Gingerbread Houses

Is there any more fun to be had than using massive quantities of candy in order to glue together MORE CANDY?!!!… i think not.

it’s an amazing time to be had. i haven’t made gingerbread houses in over a decade. (and by gingerbread, i mean of course graham crackers… those delightfully frustrating, fragile, often warped, look at them funny and they’ll break, perfect for gingerbread house base architecture crackers… so perfect in fact, i think i pulled my hair out in JOY over just how fantastic it feels to work with them as they crumble beneath your oh so gentle manipulation…)

our candy selection was impressive, i’m not going to lie…

My favorites:

mini M&M’s … make great christmas lights, berries for wreaths, etc. Perfect size for gingerbread house scale)
Pull & Peel Twizzlers… these things are awesome, they make rope that can be used just about anywhere and is fun and easy to work with, i love it love it love it.
Cinnamon Toast Crunch… makes excellent shingles.
Powdered Sugar… ok, i may have gone a little overboard at the very end with the powdered sugar, it just makes GREAT snow!! so, it started to look like a blizzard had swept through my neighborhood before i realized i needed to lay off the fluffy confectioners’ assault.

We only had a couple disasters. My dad’s house fell apart, and then Alyson’s followed suit… it was 2 mini-tragedies.

Troopers that they were though, they both picked up the shattered pieces of their pride, and started over. GO TEAM!

We have decided that there may be some improvements that we will incorporate in our approach next year… these include possibly all starting with empty boxes of graham crackers to build around for structure support (Alyson’s genius idea, following the demise of her first attempt)… we also have considered baking our own gingerbread in pieces that can then be glued together with royal icing with little-to-no engineering necessary on our parts… We’ve considered getting one of those freezing aerosol cans to blow on the icing to dry it faster… i think these things might help us in the long run, though they all will be taking away somewhat from the creativity that makes all of our designs so unique… different shapes, sizes, and decorating.

what do you think?

and the winner is….

ALYSON!!!! her recovery from her initial misfortune makes the success of her ultimate creation (middle house) that much more impressive.

also….

it was her birthday

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALYSON!!! and congratulations on your big win,… until next year!

here she is about to enjoy the cupcakes i made her: Coconut Cupcakes with Pineapple Filling and Browned Butter Cream Cheese Frosting (needs a shorter name,… how about we call them Buttery Pina Colada… done and done)

Honorable Mentions:

Most Narrative:

Nick’s house included a mini-war being waged with unseen forces. A snowman army was created as a necessary response to the threat on his gingerbread house, and stationed like little sentinels in front of the door… they were outfitted with a cannon, for that final impenetrable touch.

The cannon, in all it’s peppermint patty glory….

sadly, even with the added reinforcements, there was a man lost… war isn’t pretty people.

Most Icing Used:

My dad’s response to his initial collapse was to make sure that barely a square inch of the cracker in his next attempt was visible under the onslaught of icing used to hold the unruly walls together. Congratulations Dad. I’m not sure that the “gingerbread” was even necessary… i have a feeling this house could have withstood the onslaught of Ike, with or without walls, once that sucker dried.

Most Intelligent Approach:

Ellen takes the prize for realizing in the beginning that “bigger is not always better”. She started small, and used her ambition on the exterior, rather than the construction. It paid off. No collapses for Ellen! And in the end, probably the most well put together, professional looking house that we had. GO ELLEN!

my FAVORITE part by far is the picket fence. Just lovely

Luckiest Architectural Success:

I’ll take the prize for my house, while overly ambitious in the size department, because it did NOT collapse people!!!! there were some tense moments, and the final product does have a pretty sad looking sagging wall, but it’s dry now, and it’s not movin’! GO ME! although next year, if we end up not using forms, i think i’ll take Ellen’s approach… the stress was almost too much to bear, as i watched my competitors one by one come crashing down…

also, i get kudos points for including the attic window from Christmas Vacation, AND coming up with the cinnamon toast shingle idea which was then stolen by all the copycats in the room.

We did NOT eat the gingerbread houses… i know that’s the next thing you were wondering. But we did have leftover candy, that i’m going to try to preserve until next year, when we can use it again candy like that lasts forever, right? plus, you’re not supposed to eat it anyway, this will just be that much more encouragement not to pop those mini m&m’s in my mouth as a reward after every structural accomplishment, with a little “go me!” in my head.

Merry Christmas!

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