Has anyone made a gingerbread house from scratch?

[lisbey]

I made one from a kit with DSs last year and it was surprisingly stress free, went together easily and was a stable construction.

How ever, it did NOT make good eating.

This year I thought I'd try and make the same basic design from scratch - am I mad and what do I need to know?

Do I cut the pices before or after baking the gingerbread?

As far as I remember we always cooked on great big baking sheets and then cut it out like a jigsaw.

Try this simplyrecipes.com/recipes/how_to_make_a_gingerbread_house/

buy a different brand of flatpack

ikea ones are crips and biscuity, Lidl are softer and cakey

I have. It took hours.

Very enjoyable if you have the time, and looking for sweeties to decorate is fun. Those thick flat belts of pure fizzy sugar make great curtains.

I made one for the nursery where i work. I made a template and cut out the pieces before I cooked them.

I should have trimmed the edges before sticking them together as they go a bit bumpy and the back of my roof ended up with subsidence but managed to stay together due to a thick paste of icing sugar and egg white.

We brought it out yesterday after Christmas dinner and sang "We wish you a merry Christmas." Then I broke it up so they could eat it after snack.

I have to say the kids were very impreassed and it tasted much nicer than the Aldi one I bought last year.

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I make mini ones for the DD'sand I.
DD1's get slathered in icing, mine is beautiful and Dd2's just gets eaten.
I make them on the 23rd and then decorate on the 24th, just with 2 rectangles and 2 squares for side walls and 2 rectangles for roof, quick and easy.
Jelly babies make good witches/hansel and gretel too...

whatever you do don;t google-images for gingerbread houses. you will enter a bizarre world that you never knew existed.

I've done it both ways. if making it from scratch find a template on-line, cut the dough to shape - when it's cooked and cooled down file the edges with a gentle grater to get them straight. use full tins of food to support the various bits when you build it - depending on the age of your kids you can either do this bit alone one night )advisable if they are under 6 imo) or you can get them to do it - but it's difficult - and requires patience. also you can;t decorate it until it's all set really = so again, this might try their patience - if they're little it's better to present them with a built house, the icing and some sweets to get going straight away on the fun bit. imo you do need proper royal icing - because it really does work like glue and sets like concrete.

One year I bought a kit that had this fantastic plastic base - it has channels in it which you fill with icing and then put the walls in - I love it and have saved it and used it ever since - takes away the need for the tinned food.

[hat feeling guilty that she hasn;t prepared for a house this year...wonders if she should...]

i have made one while nannying

it was so fun and took the kids and i all day

had to make templates fo the walls etc
then make and cook the gingerbread
then assemble it
and then ice it

but we had great fun and it looked serioulsy amazing and tasted pretty good as well!