Category Archives: Gingerbread

Not Your Average Gingerbread

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GingerBread Tank - front

GingerBread Tank - Back

We usually make a gingerbread house for Christmas and over the years there have been some very elaborate designs made by the children and their friends. This year B12 and I made a replica of a Hornet tank.

Aus Animals gingerbread

I also made a little more unconventional gingerbread including the animals above and the “Gingerdead Man” cutter courtesy of Andrew’s mum who is a very creative gift giver and knows our gingerbread making habits. He is fairly tricky to ice but I am going to persevere and try to make a whole gingerdead family!_DSC0736gingerdead man

Houses made in previous years:

2011 House

2008 House

2008 Church

2008 Village

2007 Lighthouse and Little House on the Prairie

2011 Gingerbread house

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Our children have made some fairly elaborate gingerbread houses with friends over the years. This year B11 and I went back to basics with a yummy little gluten free cottage.

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Houses made in previous years:

2008 House

2008 Church

2008 Village

2007 Lighthouse and Little House on the Prairie

Final Gingerbread Entries

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L14 and her friends P and E designed, built and decorated this house.     The group worked really well together as each participant had their own area of expertise which was employed as needed.

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As you can see the scale is quite big, there was definitely the need for a little structural reinforcement inside this one!

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A little frozen creek was added along with the pretzel bridge.

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The final entry  from the Group of Four, an outdoor hockey rink, was made by two of the boys, who did a fantastic job and managed to put it all together  in the shortest time.  It was funny to hear them discussing the details, they were not in the least concerned about how to make the lights stay up, or how to make a gingerbread sign, they were deep in conversation about the exact position of the gummy bear players.  They were setting up actual hockey plays!   I intended to get another picture from the other signs which would have showed the little “Ginger-rena” sign, but I didn’t get to it before it was taken to the competition.  See the little gingerbread zamboni yet to be positioned on the board.

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Gingerbread Church

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The gingerbread structures took quite some time to complete, as you can probably imagine.  We had scheduled three mornings but the church definitely needed more time.  Even though all the moms lobbied for a winter scene the girls making the church were determined to surround the church with a spring garden.  We were very impressed with their finished product, especially as it had all been their own design, from sketch and cardboard model through to completion.  By the way the stained glass windows will be shown off with little lights inside.

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Ducks on the pond:

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and graveyard out the back:

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They painstakingly put together the pretzel fence and sprinkled the parsley grass around.  There are also several  garden beds and a bridge over the pond.

Gingerbread houses completed

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Here is the finished lighthouse made by A11, H10 and B7. There was quite the negotiation session at the end in order to make a decision about adding the colour to the roof, but I think everyone was happy with the finished product.

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L13 and P12 were very happy with the “Little House” when they finished. You can’t see it very well in this picture but there is a chimney which is made from chocolate rocks held together with brown icing mortar.

Entries close tomorrow and judging is next weekend. I’ll let you know how they go.

Gingerbread houses (cont.)

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L13 and P12 are fixing the walls of the Little House on the Prairie with icing. You can see a blob of icing on the inside of the house which is my attempt at reinforcement as I picked up that piece while it was still warm and it cracked a little.

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H10 is lining the third wall of the pentagonal lighthouse with icing before attaching it to the walls A11 is holding in place. The construction phase finished yesterday and the houses are sitting on our kitchen table waiting for the last of the decorating to happen tomorrow.

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Gingerbread houses

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It has been a few years since we made a gingerbread house, although we make and decorate gingerbread cookies every year. Often we make plans and dream up elaborate ideas but then run out of time to make the house. This year we have entered a competition so the plans are coming to fruition.

L13 has teamed up with her friend P12. B7, A11 and H10 are working together and the two creations are very different. Initially each team was keeping their designs a secret, but a slip was made and discussions over heard so they shared their plans with each other. As neither house is traditional they had to come up with their own plans. L and A spent quite a while drafting and then made mock-ups with cardboard.

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Last night we mixed, rolled, cut and baked gingerberad for three hours, heading off to bed around 11pm tired but very happy with all the necessary pieces for one lighthouse and one replica of the “Little House on the Prairie”. Not only were all the pieces cut, but windows and doors also. Before baking we put white candies in the window spaces which melted to make milky white panes.

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Drop in tomorrow and hopefully I will have the next part of the process up for you to see.

Gingerbread

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We have begun making gingerbread again. Once we begin we make it almost everyweek until mid January at least. We give it away, we sell it at bake sales, we decorate it with friends and, of course we eat it. The recipe was a Jill Dupleix “Recipe of the Week” on the Doug Aiton radio program in 1995 and I have used it ever since.

Gingerbread

3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup golden syrup
90g butter
1 tbsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp fresh grated ginger
1 tbsp bicarbonate of soda
500g plain flour
pinch of salt
2 eggs, beaten

Combine sugar, golden syrup, butter, spices and fresh ginger in a heavy-based pan over low heat, and let melt, stirring. Remove from heat for two minutes, and stir in bicarbonate of soda until light and fluffy

Sift flour and salt into a large mixing bowl. Make a well in the centre, add eggs and gradually add the syrup, beating until all the flour is incorporated and you have a dough. Wrap dough in plastic and chill for an hour.

Heat oven to 180 degrees celsius, and roll out dough thinly on a floured surface. Cut into shapes and place on trays lined with baking paper. Bake for ten minutes.

Remove from oven and let cool for five minutes before removing from tray. Cool on a wire rack. This makes about 25 cookies depending on what size cutters you use.