Anyone Interested In Doing A Gingerbread House Thread
Decorating By thefrostedcakencookie Updated 19 Nov 2014 , 9:27am by MBalaska
Ok I have been reading through this whole thread and need help. I started last week baking my gingerbread house pieces using Christine Banner's blonde GB recipe I got at Convention this year. They firmed up perfectly but I was unable to decorate during this week. So I started putting the house together yesterday and now I am noticing the pieces are softening. EEEEEk! It has been rainy and humid the last two days. I have not put the roof on yet for fear that it will collapse.
Do I need to start all over or can I wait until the weather dries out (predicted this weekend) and the pieces will dry out? H=E=L=P
Parable, can you put them on a cookie sheet in the oven for a few minutes to dry them out again? I wonder if that would work.
I've done it in different applications. You don't want to re-cook it, just dry it out a bit. Let's see what the others say but I don't see why it wouldn't work.
Parable, the oven for a few minutes will definitely work. Just make sure to use low heat and watch it closely. Another trick that can work is using a small lightbulb on the inside of the house for a few hours or overnight (just as if you were lighting it up for aesthetics.) Since you've already built your house's base, it might be impossible for you to now do this permanently (unless you can cut a hole on the back near the bottom somewhere and then later cover it up a bit with decorations, but you can always stick a light down in it through a window (or the top if our roof is still off.) A light inside kept on several hours a day can keep a finished house dry in humid climates. It's kind of like a built-in easy-bake-oven. Good luck!
KHalstead, you can try one of my free templates and shrink it on a photocopier: http://www.gingerbread-house-heaven.com/free-patterns-for-gingerbread-houses.html
The 2nd one, the cottage/cabin would be very cute smaller. It's simple (no windows on the sides, and just a simple window and door on the front) but ends up looking like a cute little elf house. There are example photos on the last page of that template (and the other free one too) to give the kids ideas/inspiration.
Have fun!
Kelly
http://www.gingerbread-house-heaven.com
... Does anyone have a cute little house template by any chance?? I'm thinking my best bet would be to make cookie cutters for all the shapes so I don't have to spend as much time cutting around a template since I do have to make 15 of them.
I hope I can do this!!
I've only made one gingerbread house (!!) and it was a pain to cut it out. I got better at it as I went along. But I can't imagine cutting out 15 of them!
Here are some free templates:
http://www.gingerbread-house-heaven.com/free-patterns-for-gingerbread-houses.html
Here are the two cutter sets I've ordered.
Cakes by Jan
http://www.cakesbyjan.com/store/index2.asp?ID=105
Country Kitchen Sweetart
http://www.countrykitchensa.com/catalog/product.aspx?T=1&productId=615351
I like the copper one from Kitchen Collectables, but it's $65:
http://www.kitchengifts.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=S-GIHOU&Category_Code=
I'm planning on doing 15 gingerbread houses for the kids in my class at school (4-6th graders) Does anyone have a cute little house template by any chance?? I'm thinking my best bet would be to make cookie cutters for all the shapes so I don't have to spend as much time cutting around a template since I do have to make 15 of them.
I hope I can do this!!
You can do it! It will strech your patience and be a headache but it's well worth it. I work as a recreation therapist at a home for troubled kids. Every year we make gingerbread houses from scratch. The wonderful cutters I use are from a discontinued "Mini Gingerbread House" set that Wilton made about 15 years ago. I got my cutters from Ebay but had to wait quite a while to find them. These are great because the houses are smaller but still have plenty of space to stuff candy on! Also a full batch of gingerbread dough will do about 3 houses.
If you want to make cutters yourself, the front/back is 3 1/2" base, 3" tall @ side, and 4" tall at the peak. (It's the "house-shaped' one.) The side piece is rectangle, 3" tall and 3 1/2" long. The roof piece is another rectangle, 3" by 4 1/2". These houses fit well on a 8-10" cake circle with plenty of room to decorate a yard!
Other hints: I break this project up into about 4 sessions: 1) make the dough, 2) role, cut, and bake it, 3) assemble the house, and 4) decorate it. If you try to do it all in one sitting the kids will max out their direction following abilities long before you finish! If you all have lots of stamina, you could try in only 2 sessions.
Remember to have them role and cut the dough on sheets of foil for easy transfer to baking sheets. Tears when a piece falls to pieces just aren't fun!
Sugar ice cream cones for christmas trees are a great way to spice up a little house. (Simply use the leaf tip to cover it with spiky needles!)
Also, Lillian Vernon once made a metal cutter set for a full sized gingerbread house. You might be able to find one of those on eBay as well.
Let me know if you want anymore hints! Blessings!
[email protected]
bob and Kelly,
I tried to respond this morning but CC went down.
Thanks for the suggestions. I have had the GB in the oven with just the light on for awhile. But I had used candy melts as the glue and it started to soften so I turned the light off. It has been raining on and off today and the humidity is horrible. When I checked, here is what had happened. Guess I am going to be baking tomorrow. The other pieces seem to be harding again so hopefully some will survive. I'm going to leave everything in the oven over night to keep the humidity away. Wish me luck!
p.s. I put my little marshmellow huts in the over too to dry out.
I've been having the same problem with my gb, parable. IT just won't dry out 
. I have had it together since last weekend and have been working on it since then. I am trying to be gentle. It was good for a couple days (the rain stopped), but I noticed today it is soft again. It's been pouring all day. My cross in the center, which is made from melted Jolly Rancher candies, is dripping, too. It's actually kind of eery - like God is crying or something. Anyway, I will just be glad to have it delivered tomorrow. I am entering it in a local contest - they leave the gingerbreads up until after the New Year. I didn't win last year. I am hoping to win this year. It is a replica of my church - pastors and all. 
Though, I have more people in my choir.
If you know anything else to help the humidity, let me know. So far, it hasn't fallen apart. Tomorrow will be the test day. Wish me luck!
What if you stored the pieces in a closed container with desiccants? You know, those little packets of tiny white balls you find in new purses and shoe boxes. I thought about putting them in with my GB house once I pack it up for storage. The container store sells them. (I've never tried this, mind you. They definitely would be for something not meant to be eaten!)
http://www.containerstore.com/browse/Product.jhtml?searchId=16959151&itemIndex=1&CATID=60437&PRODID=10014951
KHalstead, you can try one of my free templates and shrink it on a photocopier: http://www.gingerbread-house-heaven.com/free-patterns-for-gingerbread-houses.html
Have fun!
Kelly
http://www.gingerbread-house-heaven.com
Kelly,
Thank you so much, I printed the basic gingerbread house template and instructions, I just went into my preferences for printing and had it print 75% of normal size and center it on the page and I think it's perfect!!!
It's only about 3.5 inches wide (the front piece) by 6" tall (the peak of the roof) and 5" long from the front to the back!
How adorable are these little houses gonna be??? I can't wait!!!
Well the rain stopped yesterday and the weathermen say cool and DRY the rest of the week. YIPPY!
Trumpet, your church is way cool. The details are amazing. It reminds me of the church I grew up in except the woodwork was lighter. I am really really sorry about the crying cross. I was going to cover some pieces of GB with melted jolly ranchers, but now I am rethinking that. Hope everything goes well with your delivery.
Maria, the huts are just marshmellows with MMF cone shaped roofs glued on top. Try and pick out stable marshmellows or else they topple over. Which is what is happening now with mine because I added candy melt straw to the roof using the grass tip.
Honeydukes, thanks for the idea of using the drying agent. Great idea.
All you guys have been a life saver. I'll keep you posted!
I'm so excited! Over the past weekend, I cleaned out a basement full of old magazines, etc. I came across a bunch of old Christmas issues of Woman's Day, Good Housekeeping, etc. from the sixties, seventies, and eighties. Many of them had GREAT patterns for gingerbread houses. I saved the patterns and hope to use at least one of them this year. It is a Gingerbread Toy Cottage. I make little houses to give away as gifts and have friends whose children look forward to them every year. I thought it would be fun to make all the kiddos their very own "Toy Shoppe" this Christmas.
Well, I am finished and the gingerbread house was a success (still standing). We turned it in and this past Tuesday, won "Best in Class - Amateur Fantasy". Hooray! Now we have to wait until December 23rd to find out who wins "People's Choice". The Rotary will also be auctioning off the entries to benefit Ronald McDonald House, Habijax and Jax Historical Society. Anyone want to bid?
Parable, what a great display!! Very cool!! 
Thanks bob!
Here is the link to the video and pictures the local news made of the gingerbread extravaganza:
http://www.jacksonville.com/community/
As for my secret of the tornedo. The RKT structure was molded on a PVC pipe bolted to the bottom board and a bracket screwed into the top of the pipe and a 4" x 6" metal plate super glued onto the bracket. The top of the pipe was first cut at an angle so the metal plate would be at an angle to hold the house. The house was on a foamcore board that was super glued onto the metal plate. Other than humidity, that sucker isn't goin' anywhere.
The idea came from those who have shared their instructions for the pouring coke can cakes. Thanks CC family.
haha parable, that is AWESOME! how creative!
well i finally finished what i consider the unfun part of it all. i have it all put together and ready to decorate! i've even got all the rice crispy treat "furniture" finished and ready for fondant, just no pictures of them yet.
heres the house so far.
Hi all! I just wanted to post a pic of one of my finished projects for this year- I'm kind of excited and proud of it- it's in my gallery, too.
Everyone's stuff looks great and makes mine look rinky dink. I wanted to do something big and impressive for the festival of trees this year, but then decided since they acution them off I thought it might be more practical and bring in more money to do a few smaller things. I posted the church one already. It was made from the leftover Halloween kit I got for $2 at Kmart. But I'm going to post the picture again. It for over $50 last night. I couldn't belive it. I was pretty happy with how my mill house turned out but thought the yard could use something, I just ran out of time. My 16 year old son did the tree and his girlfriend the fireplace. I think we are done with gingerbread for this year.
Wow, you ladies are so talented, all of these are beautiful!
I'm baking my first ever gingerbread today to make a house this week. I've made them from pre-made stuff before, but I want to try one from scratch. I hope to replicate our house that we live in 
hopefully it will look SOMETHING like it.
I'll keep you posted and I'm sure I'll have tons of questions. Thanks for the inspiration everyone!
P.S. I was planning on using the recipe found in the recipe section here, is this o.k. for a VIRGIN like me? It's called My Favorite Gingerbread Dough.
Boy I was hoping this thread hadn't died out, I guess it didn't!! So many cool ideas here, this ain't your grandma's gingerbread house!
I've been threatening to do this for years and this year I'm biting the bullet, hope to make my gingerbread dough today and work out my templates.
As for the pictures in this thread your not making gingerbread houses at all, they are gingerbread masterpieces!!!
Fabulous stuff, I'll be happy this year if mine has four walls and a roof, lol. Your all an inspiration and I reckon that if you can do all those things with gingerbread, I can definitely make a house of some sorts.
Will keep you posted...
Gorgeous gingerbread creations everybody!! 
I've done one a year over the past 3 years, the first year was a do it yourself box and I have no pictures! LOL!
This year I have been behind and am using a template I found online, I've just been too busy to start from scratch. I am posting my houses from 2006 and 2007, I hope to get 2008 done by next week!
2006 House:
2007 House:
Hi everyone,
This is my first attempt at a "real" gingerbread house. I made a copy of my own home, created a template and cut it out on the dough. It took me about 16 hrs total for construction and decorating. It was a lot of work, but I had fun. It's all edible. I'll try to attach a photo of my own home and my GB house.
Thanks everyone for all the good tips and the inspiration that made this possible for me. CCer's are priceless!
I'm so excited! Over the past weekend, I cleaned out a basement full of old magazines, etc. I came across a bunch of old Christmas issues of Woman's Day, Good Housekeeping, etc. from the sixties, seventies, and eighties. Many of them had GREAT patterns for gingerbread houses. I saved the patterns and hope to use at least one of them this year. It is a Gingerbread Toy Cottage. I make little houses to give away as gifts and have friends whose children look forward to them every year. I thought it would be fun to make all the kiddos their very own "Toy Shoppe" this Christmas.
Hey Win--if you're still lurking around on this thread....I collected lots of old patterns from those same magazines---I loved when Good Housekeeping used to feature Gingerbread Houses and their competition in the December issue...ah, the good old days.
I lost one of the patterns and have looked all over the web for it---it was of a Gingerbread Swan--here is the picture I did years ago http://cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=1180412 If when you go through all of them you happen to run across it (maybe from the late 70s or maybe 80s) I would love to get a copy (beg, beg).
I stopped doing Gingerbread for a lot of years and finally broke down and made one last year based on the class I took some 35 years ago..here's a picture http://cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=1174540 and have re-created the swan pattern as best I could and am working on it this weekend.
I've copied some of the patterns from the old magazines and put them on my website for anyone to download if they like. There's a Santa's Tugboat, a Santa's Train, a 3-story Dollhouse w/furniture, a 3-dimensional angel, and an Icing Church--while not Gingerbread still very holiday festive--just finished a new one last weekend http://cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=1292551 So if anyone is interested you can see them at: http://costumepastimes.com/pages/cakes_more/gingerbread_patterns/gingerbread_patterns.htm
And lastly, I too wish we could have a separate Gingerbread category here--looks like folks make these not just for Christmas and Halloween but Easter too...how cool is that?!
Guess there were a lot of photo uploads today since my photo only appeared for a minute or two (guess that happens a lot). But mainly wanted to share with the other Gingerbread enthusiasts take here on CC.
I recreated that pattern I had lost and also found a great picture of a ceramic swan to use to help create the face. I couldn't figure out how to put the picture in here but here's the link to my photo: http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=1294412
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