Gingerbread House

December 07, 2016

This is an updated post....

In 2009, my daughter  and I decided to do something different for Christmas that year.
We took upon ourselves a challenge to build a Gingerbread House.

making Gingerbread house
 
We started our Mega project, with a piece of graph paper, scale rule and pencil.
With vision of how the end product would look like, from measurements, drawing lines to finally cut out the template.
dimensions
Once that was done, the trickier part soon to start...

Baking the components.. and to make sure they do not crumble or baked out of shape!


baking Gingerbread house
Since this is an updated old post, I shall leave the text as I wrote 7 years ago as to reflect what was going on at that time.
Memories of good old days spending time with my daughter, sad to say that doesn't happen very often nowadays, she grew up and has gazillion things to do :(


Gingerbread house window with pretzel


"I baked the components to build the gingerbread house on Friday...hahaha alas...some 'engineering' required in my kitchen....never thought, it'll be of any use... after many years of 'not working and hiding my career' in the closet!!
My first mix for the gingerbread house (adapted from Fun Cakes by Ann Nicol) was a disaster... it shrunk after the fourth 'house component'... hence... my gingerbread house will sure 'tumble' or be like leaning Tower of Pisa....

Oh dear!!.. panic and frantic...I have no other choice but to look for another alternative mix... which luckily I found in the old Super Food Idea magazine...Otherwise... Miss E will be very disappointed....
I adapted its recipe with a little change in the ingredients and the 'size' of the house...

We did the decorations on Saturday....Mr H was expecting ~ "kitchen will ended up like a 'combat zone' with the 2 ladies arguing...."Good to note that there was no 'difference of opinions' ie arguing and nagging...between mother and daughter... it was a good team effort....

After all the hard work.... I am happy just to look at the house rather than eating....."


Edible house
Note : 
  1. do check the 'baked' house components against the cardboard cut-outs.
  2. carefully trim to size when the 'components' are still warm. Otherwise the house will not fit!!! (due to expansion)
  3. To Assemble : Use piping bag for the icing.
  4. Pipe icing on the edges, to join/glue walls together. 
  5. Use unopened cans as support
  6. Leave it to dry before decorating with lollies
  7. Windows and doors are up to your imagination, as long as it fits :D

sweet edible gingerbread house
Cardboard cut-outs:
  1. Roof ~ 16.5cm by 20cm (qty -2 )
  2. Side ~ 10cm by 16cm (qty - 2)
  3. Front and back ~ base 18cm, height 10cm with another 10cm high gables (qty-2). Total height - 20cm
  4. small windows - cut out 3cm by3cm
  5. big windows ~ cut out 4.5cm by 4.5 cm
  6. door ~ 8cm by 5cm
  7. chimneys~ 2 trapeziums base 2cm x height 4cm x 2cm; Rectangle 2cmx4cm; square 2cmx2cm

Gingerbread house will keep up to a week, unless you have that little fingers belong to little nibbler ;P


gingerbread cottage

yield: 1print recipe

Gingerbread House

Gingerbread House recipe, comes with ginger bread house template to build one.

INGREDIENTS:

Gingerbread House
  • 3 1/2 cups of self raising flour
  • 1 cup plain flour
  • 1 tablespoon ground ginger
  • 2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 3/4 cup dark brown sugar
  • 185g butter-chopped
  • 1/2 cup corn syrup
  • 2 eggs lightly beaten
  • 1/4 cup icing sugar
Royal Icing
  • 2 egg whites
  • 3 cups of pure icing sugar

INSTRUCTIONS:

Gingerbread house
  1. Combine flour. ginger cinnamon. sugar and butter in a food processor. Process until mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Whisk syrup and eggs together in a jug. Add egg mixture until dough just comes together. Turn onto a lightly floured surface and knead gently until smooth. Cut the dough into two and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or well chilled.
  2. Roll the dough, 1 portion at a time, between 2 sheets of baking paper until 5mm thick. Using the cardboard cut-outs as a guidecut into shapes. Place the gingerbread in a single layer on trays and freeze for 15 minutes or until firm.
  3. Preheat oven to 180C. Bake for 15 minutes. Repeat with the rest. Leave it to completely cool before starting to assemble.
Royal icing glue
  1. Using electric mixer. .Beat egg whites until soft peak form. Gradually add in icing sugar, beating constantly until thick.
Created using The Recipes Generator





Comments

  1. Have not forgotten how to use scale rule and draw a straight line..hahaha

    ReplyDelete
  2. wow!! Fantastic looking gingerbread house! I made some gingerbread men just a few days ago.. :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thank you mycookinghut...
    p.s.~still learning using the function in this blog...and your other comment was lost in the e~world..sorry :(

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi there,

    I was blog hopping from Rima's.

    That is a very cool gingerbread hse!!! Awesome!!!
    You must have invested a lot of time making it. Great effort ;) and gd luck with the contest....

    regards,
    anie

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hi Anie,
    Thank you for finding some time to blog hop into my kitchen.. :)

    As for the contest... saja itchy hands...

    ReplyDelete
  6. hi dear!
    i pun terjah from rima's blog
    cantiknya gingerbread house ni...if only my dotter tengok sure dia pun mau jugak ;-)
    anyway good luck for the GA ye!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Zarin,
    Terimakasih for 'singgah' kat sini ... :)

    and meluangkan masa dropping me a line ot two...

    ReplyDelete