Gingerbread House

Since the beginning of the month my children have been begging me to make them a gingerbread house. Their friends were making them and my children have fond memories of making one a couple years ago. I promised that it would happen and made good on my promise by purchasing candy for the project. With the candy safely stowed away, I hoped that my children would conveniently forget about the gingerbread house. Not entirely of course, just until there was more time to make it, whenever that would be.

My daughter, however, did not forget. No, there was not been a single day in the last month that she did not remind me about my promise. She would ask me at every opportunity, multiple times a day. Eventually, realizing that I needed a constant reminder she wrote a list and added it to my task board. The list included two items: haircut and gingerbread house (it actually read: eineerbreab house). The haircut has not happened but yesterday, to her immense pleasure, we started the process of making our gingerbread house.

This year we used the How to Make a Gingerbread House recipe and tutorial over at Simply Recipes. Making a gingerbread house from scratch is quite the project. First the dough must be made and chilled. The next steps involved cutting out the gingerbread house pattern, rolling the dough and cutting the dough into the proper shapes. After the pieces are baked they must cool and then be assembled using royal icing. Decorating the gingerbread house, the final step, is everyone’s favourite part. My children were involved during all parts of the process but my daughter was the most dedicated to the project, even more so than myself.

After my children finished decorating the gingerbread house something strange happened, they did not ask to eat any of it! Truly, I was surprised! Perhaps they wanted to admire their work before breaking it into pieces. I’m sure they will sneak down tomorrow morning to have a taste. If they don’t I sure will!