I built a House!

A Gingerbread House that is...incase you thought I'd suddenly abandoned the art of Cakeage to become a house...builderer (It's a job)


This was my 12 hour labour of love.

And it all began with the creaming of some butter and sugar...

(I literally took step by step pictures in case you had trouble imagining what the creaming of butter looked like...)



Add a lovely mound of dark sugar...




Creamy creamy...(don't eaty eaty...)


Then you add the syrup of Satan...Treacle. The most sickliest, thickest, gloopiest substance known to man kind.

Nice arty shot of treacle for your viewing pleasure...

Then mix this into your butter and sugar...

Image of the actual mixing process...just so you can check you're er, doing it right...

LOADS of ground ginger! Yes it will make people choke when they eat your fiery, gingery gingerbread, but all that means is your gingerbread will be tasty and entertaining...and mildly life threatening...

Again, you may need reminding of what mixing looks like...(Ok I admit I got a little carried away photographing things...)

Then we add flourery peaks of flour!

Tip that lot into your buttery, sugary, gingery, treacly mix with a couple o' tablespoons of water and mix until it resembles something resembling what you would imagine gingerbread dough looks like! (Kinda stiff...brown thing, see below)

Above is the dough after getting a little chilly in the frige for half an hour in a coat of clingfilm

Then! I rolled it to about a 1/4 inch thick. But if you're going for a winter friendly house and thus want thermo insulated walls, make it about an inch thick to keep the warmth in.

Then! Mark out your walls and roofage.

Side walls: W-5 inches, H-3 inches

Roofage: W-6 inches, H-6 inches

Back and frontage: W-5 1/2 inches, H-6 1/2 inches at the peak!

And go mental with your cookie cutter...

Cook your house for about 15 mins...Don't worry that it feels strangely squidgy when you take it out the oven; resist the urge to poke and let it harden up!

Then let rip with with the royal icing! A recipe for which you can find here

Outlines of things make it look prettyful...

I baked a huge gingerbread cookie in a pan as the base for my house and did a nice swirly pattern around it!

And lined all my little jelly men on top of house...they're not suicidal about to jump off...they're just admiring the view...

So you basically want to buy bucketfuls of pick n' mix and throw the stuff all over your gingerbread house! In a tasteful, artful and considered way of course...

Tudaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

The recipient (My Brother) was 'speechless' upon receiving it as a christmas present, so get making! And render everyone you know speechless!

(No jelly babies were harmed in the making of my house so please don't report me to the Care, Protection and Misuse of Jelly Babies authorities...)