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CHRISTMAS RECIPES
> GINGERBREAD HOUSE 101
Gingerbread House Construction & Decorating
Ideas
"Foundation"
Cover your work area with a plastic tablecover or waxed
paper for easy clean up. If your house will have an outside
(lawn, gardens, etc.), use a large heavy-duty piece of
cardboard covered in aluminum foil. For smaller versions, use
large Styrofoam white plates. Be sure to use basic white
frosting to "cement" your house, trees, lampposts, etc. to the
base.
"Blueprints"
You will find plans for one-room
house, Victorian house,
chapel,
country
store, log cabin to help you build your gingerbread house.
Offer suggestions to the children that a gingerbread house can
also be Santa’s Workshop, a reindeer barn, Mrs. Claus’s
kitchen, toy shop or even a replica of your own home. If you
live in the big city, then why not make an apartment building
using a tall milk container and adding lots of windows.
"Building Supplies"
Bread sticks (logs, rafters and beams), shredded wheat
cereal (thatched roofs), wafer cookies (roofing tiles), mini
chocolate candy bars (doors, shutters and shingles), Candy
Kisses (church bell and roof decorations), lollipops (road
sings), jelly beans (fireplace stones), fruit leathers (window
shades), ice cream cones (trees), and candy canes with gumdrops
(lamp posts) are just some ideas. For a more complete list of
building supplies and their uses,
click here.
"Construction and Finishing Touches"
Step by Step instructions are all laid out but remember to
let the kids have fun… and enjoy the mistakes because it will
cause even more creativity that you would ever have imagined!
General
Plans
Dormers, Chimney and Windows
Set-up time: Allow gingerbread structures/frosting to dry
overnight so they will be stable.
"Landscaping"
Flower cake decorations (garden), gumdrops (bushes), brown
sugar (walkways and flowerbeds), pretzel sticks (fence posts),
nuts (stones) and rock candy (rocks).
Click
here for details.
"Christmas Decorations"
Use Life Savers (wreaths), Red Hots and M&M candies
(Christmas tree balls), white frosting (snow), powdered sugar
(frost), melted hard candies (stained glass windows), colored
sprinkles (Christmas lights), Fruit Loop cereal (Christmas
railings) and marshmallows (snowmen) are some ideas.
"People and Animals"
Animal Crackers (add scarf decorations), Graham Cracker Teddy
Bears (decorate in Santa suits), buy ready made from your
bakery and for homemade, use cookie cutters or trace stencils
onto cardstock and use for pattern on the cookie dough. Using a
little blob of frosting, the people and animals will stand up
on the base or to the sides of the house.
People and Animal Patterns: Use cookie cutters, cut figures
out of coloring books, etc. Trace pattern onto a sturdy piece
of cardboard or poster board and voila, you have patterns!
Place your pattern on Gingerbread dough with a sharp pointy
paring knife, bake, cool, decorate. To stand the figure around
the gingerbread house, place it in a blob of thick frosting and
voila, its standing!
Have fun and be creative!
BASIC
GINGERBREAD RECIPE
ROYAL ICING CEMENT ("not" edible)
ALMOST
BUTTERCREAM CEMENT (edible)
FONDANT (to
make ornaments)
GINGERBREAD GIFT RECIPES
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