Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Tornado Strikes Gingerbread Village

I've never made a gingerbread house in my life.  Gingerbread has never appealed to me, and it looked like it would be too much money wasted on a bunch of candy and frosting that I really didn't need.  But....throw two kids into the mix and a mom who'll do anything to keep them occupied for at least fifteen minutes, and a gingerbread house looks quite appealing!!

As I did my daily perusing of Pinterest, I found this cute little DIY gingerbread house idea using graham crackers and frosting (via http://kellymoorebag.com/blog/?p=8923).  Oh Kelly, how you made such cute little houses -- I thought I would make mine look just like your little gingerbread homes.

I have graham crackers up the wazoo in my cupboard.  I cut them as Kelly suggested.  I purchased some candy for decorations, whipped up my easy-peasy powdered sugar frosting and we were set.  This was gonna be so much fun...or so I thought...
 Oh, the importance of reading the directions CAREFULLY!!!  As Kelly suggests, I should have used a "gluier" frosting, not my little homemade concoction.  Our gingerbread houses kept collapsing, and the kitchen table looked like the aftermath of a Christmas tornado.  If anything stood it was because we formed it into a cube shape since house shapes did not last for more than thirty seconds before collapsing.
My daughter was frustrated at the process and opted to make a gingerbread house sandwich.
So, my one suggestion to make this a success is to use "Royal Icing", or use a frosting that is made with egg whites (not powdered sugar).
Here is Jack's house, it was the closest we came to a real gingerbread house and it lasted about a whole minute.
I think I'll try this one again (maybe next year though)...the memories of the Holly Jolly Christmas Tornado are just too fresh yet.

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