Mom came to visit this weekend and we spent the time building our very first gingerbread house.
I picked up the kit a couple weeks earlier from the grocery store. It was labeled as “easy” with a 2 out of 4 simplicity rating. The image on the box certainly made it look simple and adorable.
A lot of things went hilariously wrong, but I’ll say that the biggest issue was the icing. It just wasn’t strong enough! It took multiple tries to get that darn barn to stay in place. The walls kept buckling when we began stacking the 4-piece roof.
Oh! And about that roof! It originally came in 2 pieces that were scored down the center. One had to simply break the pieces in half. I managed to snap the first in half with such force that one of the pieces went flying off of the table and broke on the floor.
Fortunately I had the forethought to pick up some additional decorating items for our gingerbread manor, including white chocolate melting candy. That stuff hardens quickly and holds like cement! It ended up taking the place of the white frosting for many spots that needed a little extra hold. It also was handy for making icicles that hung from the roof overhang.
“Painting” the doors and windows with frosting turned out to be tricky also. The house was already assembled, so you have to mind how forcefully you apply the icing. And it didn’t tend to stick to the stale gingerbread, so getting that luxuriously smooth finish that was advertised on the packaging was basically impossible.
Still, we didn’t give up and we managed to complete our funny little holiday treat.
