Decorating gingerbread houses

Last night for our Enrichment cooking activity we decorated gingerbread houses and sleighs under the tutelege of Barbara Young. Barbara has a tradition of making and decorating gingerbread houses for her family every year and we were privileged to have her share this tradition with us.

We met at the chapel at 7pm arms ladden with lollies and icing sugar and our creative hats on. The icing sugar was like an adhesive and it worked really well sticking the sides of the house together and then the roof and the door.

Barbara's house

Lilley-Mae making a sleigh with Mum Liz looking on

We then moved on to decorating our houses with lollies and lollies and more lollies. We even put lollies inside our houses before we put the roof on. There were so many different ideas and they all turned out fantastic. It did not matter if you were really precise or kind of just threw your lollies on, they all looked amazing.

Everybody was concentrating really hard and everynow and again there would be oohs and aahs ahhs as people admired each other's creations.




It was a really fun night but it can get very messy with all the icing sugar everywhere. Check out the mess on this table...........Sister Doig - surely that is not all your mess!!!

After a good 2 hours of work here are some of our creations. There are going to be some lovely table decorations this Christmas.






GINGERBREAD -

7 cups plain flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp each of ground ginger, ground cloves, cinammon
1/3 cup of oil
1 1/2 cups treacle
1 cup packed brown sugar
2/3 cup cold water

Mix oil, treacle and sugar in mixing bowl. Gradually add water until well mixed. Combine this with mixed dry ingredients. Oil tray and rolling pin and roll out in tray. Cut into gingerbread house using template. (see below. Bake at 150 degrees for 25-30 mins. (cooking time depends on thickness of gingerbread)

ROYAL ICING

3-4 egg whites (room temp)
500g pure icing sugar
1/2 tsp cream of tartar

Beat egg whites with cream of tartar until stiff then add icing sugar and beat until right consistency.

Egg Yolk Sponge - a recipe to use the egg yolks not used in the royal icing.

4 egg yolks
pinch salt
3tblsps water

Beat 1 min.
Add small cup sugar and beat until light and fluffy. Add i large cup SR flour and 3 tblsps milk. Fold in do not beat.

Bake 25 mins.

GINGERBREAD HOUSE AND SLEIGH TEMPLATES -