Talk to me about gingerbread houses

[iloveholidays]

Keen to try and do one this year so looking for some help...

I've read that Ikea and Lakeland do moulds, is it worth spending the extra on the lakeland one? or get the one from Aldi?

does it need to be gingerbread??? could I just do normal sponge, sorry if stupid question!!!

I did one a few years back for my DC (they helped to decorate it)

I wouldn't do it again TBH, it goes a bit soft after a while.

The ChoccyWoccyDooDah chocolates houses made me heave though (to look at not bought one) . Too much chocolate excess.

Lakeland do a silicone mould that you can do chocolate in and you can bake in it up to 230 degrees so good for gingerbread.

Wow pale your gingerbread house looks fabulous!

I might make a gingerbread train this year, laden with Christmas goodies

Or maybe a miniature gingerbread village.

Have made them from scratch for last 6 or so years as a fun activity with the cousins. This year buying IKEA kits, so fed up with the falling down walls and they are never eaten the chickens get them after Xmas.

Thanks Bacon

Just spotted some super cute gingerbread kits on notonthehighstreet - there's a castle, ship, train, horse and carriage as well as a house

here

£43!!!!!

The Ikea house was a complete disaster here. Heating up the sugar wrecked a saucepan and has the potential or serious burns. Then every time I stuck on a wall another one would fall down. By the time it was finished it looked more like a tumbled down cottage than American perfect Christmas. It was meant to be one of those happy Christmas activities but was more stressed mummy saying " Don't touch".
Much better to buy tubes of ready made icing for glue or stick with Yule log.

I bought the Lakeland Silicone mould last year. It is brill, first attempt turned out really well.

The recipe was nice softer than I was expecting. Had intended to do it for Christmas, but I was poorly and did it New Years Eve instead, and took it to a New Year's Eve party. Might become a tradition.

Yes, £43 is an awful lot for the gingerbread house! I do like the smaller items though.

Ooh I need to make a gingerbread house this year and I don't even like gingerbread

I'm going to give in and try it again this year. I want Christmas to be perfect, we've had a tough year.

HootShoot your gingerbread house is really lovely.

In my head I'd like to create something like this

but mine would probably end up like this

God yes mine would probably be a candidate for cakewrecks. But sod it we are going to make one anyway. And it will be Fun and not involve any stropping, arguing or flouncing of any kind. Oh no.

I did a kit one once, never again.

Kids got bored and left me to it
I burnt myself on some melted sugar (ouch!)
It sat around for a few weeks
then we threw it out.

Nope, we'l stick to tubs of chocolates from now on!

Don't let 3 teen girls decorate on in your dinning room!

I had two IKEA kits. I put the 9 and 10 year old over the tiles in the kitchen and the older "sensible" girls in the carpeted dinning room.

You can guess which group carefully piped on icing and put neat rows of silver balls and which group decided to cover the house and everything else in icing sugar snow.

Planned to do a gingerbread house last Christmas but dd is not a big fan of gingerbread. So did a chocolate house instead courtesy of lakeland.

Dd made and decorated it and not surprisingly it didn't hang around too long.

paleandinteresting Your house looks fab!!! Please can I ask what you use as glue to join the pieces together (sorry if I have missed this in the thread)?

Those of you who use melted sugar and not Royal Icing, can I ask you please how you apply it? With a pastry brush? Or a pallet knife?

Thanks! Determined to finish one this year!

We bought Ikea ginger bread dough last year and downloaded some templates. As others have said the mixture spreads massively so lots of cutting while still warm. The dough tasted better than the pre made IMO. We found sticking the walls together with chocolate far more stable and nicer to eat at the end too.

Thanks steamed

I use icing sugar mixed with egg whites (rather than water) and I apply it with a piping bag, similar to this one. If you make it thick it's fairly strong.

If the sides aren't sticking together you could add a support like this (second picture down) on the inside.

Thank you so much for the great tips PaleandInteresting !! Much appreciated! Support partic. clever ... will give it a go!

Hadn't thought of using chocolate TheAccidentalExhibitionist! (Afraid I could be terribly messy with that!)

I bought an Ikea one last year and just ate it without even trying to make it

I really want to have a go at making my own this year.

Arf at IsaacCox!

Wow hoot and pale, they look amazing!

I am tempted to attempt a gingerbread house this year, I'm pretty good at baking so I'm hoping it won't be too much of a trauma. How far in advance can you make them do you reckon?

I usually make it a couple of weeks before Christmas. It sits on top of the piano and makes the dining room smell of gingerbread - yum!

paleandinteresting Apologies in advance for another numpty question but I assume then that it's not edible after a fortnight - that it is mainly for decoration/aroma/to create Christmassy atmosphere? Sorry to be dim but always wondered what people did and whether they ate them or not? And if so, how long they remain edible for?