I am combining the two to create a Holiday Icon- The gingerbread house. This began as a very exciting prospect. Slap some cookies together and then go to town decorating....well, let me crush your candy canes- it is not that easy.
After looking online I realized that the only way to do this was to create a model. Ok, no big deal, this is why we store 60 lbs. of cardboard in the basement. I grabbed a couple of pizza boxes and beer cases and started going to town. My dreams were big. Maybe a replica of the Hayes Presidential Museum or the MOMA....At the very least a 2 story plantation house. I started cutting and taping together...
This is where I gave up. I'm sure I could have spent a couple of days doing this and making it something really special but it is hard to avoid the excitement of building it out of actual cookie and remain patient enough to perfect the angles of the chimney...
Now it was time for baking. I made a couple batches of gingerbread and threw them in the refrigerator. A few hours later it was time to roll, literally.
That damn dough was so stiff I actually bruised my palms. How in the hell can you bruise your palms!!!
After rolling it out you place the cardboard patterns on top and cut them out with a pizza cutter. 15 minutes later you have your building materials.
I whipped up some royal icing and started "glueing" my house together. Everything was going perfectly until I attempted to place the rooftops. I left the room for a second and came back to find the entire house fallen and one of my rooftops shattered!
I cried a little but eventually baked the rooftops a little thicker, waited longer for the icing to dry and finally found success. I am awesome!
now on to decorating...
Posts
