Gingerbread houses

[MilaMae]

My mother has bought the kids one-they've seen it so it has to be made-thanks mum

When do you make them?

Do you let them eat it-all of it?????

How long do you let it sit on the side turning into a sticky mess. Is it a make and instant eat kind of thing, please say yes.

Thanks

Don't know the answers but will watch with interest as I have one too to do with dd but wasn't sure myself ! I think they should sit around a bit and be admired (rofl that ours will be admirable with uncreative me and not quite 3 dd !).

We've just made ours.

It's a flat pack one from Ikea (no kidding!)

We stick it together with icing sugar and water mixed to a thick paste, wait for the icing to go hard, then stick as many sweet on as possible.

The trick to make it look nice (i.e: not made by a 3 year old) is to dust it with a sprinkling of icing sugar. That disguises all the blobs.

we then put cellophane wrap round it and put it on the sideboard to admire until Christmas.

Hope this helps!

I have the ikea one too ! Sounds fun () - will give it a go over the weekend maybe ! Actually my parents are popping in sunday on their way up to my bro's and maybe I can convince my mum to do it with dd !

wheelybahhumbug - the Ikea gingerbread is really nice!

yum, yum!

i always enjoy eating ours!

We bought the flatpacked one too and are looking forward to making it. Will do it next weekend so we can admire it for a few days!

But please tell me, how do you erect the house without it all collapsing in on itself??

Ours is Ikea too, where do you get the cellophane wrap?

To stop the house collapsing, I usually start by putting a large stripe of thick icing down the sides of the gable ends. Then do the other end. Quickly stick it into a rough rectangle. If you are sticking it on to a cake board, secure it with blobs of icing so it doesn't move about. It must be on a stable base.

Wait for it to harden, then do the roof part and finally do the chimney. Ignore the instructions on the packet to use a sugar water mix, I have found that an icing sugar/water mix works best. You want it thick like Polyfilla!

Don't use that tubed ready made cake icing as it doesn't set hard enough.

you will have to help your DC's with the construction but when it is hard, you can let them go mad with decorations.

It will look awful before you put the decorations on but great when it's finished!

Oh, and if you don't have a cake board, you can make one with a piece of card covered in foil.

Cellophane wrap, I bought from a florist wholesaler but I have seen it for sale in Paperchase. You could ask if a local florist would sell you a couple of metres.

Have fun!

Fab Vulgar, thanks for hte tips!! Have a cake base board thingy leftover from dd's birthday cake, so will construct the house on there!
Can't wait

ooh, now I have a flat-packed one in the cupboard from last year

should I assemble it in order to wow the nct posse on friday night?

[muses]

I think I might you know

just for the hell of it

Def with vulgar DO NOT do the boiled sugar/water nonsense on the instructions, 2nd degree burns I tell you.

As a seasoned Ikea flatpack gingerbread house builder, I always buy 4 - this usually gives me enough unbroken bits to make 3 houses. one for us, others for neighbours/friends.

Lakeland sells clear film on a roll, also do a roasting film with a foil edge which is fab (with a little tissue paper) for wrapping odd shaped gifts into 'moneybag' style delights.

ohcomeALYefaithful- I'll have to go and get some of that Lakeland paper -sounds great.

I normally buy a couple more gingerbread house in case of breakages too. Then I invite friends round for a house building session and we eat the broken bits!

Mrs Badger -yes definately impress your NCT crowd as uber-mummy.

Actually one year, my dh took his up for the big office xmas buffet. (Posh investment bank). They were well impressed!

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It's not one you have to bake yourself is it?

I don't think I could be arsed to do one of those.

we should all post pics once they're done...

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Use tins of beans, soup etc to support the walls while the icing is setting. White chocolate is a nice alternative, and if you're making one from scratch, you can make stained glass windows with broken boiled sweets, use after eights for roof tiles, curly wurlys for fences and marshmallow for a snowman outside.

The gingerbread shouldn't go soft without wrapping. We used to have them every year back in sweden and they always stood around for ages looking beautiful. Swedish gingerbread (which is what the ikea stuff is) is quite different from english gingerbread though.

Sassa, I only wrap gift ones. Mine stays out getting dusty and we still eat it and the hearts on the tree!

The only reason I wrap ours is because otherwise one of our cats will lick it.

And even I won't eat gingerbread that has cat's arse germs on.

Never thought of the germs. Guess it never bothered me as a kid =)