Gingerbread House - when do you make yours?

[Saisong]

I got the Costco gingerbread house this year; we've never done one before. The kids have been clamouring to make it, but I dont want to peak too early!

So hit me with your tips on Gingerbread Houses - How to build, when to make, how long they last. And maybe my most pressing question - does anyone actually eat them??

@dancingthroughthedark

Ds and his gf design and make ours from scratch and every scrap gets eaten. I am looking forward to seeing what they have in store this year. This one from a couple of years ago is probably their best one to date.

wow! We made a tardis one year (complete with darlek) but that's as ambitious as it got.

Dancing that is truly bloody amazing! I'm not sure we'll ever reach those heady heights!

Do any of you use melted sugar to glue the houses together?

We're making ours over the weekend using a recipe & templates recommended by a poster on the Christmas board.

We don't do one every year but I've pre-made dough this year; I thought it'd fill the weekend nicely if we do it slowly.

Would you mind posting the link here lucysmam? I’m planning to make one from scratch but haven’t chosen a recipe yet.

I 'glued' mine with a very thick royal icing, so an egg white whisked up with enough icing sugar to form a thick cement type consistency which I spread on the joins with a knife. You'll see from my photo above that 'beauty' was not our primary aim though!

Teen DS is attempting the Ikea kit right this minute (I'm at work). He's done a few in the past with varying degrees of success. It will be eaten in the next 24 hours or so.

@AnneLovesGilbert it's this one. The template is hidden where it says "what you'll need" (confused me for ages trying to work that out!)

I've not tried it before but figured it was worth a shot since it was recommended :)

We did an ikea one last year using royal icing (egg white, icing sugar, lemon juice)

The kids decorated it Christmas eve and we ate it from Boxing day over the next couple of days. I like to have it around as a decoration, but not long enough that it gets dusty!

I think we glued it together one day and decorated the next.

i dont know if this has been mentioned as i haven't rtft but there is a tiktok of a wpman using burnt sugar or something as glue it set and by all accounts its a game changer

Around the day before Christmas eve.

We make a non- ginger gingerbread as my daughter loves the texture but not the ginger.

We love it and now have it done to an easy method. We use caramel boiled to hard crack stage as glue.

It gets eaten over Christmas.

@planningaheadtotoday how do you do the caramel?

Royal icing made with a dash of lemon juice helps hold it together, the acid makes it.stronger. Toothpicks help too, but you need to remember them!
I eat mine up to a week after making. The Mary Berry one is good.

We made ours last week, it's all been scoffed