Gingerbread House Magic
With everything that has gone virtual this year, that meant the company holiday party also took the virtual route, allowing us to enjoy some holiday cheer for a few hours with each other. So what does a holiday party look when it’s virtual? Well, we had a gingerbread house competition. The company sent each person a box that had all the supplies to make a gingerbread house, so that included pre baked and shaped gingerbread cookie, frosting, sprinkles, and candy for decorating. Being a competition though, I went and got a few extra supplies (which was not against the rules, the only rule was not to start before the party). Those supplies included sliced almonds, powder sugar, meringue powder, and food coloring. I wasn’t a big fan of the bright colors that came in the kit and wanted to make my own royal icing to use.
The day of the party, I got everything set up prior to have it all organized and ready to go, which included putting the sprinkles and candies into separate bowls, and make the royal icing. To make the royal icing, I used the meringue powder as a substitute for egg whites. Combining the meringue powder with water, and powdered sugar is the easiest way to make royal icing. I opted out of adding vanilla extract because this was not being made for consumption but just as decoration. This also makes it easier for the white icing as it wont have that slight brown tint to it that happens with vanilla extract. One can simply add white food gel to the mix to get rid of that though.
What you need:
Pre-baked house pieces
Almond slices/flakes
White & green royal icing
Holly & berry candy
Mini dark chocolate nonpareils
Powdered sugar
ASSEMBLY
Cut the gingerbread house to make a more appealing A-frame shaped cottage. I simply took the front of the house and added diagonal cuts from bottom of the roof towards the door. I made sure this was identical on each side and then repeated on the back piece.
Setting the gingerbread walls together. Allow enough time for this to dry completely. (At least 10 minutes for icing to set, ideally overnight though.)
Attach your roof, since this was a kit, it was a little easier with the notches, but again allow to dry completely before decorating.
Pick out the most intact flaked/sliced almonds for the roof and begin attaching. You will draw a line of icing on the bottom of the roof and attach the pieces individually. Once that row is complete, draw another line in icing slightly above the row you just placed and again stick your sliced almonds onto the icing. This will allow the almonds to be slightly overlapped and look like real shingles. Repeat until you have reached the top of the roof and then start on the other side.
Attach chocolate candies (or whatever you would like) to the top of the roof. This will help bridge the gap that exists between the two pieces of roof as well as give it some ornate decoration.
Starting with the sides of the house, use your white icing to make windows and window sills (simply adding a line or two beneath the window). If you want to go the extra mile, you can make the windows feel a bit more homey by adding a half circle to the top and putting in grilles to give the appearance that the windows have glass panes.
Working with the white icing, move to the front and back and add your door and any type of additional detail you would like. I went for a vintage whimsical vibe for mine. Play around with it too. You don’t always have to use just lines. For my door, I tried out using dots to give it a bit more detail.
Switch to the green icing and add in your decorative wreaths and garland. It is easier to do this last so that you can overlap the white icing if needed, and this helps to make it look more realistic as if it was actually hanging from the roof. Using a star tip in your icing bag, pipe onto the house the garland first making a wave like pattern. Before doing your wreath above the door, add in some red candy. You can do this all along the garland if you would like or just where it is pinned to the house as I did. Next do your wreath above the door and add in your decorative candy.
Now that the house is almost complete, allow the icing that is on there to dry for a few minutes before going back in for our final details. I recommend starting to clean up while we wait so we have a place to show off the gingerbread house once we are done. When you are ready, you will want to take your white icing again and apply the snow onto the house, you can add it in clumps on the top of the roof and then on the edges, make icicles with it.
Almost complete! Finally we take some powdered sugar and dust around the house and on top to give it that fresh snow look. Add any additional decorations you would like. I had some spare toy pine trees that completed the look.
The biggest lesson that came from building this is patience. The roof alone took so much time and was very tedious. The final result though proves it was worth the time investment though. A lot of people in the group got there families in on the fun which was a pleasure to see as well. If I were to do this again, I would 100% recommend making the frame of the house the night before just so it is completely sturdy as you are decorating. I also have thought about how it could be easier to actually decorate the sides before assembling the house together just so you are working with a flat surface as you lay all this detail on it but I am not sold on if that would help the end result.
Overall, have fun with it! I was going for a very specific look and did not utilize a lot of the candy in the kit but if that is what makes your heart happy, then I fully embrace you utilizing the tools in front of you and making the house perfect for you.
