Christmas Fun Day #2

by Amy

Well, after having so much fun making and decorating a large gingerbread house last year, we decided to do it again! But, instead of making one big house, we made three small houses -- like a gingerbread village! My dad mailed me a cookie mold, so I could use it to make my sides and roof. It was much easier than cutting out my own pieces that I measured. And, since they were smaller, they were much easier to put together. (It also helped that Brad, my engineer husband was home this time around, and took over during the construction/building phase.)

Making gingerbread houses is quite a project! I'll give you the day-by-day:

Saturday:

I took the kids to the grocery store to pick out the all-important decorating candy! They made choices based on color, size, and of course, taste! I think we ended up buying a little too much, but I doubt we'll have any problem getting leftovers taken care of!

Monday:

I made dough that night after the kids went to bed. That's more difficult here than it would be if we lived in America. I looked all over the Internet for a recipe that didn't use molasses. I couldn't find one, so then I searched for molasses substitutes that I have available here. After reading a few things, I ended up coming up with a recipe that and adaptions that I thought would work. So, I put my dough together and let it rest 24 hours in the frig.

Tuesday:

Tuesday night I baked the houses. I used the mold to make the sides and roof. Although it was easier than last year, I still had 6 of each piece to make (side, end, roof) and 3 chimneys. It ended up taking a couple of hours to get it all cut out, then in and out of the oven.

Wednesday:

We put together the houses. After making an edible royal icing (again thanks to my dad for mailing me meringue powder), I tried to make the houses stand up by "gluing" the four sides together. I let them dry for an hour, and attempted the roof. It was at that time (as my sides were coming apart and my roof was crooked) that my wonderful husband walked into the kitchen and offered to take over! No prob!

Thursday:

On Thursday morning, my kids ran into the kitchen to find:

They were super excited! So, on Thursday afternoon, (after they had attended their local schools that morning) the decorating began!

It was fun to see them each come up with their own patterns, and to hear why they chose certain candy over others. Alex's goal was to get as much candy on there as possible. Savannah's goal was to use use the icing in a bag with a decorators tip on it. While Peter just wanted to do his own thing. He didn't want suggestions, but he was glad to receive help in making his candy stick well.

After several hours of work, here are the final results:

Savannah:

Alex:

Peter:

When everyone was done adding candy, Savannah took the last of the icing and upon request, she added lots of extra details to the houses. She made "smoke" come out of the chemmnies, put borders on the roofs, added stars on top of the candy.

It was a lot of work, but it was tons of fun! I think we'll do it again next year! :)