Making ginger bread

[LaBelleDameSansPatience]

I am making ginger bread for the first time, since DD wants to make a ginger bread house. I melted the butter, sugar and syrup, then stirred in the flour and spices. The recipe says 'while warm, form into a neat ball and allow to get completely cold before rolling out.'.
Firstly; it doesn't look anything like a neat ball. It looks more like a greasy cow pat. Should it be firm when warm or very soft?
Secondly; we have all run out of energy and enthusiasm for today. Since it says ' leave to get completely cold', can I cover it with cling film to stop it drying out and roll it out tomorrow evening?

It will firm up when it's cold. Yes you can put it in cling film, stick it in the fridge and then use it tomorrow (or any day this week!)

Great!

Hi. It did firm up,has been cut out and baked; what is the best thing to stick it together with? The recipe says royal icing, so I looked at a packet in the supermarket, but it seemed too hard to stick anything.

apricot jam and toothpicks

actually any cheap sticky jam

caramel! 3 parts sugar, 1 part water and it will stick together great!

OK, will experiment. And use toothpicks (or matches with the heads cut off) for reinforcement. Do you just disolve the sugar in the water or do you boil it?

I use royal icing, works fine, never needs reinforcing. Caramel is an alternative - but yes you do need to boil the water and sugar together. Never heard of using jam, can't see how that would work as it doesn't go hard???