Gingerbread house in April!

Heh.

My apologies. It is April, with Easter fast approaching and I am only now writing about the gingerbread house I made December last year!

Well, as they say, better late than never eh?

 Anyway, this time around, I made the royal icing using meringue powder, and it didn't quite stiffen up very well. It ended up slightly  runny and took ages to dry!! The year before, I used real egg whites and the royal icing turned out really good.

I'm not sure if it's the powder, or whether it's about time I got myself a proper Kitchen Aid or Kenwood standing mixer! Right now I'm still using my trusty ol' hand-held mixer....


Okay, for those who live in tropical climes like me, here are a few tips I learned the hard way!!

1. Do not stick on hard candy. They will melt and drip and make a mess all over! Use gummy sweets and      candy coated chocolates instead, or sweets still wrapped in their wrappers (like plastic wrapped candy canes). Here I used gumpaste to make the candy canes and wreath. That seems to work best.

2. Do not use biscuits either! I used those wafer rolls once as pillars for the house and they just softened and shriveled up in the humidity!

3. Make sure your royal icing is really stiff! Otherwise your gingerbread house will be falling apart and you'll have to support it for ages while it takes it's sweet time hardening!

4. I know a nice sloping roof with a long overhang gives a quaint 'cottage-y' look, but beware! I did that and after a couple of days, the gingerbread softened in the humidity and bits of roof that extended beyond the wall started dropping off!!!! *horror*!!

So, as you can see, I have not yet perfected the art of gingerbread house-making (far from it in fact)... But I will let you know whenever I learn anything new!

Can't wait till next Christmas!! ;)

Gingerbread house

I love gingerbread houses. There's something magical about an edible house covered in a myriad of colourful, enticing candies. It's like something out of your childhood dreams! Wouldn't a life-sized one be amazing? Just like Hansel and Gretel! :)

So anyway, I've never made a gingerbread house before this, only gingerbread men and Christmas trees and such. This year, I decided to try a whole house instead of just wee little men and trees. It's actually not hard to do at all!

First, I decided on the shape and size of  the house and made some templates from cardboard. A pentagonal shape for the front and back, a rectangle for the walls and another rectangle for the roofs. There were 3 pieces altogether.

Then I made the gingerbread dough following the recipe below.

After rolling out the dough, I used the templates to cut out the shapes. I made two of each shape, so I ended up with 6 pieces. For the front of the house (pentagonal shape), I used a round cutter to cut a hole near the top. I thought it looked cute, like a birdhouse, and the kids could also peep into it.

Then I baked the pieces and let them cool completely. Then, I basically glued them together using royal icing. Royal icing can be made using egg whites or meringue powder. I had some meringue powder, so I used that, because with raw egg whites, there is always the risk of salmonella.

Anyway, I wanted the royal icing to be stiffer, so it would dry faster. I reduced the water, and it was so stiff that my hand-held mixer broke!! I had to continue whisking by hand!

After gluing the structure together, we get to the fun part; sticking on the candies! This is where you can let your imagination run wild and design the candy house of your dreams! :) Just pipe royal icing onto where you want your candies to go and stick on the sweets before the icing dries.

This is definitely a great pre-Christmas activity for the kids. Next year I hope to put in more effort and make some gumpaste decor like candy canes, which will make the houses even more gorgeous!

Anyway, here is the recipe for the gingerbread and also royal icing:



GINGERBREAD

350g plain flour
1-2 tsp ground ginger
1-2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
100g butter, softened
175g soft light brown sugar
1 egg
4 tbsp golden syrup or honey (use molasses if you want a darker, chewier gingerbread)

Sift and mix flour, ground ginger and cinnamon and bicarbonate of soda into a mixing bowl.

Rub in butter.

Add sugar and mix well.

Stir in syrup and egg.

Mix well to form a firm dough.
Roll to 5mm thickness and cut.
Bake on a greased and floured tray at 180 degrees Celsius for 10-25 minutes or until golden brown.

ROYAL ICING

Royal Icing Using Egg Whites:
2 large egg whites
2tsp lemon juice
3 cups (330g) icing sugar, sifted

Royal Icing Using Meringue Powder:
4 cups (440g) icing sugar
3 tbsp (30g) meringue powder
1/2tsp vanilla/ lemon/ almond extract
1/2-3/4 cup (120-180ml) warm water

Method:
Beat everything in a mixing bowl until stiff and spreadable.
Use more water if you want a runny icing and  less for stiffer icing.