Gingerbread house

[mogs0]

Not sure whether to put this here or in Food but as it's Christmassy I'll have a go here!!

I have been looking for a kit to make a gingerbread house. I'd like to have a go at making the gingerbread too so have been looking for cutters. I ordered a mini set online which I thought would be great because it'd be small enough for my mindees to make and take home with them. It arrived today and it is tiny and I'd like to find something a bit bigger! Does anyone know where I can get cutters and basic decorating ideas? I'm not very creative in the kitchen and need step-by-step instructions that a 6yr old and 8yr old can follow (as well as a 29yr old!!).

I have an Ikea build and decorate kit as a standby!!

Lakeland --

Tesco have nice ones

We made templates out of paper then just used a standard gingerbread man recipe, stuck it together with stiff butter icing & dd decorated with smarties, sprinkles et al.

We did a Tesco one (well my parents did with dd) apparently it was way beyond the skills of a child, my stepfather really struggled and he is good at diy!

If you do make one, make sure you have visitors/big family to eat it all up.

Thanks for the suggestions! Lakeland don't have what I'm looking for and I'm boycotting (sp) Tesco still!!

I might try making paper templates.

I wanted to make small ones so that the children can make one each but not have tons of gingerbread left to eat!!

Is it ok to decorate the walls/roof before putting them altogether? I thought the children could decorate each piece then I could assemble them once they've finished.

Also, anyone know how to make the boiled sweet windows?

The Tesco one is £10(noticed on the back the sweets are organic

The Lidl's ish £5ish I think but you have to add an egg I'm not keen on the dc and raw egg so went for the Tesco as it literally has everything in it. I suppose I could have done my own thing with the icing and the Lidl's one but couldn't be arsed.

Beware with the Ikea one,it's very thin and often all broken,I'd get another Ikea one as a standby to mix and match with the bits that aren't broken,don't open to check or it'll go soft.

Dp took it on himself to make our Ikea wreck perfect last year-I kid you not he was at it for hours gluing parts with icing we all left him to it!!!!!! I wouldn't mind but my dc eat it the same day

Cox and cox do them - i have mine waiting to do once DS1 breaks up from school.

Lidl. £4.99.

I'm starting to think this wasn't such a good idea!! It's supposed to be one of our advent things. Maybe I'll stick with the really tiny cutters then we can make lots to practice on!!

I spent about £15 on a set of cutters from GLTC I think, maybe URCHIN, but really, cardboard would be fine.

2 rectangles for side walls
2 squares with triangle top for gable end front and back of house
2 large rectangles for the roof.

Tonnes of good thick icing as glue, I used the stuff from Sains in a big tube but you may be a fab cook and can make your own.

LOADS of mix, it seems to take loads.

Either make the gingerbread thick if you like it soft, or cook it fairly dry if you like it crunchy and don't care - then it could be thinner. Thin and soft just drops to pieces.

When gingerbread comes out of oven re shape the peiece with your templates as it will have spread and lost it's form as it cooks.

Have fun

Cox and Cox site looks nice!!

Yes we decorated the bits first then stuck it all together as a collaborative effort between me & dd (she held bits in place while I threw icing everywhere) . I made a pretend one out of cardboard first using my template to check that it would fit together.
No idea about boiled sweet windows though, we were not at all that professional. It looked great though & was much admired. We used angelica bits cut up for window & door frames & for a chimney.

treedelivery - not a good cook at all!!! I'm going to go and attempt to make a template then maybe have a little practice while there are no children here!!!

To be frank the kids love it whatever it looks like you just need to except it WILL look like a sticky mass of broken biscuits(dp hasn't learnt this yet).

I've yet to make one that looks like the magazine pics but then my dc do play a big part in the making of it.

Top tip-drink plenty of mulled wine before hand

Tana Ramsey has THE fail safe gingerbread recipe - you want it?

Is mulled vodka ok? I don't drink wine!!

yes please!!

We bought the GLTC gingerbread house kit, no idea if it's any good yet! Has everything with it.

Yes Vodka is fine

AGree with MilaMae!!

We did a kids one then I secretly headed back in to kitchen and was up till about 2 am farting about with hundreds and thousands and jelly bean flowers and all sorts window boxes....saddo!!

Those large dead cheap boiled flat boiled sweets will do as windows just stuck on.

Or icing in colours rolled out - a square of white with pink curtains over....fun fun fun!!

I need a life

I'll send dp round to yours then Treedelivery.

I wonder if it's too late to suggest making gingerbread people instead of the house!!

How about making a solid cake as the base. The proper thin hard gingerbread does turn into a mass of broken biscuits, once small children are near it. It's quite tricky for adults to get it right.

But if you do a solid cake, ice it, use choc fingers as roof, sweets as windows, it's much easier. And could look the same from a distance.

200g/8oz plain flour
1 level teaspoon baking powder
2 level teaspoon ground ginger
1 level teaspoon ground cinnamon

75g/3oz unsalted butter
75g/3oz soft brown sugar
3 heaped tablespoons golden syrup.

Sieve the dry stuff in bowl [except the sugar] so the first 4 ingredients.

Everything else in a pan to melt gently. Don't boil.

Mix the warm stuff into the flour etc, amd use a wooden spoon to bring it together.

Whilst its very warm the butter and syrup will be runny and greasy and you'll think its a disaster.

Turn it out onto floured surface and just work it about till it's cool enough for kids to play with, it gradually hardens and gets eaier to deal with

To make a fairly standard house I needed 3 lots!!

Prob take 15 mins or so to bake large flat shapes, do it at say gas mark 3 or about 160 so it cooks slowly through rather than soft in middle and hard at edges.

P.S. Drink Baileys throughout.