Gingerbread houses! And other crazy Xmas culinary adventures

I don't bake gingerbread houses, but I buy the kits usually from IKEA and put them together. They're so pretty as decorations, I think. Baking them yourself, that's very industrious!

It is lots of fun once they're 'glued' in place. If you haven't done that before, then I hope you have been told about gluing just a bit at a time and holding it in place with heavy objects... like cans of tinned food... until it dries, usually overnight. We don't usually eat much of the gingerbread houses, just the best bits of candy. I put out whatever is leftover in the pasture on a dry day and let the horse chomp it down. She LOVES gingerbread.

My tradition is making homemade gingerbread dogs... Scottie dogs, as it happens. It started out years ago when I was going to make gingerbread men. The first ones were too big for handy cookies and it was hard to get their heads decorated. I happened to have a cute Scottie dog cookie-cutter and tried it for one of the many, many rollings-out of dough. It made a perfect-sized cookie with no appendages that would burn. It was also easy to decorate and so it became our standard. I also make a bunch of little hearts with the leftover dough. It's a little weird for Christmas, but that's us.

I did a ginger bread house from scratch a couple years ago for the first time. It came out pretty good.

I have now made rum balls 2 xmas' in a row and was started on the idea by quinn1. Yum!

This reminds me of a time long ago when my mother made a gingerbread house to take to her Mom's on Christmas. She used a special cake pan that was in the shape of a house. She then decorated it with every kind of candy and icing. It turned out beautiful and I couldn't wait to get to grandma's house to have a piece of it.

When my grandmother saw the cake, she said, "that's too pretty to eat," and proceeded to put it in her china cabinet to display to all. It remained in that cabinet for about four years until it finally caved in.

I like gingerbread houses with shredded wheat roofs, candy canes holding lanterns on either side of the doorway, m&ms, redhots, gumdrops and lots of snow icing. Chicken bone candies or pretzels make good logs & fences.

I hope you'll tell us how you decorate yours, ThinkZinc!

maybe littlek will post a pic of hers for inspiration. it really was quite lovely.

i don't really 'get' them though. most people don't eat them. they seem to be an exercise in something. if i'm going to spend time baking and decorating, i want those dang things eaten!

I think they're good and worth eating; it is gingerbread, after all! Yum... especially the corners with the good candy (that's the problem with a shredded wheat roof). But we've never finished one and after a while it looks like... well, a ruin. I think it is funny that someone would save a gingerbread house for more than a couple of weeks. Some of the fancy ones are made with real glue and are not so good for you.

I 'glued' the walls together tonight. Piffka, I had all the boxes and cans, etc, ready to hold the walls up, but, to my surpise, I did not need them! Whether it's a good testament to my icing or not(!), it really was as effective as cement! I will let the walls set hard overnight and try attaching the roof tomorrow. The only complaint I have with it so far is that, as I made my own template, I think I made the house a little tall, and it looks like a regular house from the housing estate across the road, rather than a cutesy cottage in the woods like, LOL!

I really would love to see pics of anyone else's houses - littlek!

Colourbook, too funny! Fortunately for my stomach, I don't see my gingerbread house ending up anywhere except my stomach :p

I <b>will</b> post a picture of my finished house here, later in the week, as long as nobody laughs... Lol! I tried to make a little gingerbread man to stand outside, but it was too difficult. If only I had one of Piffka's little Scottie dogs to guard over it tonight - so I don't nibble it before I finish it!

I did a couple gingerbread houses when I was young with help of my Mom, and once was enough for both of us. However, I made other 'gingerbread' type houses without the gingerbread...it worked great and I was able to make houses that were replicas of the houses I was going to...they wouldnt eat them either...it was funny.

littlek's rumballs are great...whew...I didnt make them this year.

I tried to make spun sugar a couple years ago...badly. My Mom used to make it, I dont know where that woman figured all this stuff out and why I didnt get the extraoridanry culinary skills. blah.
She also used to make all kinds of cookies and Ive been known to do that but, the last few years, just havent felt like it.
Been thinking of the stained glass cookies she used tomake...then I remember the spun sugar and say..forget it...Im not even gonna try.

Oh yeah, spun sugar is definitely an art! I see people on TV whipping forkfuls of caramelised sugar across spoons, into beautiful threads. Looks easy, thinks I - but no! I whip forkfuls of hot caramel onto the floor... In the meantime, the rest of the caramel has set in the saucepan!
I love looking at sugar art; especially flowers, etc, made by stretching and kneading molten sugar until it looks like silk - the skill is fantastic, something I'd love to be able to do.
I have seen a fun recipe for stained glass cookies which just involves breaking up boiled sweets such as jolly rogers and setting them into holes in the cookies before putting them into the oven. I've always meant to try that out.

My Mom used to do the flowers too...I tell ya, you either got it or you dont in that department. Blah.

The whole thing with the stained glass cookies is cooking them EXACTLY right..or they burn and smell and taste bad.

maybe its my oven...yeah, thats it.

Yep, it will definitely be the oven to blame

Hey ThinkZinc -- Great! What was your "cement" recipe? I'm looking forward to seeing your pictures; I think a tall house would be nice!

Hi Piffka,
It was just regular royal icing - icing sugar and egg whites. No glycerin. It has set rock solid, very effective cement! But busy just now, hope to finish it on Christmas eve, will post photo next week

One57 Collapsed Crane Enters Gingerbread Hall of Fame
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