It’s been many years since I’ve undertaken to create a gingerbread house from scratch…back when my kids were youngsters… and they are both in their 30’s now.  Yes, it’s time consuming.  This one has taken me two weeks of evenings to draw/cut the templates, bake the gingerbread pieces and allow them to dry and harden, then build the house itself, and lastly decorate.  Painstaking, but fun…I could actually feel my creative juices flowing…hahahaha.  If you wish to copy this template, the measurements are provided on the Time-Life series of international cookbooks at this webpage:

http://paulatiberius.com/blog/2011/12/28/how-to-make-a-gingerbread-house/

While the recipe for making the gingerbread is from the King Arthur Flour website:

http://www.kingarthurflour.com/baking/documents/gingerbread.pdf

So, having giving credit where credit is due….it will suffice to simply show you a series of photos to give you a general idea of how I began this project and created this gingerbread house.

Ingredients

Mix dough in a pot

spread dough into a half sheet pan lined with parchment

cut out pieces using templates while gingerbread was hot

here are the individual pieces cooling/drying/hardening

I made 3 sheets total, the last was for the base

I crushed lollypops then baked them on parchment

in a 350 degree oven for 5-6 minutes until melted puddles

I made a batch of royal icing using:

• 3 Tablespoons meringue powder
• 6 Tablespoons room temperature water
• 4 cups confectioners sugar

which I beat with a mixer for 7-10 minutes until stiff peaks formed.

I glued the stained glass sugar to the windows using the icing.

I used frosted mini-wheats to get a thatched roof effect

Here I’ve glued Rolo’s with gumdrops to make planters

I began to build the house, putting glass-encased mini xmas lights inside

I began to decorate, using sugar wafers as shutters

Now I’m adding half the roof, using canned goods to help support the weight

After the icing has hardened, I begin decorating…

I used an ice cream cone and spearment leaves to make the pine tree

Mini-pretzels and sugar wafers make the bench beside the ice pond

Ribbon candy for the fencing

Fruit leather for the roof edging

a marshmallow snowman

rice chex for the sidewalk

a chocolate santa going down the chimney

shredded coconut for snow

mini candy cane wall decorations

chocolate xmas trees in back

M & M peanuts for the roof decorations, along with mints

and it lights up too!