof on and decorate with candies. That's fun.
One year I made the one from the cover of the Time-Life Cooking of German Cookbook, from lebkuchen and windows made of "Stained Glass" cookies. It was NOT fun. We fed it to the bears at the zoo (you could do things like that back then) a few months later.
Quinn,
Try a sugar-cube house, with iceing mortar. You can save it for years, one year's pain thus becoming next year's fond memory.
Thos
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