Gingerbread houses

[hammerman]

I foolishly, in a drunken state, agreed to enter a gingerbread house competition at my local.

never cooked gingerbread before...any tips, foolproof recipes etc

Also, anyone ever built a house before and want to inspire me ?

Thanks as always

HM

[tonyav]

LOL, that'll teach ya.

[nannybooby]

buy a kit from the supermarket, you assemble it (bit like flat pack only done with icing as the glue)

[hammerman]

Wanna do it from scratch really...i do love a challenge !!!!!!!

[sherrardk]

You could have a look at the ones in Aldi for inspiration - the packaging is clear so you could get a good look.

[nannybooby]

Be carefull you dont get hairs of your shirt in the mix ! Goodluck ,have no idea where you would start from scratch -sounds v espensive to me having to buy bakeing tins etc.

[Tilly2]

I've never made one but last year my friend made one with her six year old daughter. They drew a picture of what they wanted it to look like, before they started and worked out how many surfaces they would need to create a house, with a roof.

They backed four lots of gingerbread cake on flat backing trays and cut up the pieces before it went cold.

They then assembled it and spent hours decorating it with buttercream, sugar paste, sweeties, edible glitter and nuts. It was absolutely fabulous. They took photographs of it before the rest of the family 'demolished' it.

[boxtops]

Good idea sher - hammerman, buy an Aldi one and use it as a template http://www.aldi.co.uk...oduct_range_27598.htm or choose one of these
http://www.google.co....QsAQ&biw=1024&bih=694

[Tilly2]

P.S. I can spell baked and baking!

[boxtops]

nanny, you can just bake the gingerbread in plain flat tins, then cut it out with a knife to shape.

[chris1957au]

Ensure you plan it out first, bear in mid the size of you baking trays.

MAKE A BASIC MODEL OF 4 WALLS DOOR AND ROOF OUT OF CARDBOARD AND TAPE IT TOGETHER LIGHTY.

The 6 pieces will be your template for cuting out you biscuits. ensure they all fit onto you baking tray if not the model is too big.

Use a basic biscuit mix and roll out on silicon paper to a thickness of about 5-8 mm no thinner cut out using the templates you made slide onto the baking tray leaving it on the silicone paper.

Bake off all the pieces and allow to cool, use a large board cover in foil as a base and construct the house sticking it together with royal icing decorate with sweets, smarties jelly tots ect at will, if you want windows and doors cut out before baking and use leaf geleting as glass and choc match sticks as a log door, these can also be used on the roof or you could also use choc thin dinner mints as tiles.

Make sure you don't make it too soon as the bisciut will go soft.

Good luck with your first one it gets easier after the first 5, im sure you will have fun and may even supries your self, you can fill it with sweets and light it up with christmas light too.

[rockyracoon]

How great, I've always wanted to make one of these, chris's idea about the lights s excellent, you can get little battery operated lights that florists use, it'll look brill. Good luck and take lots of pics to show us.

[EcclesCake]

Fox's glacier mints make good windows. Cut out the window and put a could of mints in the void.

Depending on the size of you house chocolote buttons make a good roof tile.

Dessicated coconut coloured with green food dye can become grass. Grated chocolate or blitzed chocolate biscuits make good soil.

[hammerman]

Wow...keep the tips coming.

Someone suggested using shreddies as roof tiles drizzled with icing sugar to give a winter effect.

Ice cream cones turned upside down and decorated with green icing make good xmas trees

sheets of gelatine make good windows so i was reading

[boxtops]

we want to see it, hammerman, when this wonderful edifice is complete!

[sherrardk]

I 'made' the kit gingerbread Christmas train thing three years ago, it looked awful and cost a fortune in icing sugar and eggs (plus the kit). Good luck.

[hammerman]

I shall be planning Sherardk :-)

[JustJenni]

I did this for the first time last year and used a recipe off the good food magazine website. I've just brought the as edition of it aswell and it has an amazing gingerbread house on the front with templates and a full step by step guide.