Gingerbread houses are a new tradition for us. This is our 3rd year! Being full-time RVers, the last couple years we've made the mess at Grandma's house. We were unable to go home for Christmas this year but the kids didn't want to miss out on our new tradition, so, we made the mess in the RV. Granted, there wasn't enough counter space, the oven is very small, and we had to stack supplies on the chairs and even over the top of the fish bowl! It was quite the adventure!
We used a template for the pieces from a library book, Building Gingerbread Houses, and some decorating ideas from another book, The Gingerbread Architect. I highly recommend both books.
Our house doesn't look half as awesome as any of the pictures in the books, but we love it.
We used lots of royal icing, big red gum for the roof, pretzels, necco wafers, candy canes, and some candy coated chocolates to decorate the trees and bushes made out of rice krispie treats! The only non-edible parts you will find are the dry pinto beans on the chimney and porch foundation!
Our Christmas Cottage:
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b311/TheDana2theMaxx/Christmas%20Projects/12-25-09118.jpgMixing the dough in my trusty KitchenAid. It's usually stored away, but for this project it came out of hiding!
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b311/TheDana2theMaxx/Christmas%20Projects/12-21-09.jpgBeginning assembly and rolling out fondant for the windows and door.
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b311/TheDana2theMaxx/Christmas%20Projects/12-24-09.jpgHere we're attaching the gum tiles to the roof. I'm piping out royal icing and my son is, reluctantly, attaching them to the roof. He'd rather have been chewing the gum!
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b311/TheDana2theMaxx/Christmas%20Projects/12-24-093.jpgThe night before I'd piped out some garlands and a wreath for the chimney. Attaching them was a bit trickier. I had to pull a box out of the pantry and a bit of cardboard to prop them up while drying. You can see we ran out of gum for the roof, which I knew would happen, so I planned for the icing to cover this as a partial blanket of snow.
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b311/TheDana2theMaxx/Christmas%20Projects/12-25-0958.jpgThen we added the porch railings. And started the walkway. While those were setting up, we decorated some cookies
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b311/TheDana2theMaxx/Christmas%20Projects/12-25-0998.jpgThe last step was making the rice krispie treat bushes and trees. I didn't realize you had to let it set up a bit before working with it, but we figured it out and had a messy good time while we were at it!
Then I finished up the yard and dusted the bushes and railings with snow.
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b311/TheDana2theMaxx/Christmas%20Projects/12-25-09118.jpgThanks for looking! Happy New Year!
