Gingerbread Man and House {Virtual Fridge}

This Week
Yesterday we went to help my Mom make a gingerbread house.  It's so much fun to make these and a lot easier than you think.  I have a three part tutorial if you're keen to give it a go.

Nathaniel had a load of fun decorating some gingerbread biscuits and eating them.

If you are keen to do some fun Gingerbread Men unit studies with your children be sure to  take a look at my Gingerbread Man Unit Study post.

Featured This Week

Amber from over at From ABC's to ACTs has the cutest Paper Chain Snowman Christmas Countdown tutorial.

Your Turn

I invite you to take some photo's of your children's artistic pursuits put them in a post and link up with me I would love to come over and see the wonderful art your children have enjoyed doing.

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Blessings
Chareen

Connect with me

 

The Virtual Fridge a weekly art meme where we can hang our children's art on a virtual fridge. This meme was started by Jennifer over at A Glimpse of our Life who kindly invited three other bloggers to co-host this weekly meme.

Your hosts are

An InLinkz Link-up

The Gingerbread Village 2013

Last year we discovered the Gingerbread Village by Epicure. This is an annual display at the Melbourne Town Hall.  Entry is by gold coin donation, all funds raised are donated to the Make-A-Wish Foundation Australia. This year they had some more sights and sounds of Melbourne. This year the Royal Melbourne Zoo featured.

Be sure to click on each picture to see it in full screen.

This is definitely a tradition worth adding to your annual outings in Melbourne.  If you have never seen the village before be sure to note it in your diary and take a look next year.  The detail is amazing.  It must take the chef's hours and hours of hard work to bring the Gingerbread City to life. 

Blessings
Chareen


Photo collages made with: Photoscape a FREE photo editor

Gingerbread House - Part III Construction

Part One - Making Gingerbread.

Part Two- Royal Icing

The number one rule is: PATIENCE  Allow ample time between each step to allow the icing to completely dry.  This will give your house the best possible structural integrity and help prevent collapses.

• Place a thick line of royal icing along each side of each side wall.
• Press sides together
• Hold up with tins from your pantry
• Wait till dry.  Approximately 2 hours 

• Fill the center of your house with something.  I filled this one with some little toys for the family.
• Place a thick line of icing along the roof line of the house.
• Place something to support the roof along the side of the house until the roof glue has set. I am using two Tupperware mini tumblers.
• Place the roof in place resting on the supports.
•  Do the same for the other side.
• Allow at least two hours to dry and set.

Completed House

To make the grass look I mixed some coconut with green food colouring and sprinkled it around the base.

Trouble Shooting

• I had a problem with a house roof collapsing and the cause was the environment was too humid. The gingerbread pieces had absorbed water and softened.  To correct the issue I put the pieces back in a cool oven (the lowest temperature my oven would go to) and dried the pieces out.  I then put a thin layer of icing on the back of the roof to fortify it before constructing the house.
• I had walls collapse once too.  I had used water icing to glue the grass (green coloured coconut) in place and the liquid had absorbed up the walls.  I now place a line of royal icing along the complete base of my house and use a runny royal icing to glue the coconut grass. 

If you have made a gingerbread house and blogged about it please leave a link in the comments section as I would love to see what you made.

Blessings

Gingerbread House Tutorial - Royal Icing.

Part One - Making Gingerbread.

Part Three - Construction

Patience and more patience is the key to making gingerbread houses.  Give yourself a generous amount of time to allow the royal icing (the glue) to set.

Making Royal Icing.

Ingredients.

• 1 Large Egg White
• 450 grams / 1 lb PURE icing sugar
• 1 teaspoon Lemon Juice
• glycerin (I don't use this)

** Make sure you use PURE icing sugar and NOT a icing mix.  Icing sugar mixes contain other ingredients and when used wont set.

Method:

• Make sure your bowl and utensils are dry
• Separate the egg.
• Beat egg white till soft
• Slowly add icing sugar and beat well between each addition.
• When you have a thick mix
• Add in the Lemon juice.
• Continue adding sugar until your icing holds it's peak.  It should be quite thick but not dry.  It needs to hold a stiff peak.

Next 

• Gather your ideas.  I have kept photo's of past houses, magazine cut outs, Christmas cards, Advertising mailers etc and Google has some great images.

Ready to decorate

• I used to use a material icing bag but don't anymore.  The egg white tends to ooze through the material and make your hands very sticky.  I now use a plastic icing bag with my icing nozzle.  
• When setting icing aside cover it with a damp tea towel or else it will dry and set.

Making roof tiles.

• 1 pack of wafer biscuits.
• Cut the wafer in half 
• Separate the wafer to make thinner tiles.

• Cover the roof section with a thick coat of icing.
• Stagger the tiles on the roof section.

Completed roof sections

Decorate:

• Stock up on lollies and decorate the side panels
• I used mini M & M's

Now wait for the icing to set rock hard.

Blessings

Ginger Bread House Tutorial (PT 1)

Part Two - Royal Icing.

Part Three - Construction

I first made a ginger bread house about 15 years ago and had so much fun doing it !  Since then I have made a few for friends and family.  I have also had a few disasters.  So I decided I would share a few of the things I have learned along the way.

If you don't have a pattern you can go to Gingerbread House Heaven there are some fantastic templates available from their site.  Start simple and once you get the hang of the basic method move to something more complex.

My recipe and templates are from this collection.  I photo copied the patterns for long levity.

One day I wanted to make a smaller house so I used a photo copy machine and downsized the pattern.  This is the result.




Ingredients:

• 75 grams / 3 oz  butter
• 4 tablespoons treacle
• 4 tablespoons syrup
• 100 grams / 4 oz soft brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons cold water
• 450 grams / 1 lb flour
• 1 tablespoon bicarbonate of soda
• 1 1/2 tablespoons ground ginger
• 1 tablespoon ground mixed spice
• 1 beaten egg

Method

• Combine butter, treacle, syrup and sugar in a pan over LOW heat.
• Stir till butter melts and sugar dissolves.
• ** Do NOT boil or over heat this makes a soft toffee which in turn makes your dough tough.
• Set aside to cool
• Add water and beaten egg.

• Combine the dry ingredients.
• Make a well and pour in the melted butter mixture.
• Mix well.

• Use your fingers to gather the dough into a ball.
• It should be a soft pliable ball.
• Let it stand for 15 min
• If it is too soft or sticky work in a little extra flour.

• I roll my dough straight onto the back of a cookie baking sheet.
• A lot of recipes say roll onto baking paper then place on baking tray.  I tried this and found that the pieces warped and never lay flat.
• I sprinkle flour straight onto the back of my tray and roll
• ** Do NOT use spray and cook or butter or oil !  This makes your ginger bread soft and it will not crisp up and in turn not retain it's structural integrity.
• It needs to be around 3 mm / 1/8 inch thick

• Preheat over to 190'C / 375'F / gas 5
• Bake for 8 - 10 minutes until puffed up and dry.
• Leave till cool enough to handle.
• If my pieces stick I use a sharp knife to lift them off.
• Cool completely on a rack.
• Cook like size pieces together.  If you cook large and small bits together the larger pieces will be undercooked and smaller bits over cooked.

As you can see I managed to chip off a corner.  I will "glue" this back with royal icing when putting it together.

With the left over dough I made gingerbread men for Sir N to decorate!

Happy Baking
Blessings

This post is linking to:

• Food Friday at The Singing Sparrow,   
• My Christmas Breakfast at Comfy in the Kitchen, 
• Christmas Cookie Swap at Our Simple Country
• Home Made for the Holidays day 6 over at Luv Laughter & Happily Ever After.