How to Make a Gingerbread House: Part 3

Finished gingerbread house

This is the final post on my three part series of how to make a gingerbread house. Want to keep up to date with BFB? Subscribe to my RSS feed!

I am so sorry this has taken me so long! Being on winter break has made me lazy. Things will start to be more consistent over the next week or two.

The Final Step

The gingerbread has cooled, the frosting has been made, and the house is ready to be assembled.

Assembling the house can be a little tricky. We had a hard time figuring out how much frosting we would need to make sure it would stay standing.

I would say we probably used  a little more than we needed…but our house was very sturdy!

inside view assembly  How to Make a Gingerbread House: Part 3

To Assemble…

Before you start to assemble the house I recommend having a cookie sheet or piece of cardboard covered and prepared to be your gingerbread house scene. We used one of my cookie sheets covered in foil.

With white icing in hand, I put a layer of frosting on the bottom edge and side edge of one of my walls. To connect the next wall, just put a layer of frosting on the bottom and stick it to your previously frosted edge.

Continue doing the similar frosting and connecting pattern until your house’s frame is standing up by itself. (Like the picture above!)

To connect the roof, frost the top edges of your house’s frame…and carefully smush each roof top on the frosted edges. I also recommend adding a little frosting to the top where the two edges of the roof comes together.

assembled house  How to Make a Gingerbread House: Part 3

Now for the Fun Part…

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How to Make a Gingerbread House: Part 2

meringue powder

This is the 2nd of my 3 part series on how to make a gingerbread house. Don’t forget to subscribe to my RSS feed to follow up on the series!

To continue on in the gingerbread house journey, I decided that I wanted to make my own royal icing.

I had never done it before, but royal icing seemed like the best choice for assembling a gingerbread house.

I made a trip to Sur la Table and picked up some cookie cutters, meringue powder, food coloring (in gel form), decorating tips, 1 nice pastry bag, and a box of plastic decorating bags.

decorating tools1 How to Make a Gingerbread House: Part 2

When I was in high school I worked at a cookie store in the mall called Blondie’s.

Blondie’s was the first place I learned how to make gourmet cookies, decorate cookies/cookie cakes using pastry bags and tips plus all sorts of colored sugars and sprinkles. It was so fun!

But surprisingly we never used royal icing to decorate our cookies. All we had was this super thick (and delicious!!) buttercream. I was a bit nervous to try the new frosting, but it was well worth the effort.

Royal icing is simply a very hard white icing, made from softly beaten egg whites and powdered sugar.

royal icing  How to Make a Gingerbread House: Part 2

In my case, I used a nifty little ingredient called meringue powder. I had never used it before, but I have been hearing about it on other blogs. So I went with this method.

I also like that you could safely eat the icing with out running the risk of consuming raw eggs.

This recipe is easy to adjust if you need your icing to be more, or less fluid. They meringue powder came with a list of other recipes for different frostings that I can’t wait to try!

royal icing bags How to Make a Gingerbread House: Part 2 [Read more...]

How to Make a Gingerbread House: Part 1

the kit

This is the first  part of my 3 part series on how to make a gingerbread house. Subscribe to my RSS feed to follow up on the rest of the series!

I recently received one of my Christmas presents early! It was a stand mixer from my aunt Lizzy. I am so excited to have a new mixing option, I was worried my hand mixer wasn’t going to last much longer. Thanks Lizzy!

With the mixer came every single attachment, a sushi roller, a pasta machine, a sausage maker…random things here and there, and a Pampered Chef Gingerbread House ceramic cookie mold. I was immediately intrigued by the gingerbread house kit.

the recipe How to Make a Gingerbread House: Part 1

I remember making gingerbread houses when I was younger. Frosting and candy seemed endless. What could be better?

But the gingerbread houses I remember making were the pre-made type from a kit, not homemade ones. My aunt said I had used it when I was a wee one, but I have no memory of it.

molasses pour How to Make a Gingerbread House: Part 1

When I found out my boyfriend had never made a gingerbread house before (not even the ones from the kit!) I decided to make one asap.

The Pampered Chef Gingerbread House kit came with a recipe to make gingerbread, so that’s the one I used. I’m glad I did, I got a ton of compliments on how tasty the actual gingerbread was. I was happy to hear it wasn’t all about the candy and frosting!

finished baking How to Make a Gingerbread House: Part 1

The great thing about this gingerbread is that it’s super easy.

The recipe makes plenty for the amount needed for the cookie mold, so you could probably make an army of gingerbread men with this recipe! The gingerbread kept very well and didn’t dry out, even after 2 days of sitting out and being partially eaten. [Read more...]

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