gingerbread house

[hoarsewhisperer]

am about to attempt to make a gingerbread house with the children for Christmas.

Has anyone made one before and have and hints/tips on how to make it look super cool? what do you use to glue the gingerbread together with - icing? or sugar syrup glue?

thanks

Will hvae a look in my X-massy books, I know in 2 of them are ideas for Gingerbread houses

we do the flatpack Ikea ones and use readymade white icing in tubes - easier to adjust once stuck than if you use syrup - though do make your own icing if you prefer.

Icing icicles hanging off the edges of the roof are vital.

Do you want to do it from scratch...i.e. bake the house, etc...

yes - i'm planning on doing it from scratch as don't have time to go to ikea. Have a template already for the walls and roof and have made gingerbread q few times in eth past. Thought I might bake it tonight so that it has a while to harden before i construct it at the weekend

how do you get the icicle effect? just pour the icing over the top and watch it dribble down the sides????

I cheat and get a flat pack one from aldi.

I bought a beautiful flat pack one last year which included icing.

Mrs Badger's idea of using readymade white icing in tubes is excellent.

Lidl have the flat pack one too.

Hoarsewhisperer,
this is a recipe for the Gingerbread that is used in one of the recipes I have (the other one is to complicated and has to many ingredients not available over here.)

200g Margarine (or unsalted Butter)

• some extra Margerine for the Baking tray 500g Honey 250g Sugar 1/2tsp ground Ginger 1/2tsp ground cinnamon 1/2tsp ground mixed spices 1tbsp cocoa 1000g plain flour 1 heaped tsp Bakingpowder 1 pinch of Salt 2 eggs Decoration: 3 egg whites ca. 550g Icing sugar
• some extra for dusting 2 leaves red gelatine (if available) some little biscuits some sweets/cholates some whole almonds, etc.

Heat Margerine (or Butter), Honey, Sugar, the different spices and cocoa in a large saucepan until the sugar is dissolved. Then let stand to cool down.
Add the Flour, Bakingpowder and Salt into a Bowl and mix together.
Crack the eggs and beat them and then add them to the Honeymixture and mix together.
Then add the Flourmix to the Honey mixture and mix until smooth.
Refrigerate for 1 hour, then roll out the dough ca. 1/2 cm deep, lay onto a Bakingtray that is covered with margerine. Roll over it again to make it a smooth/even surface.
Put the templates for teh house on and cut around them.
The rest of the doungh can be used to cut out a witch and Haensel and Gretel.

Bake in a preheated oven at 200-225 degree celsius(Fan assisted Oven 180-200 degree Celsius and Gas 3-4) for ca. 10-12 minutes.
Should the Houseparts get to much out of shape, trim whilst still hot.
Beat the eggwhites (to a stiff mass) and add enough of the Icingsugar, so, that you can use it in a piping bag.
Use the Icing as glue to glue the pieces together and to glue the decoartion on.
The red gelatine leaves is glued into place to create the windowglass.

brilliant 3andnomore

thanks very much - will let you know how it goes