Gingerbread houses

[pigleychez]

Loads of my friends have been making them recently and its inspired me to have a go.

Do you make the gingerbread yourself and cut into the pieces? I know you can buy kits though so do they have the pieces pre-made or is it just a box with the recipe ingredients in it?

Never made one before.

Any good places for kits etc? or good recipes?

The ones on the Good Food site are easy to make.

Ikea have a great one..used them for the last three years.
Make sure your icing glue is sticky not runny and don't attempt to eat the whole thing between 5 of you for Christmas day tea...

Ikea do a really cheap one (was about £2.50 last year) that was v effective. Poss not as yummy as home made but much easier and tasted good enough. To be honest I took it to SiL's for Xmas and people mainly picked off the sweets and smarties and prob didn't notice how nice the gingerbread itself tasted.

Being a novice can I hijack and ask what type of icing you use?

What recipe do you follow for your icing "glue"?

I just use icing sugar and a little bit of water or lemon juice.

Ah, timetosmile beat me to it

I actually made two; one with molten sugar to stick it together which was a bloody nightmare, lots of swearing and burnt fingers. Second time I used royal icing which worked eventually but it was harder to get it to stick, so worth getting the consistency right in the first place.

I think royal icing is most suitable as sets hard. While it was setting u had to use objects to hold the walls etc in place.

*I

Just done 3 doz Christmas fairy cakes, so kitchen awash with icing sugar and slightly sick-feeling children.
Gingerbread house will have to be tomorrow....we tend to smother it so thickly in sweets, noone notices the lack of right angles...

pin it together with cocktail sticks, then use icing to glue it together. once it sets take cocktail sticks out... v carefully...

The IKEA ones are good. I echo the comments about sticking them together with boiling sugar. Only do this if you really want to go to A & E.

A neat little trick when sticking the houses together is to cut out supports in the shape of the cross section of the houses (IYSWIM) from cereal packets to go inside the gingerbread house and use spice jars as buttresses for the outside u.til the icing sets.

Also, wait for the icing holding the walls together to set before attempting to put the roof on. It's great fun to do and my 4 year old and 8 year old stuck to it for an hour this time. Oh, and the house smells lovely too.

The key is lots and lots of sweets to hide everything ... mine looked like it had been made by my children (it hadn't but I said it had and everyone was impressed).

I stuck three Ikea ones together today with boiling sugar - quite pleased I have just one blister!

I can't wait to try this!! I've never made one before but thus year ice really embraced baking - I've even made 6 Christmas cakes this year!!
Do you need a swiss roll tin or is a standard tray enough? I saw the ikea ones and was tempted...they're £2.99 I think this year :)

I wish i'd picked up a Ikea one last time we were there.:(
We are too far away to go to Ikea again now.

Ive decided i'll attempt one next year now as I really dont think i'll have time now before Christmas anyway. Although we have family here for New Years day so could have one then. Or would that just be silly!?

The Ultimate Gingerbread House lol!

Not silly to have one for new year at all - how many children are there? My mum sometimes puts a sugar mouse for each child inside. I use the first pattern fromhere and make the pieces using a recipe with treacle and syrup in and cook for a little longer than normal so that the pieces dry really hard.

The Tate and Lyle royal icing sugar is fab - you make it up using water and, they say, beat for 6 or 7 minutes if by hand but I did it with a wooden spoon at 2am after a night out (don't ask) and it didn't take that long. Once it's in stiff peaks you can use it, and it sets within a minute or two so you don't need to hold it in place for hours.

I prefer royal icing to melted sugar - I read somewhere that if the room is too warm/humid (unlikely at Christmas but not impossible if lots of people are around) the sugar melts...

I always do the walls before bed then leave overnight (hence the 2am fun) and then do the roof the next day.

There wil be 5 under 4's (our family has been busy in past few years!)

Glad to hear its not a silly idea :) I may very well do one for New Year then. I know my girls will love it, could even make it the desert table centre piece and surround it with sweets!- I feel a plan coming on!

That sounds fab. Just leave yourself a few days so that all the bits can dry/you aren't rushing to get it decorated.

The tate and lyle sugar is also good because according to their website pregnant women can still have it. I made one for a large family with several pregnancies and spent ages trying to find something to stick it together that wouldn't make them ill. I assume that means it's a bit better for little children too...

Sorry to be thick here but have the ikea gingerbread house was going to stick it all together tom. What is is tate and lyle icing method is it ready made icing? Or do you mean just make a thick icing sugar?

thanks Stewie. Will drag my woman flu bum out the house tom and pick some up.

I tried to make a gingerbread house once, it did not end well.

I got a house shaped mould from either Aldi or Lidl and just put regular sponge mix in it and then decorate that, like a 3d house picture and no swearing from frazzled mum!