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April's Christmas Gift Ideas - Crafts, Gingerbread House |
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Gingerbread House This is more personal than the traditional preplanned kit houses. The pieces can’t possibly be perfectly matched working this way, but the crudeness is extremely charming. Also a great deal of measuring and planning is eliminated, leaving time for much fun and decorating. The kids feel like it’s their creation. It is their very own house that they’d like to live in. Level: Easy Tools: No Tools Materials: - Approximately 6 boxes of Betty Crocker gingerbread mix - Shirt cardboard - A variety of candy trimmings such as M&M’s Candy kisses, red-hot hearts, gumdrops, shredded coconut (for snow), candy canes, peppermint circles, sour balls, colored chocolate balls and miniature Santas. - Icing Directions for a Gingerbread House 1. Begin with a child's drawing of his or her house. 2. Roll the gingerbread out on a large cookie tin. 3. Cut out the child's paper drawing to use as a pattern. 4. Use a knife to cut out each piece of gingerbread. You will need two identical pieces for the front and back and two for the sides. You will also need two pieces for the roof. Measure these carefully so they are large enough. 5. Cut four pieces for a chimney, if desired, and one for the front door. Cut away a triangle shape in the middle of two chimney pieces if they are to fit over the peak of the roof. 6. Make lines crisscrossing the roof pieces to simulate roof tiles. 7. Cut out sections where windows are indicated. Little extra details can be made as well: a tiny doorknob, window boxes, a porch- all made with gingerbread. 8. Bake the gingerbread according to the package directions. 9. Place a medium sized pan on the low burner of your stove and pour about two cups of sugar into the pan. This will begin to boil. Keep stirring so that it doesn't burn. It will begin to look like molasses. Use this to glue the sections of the house together. The mixture gets very hot and will cause a bad burn if it gets on your skin. Keep the children away from the stove while doing this. 10. When building the house, work quickly before the sugar cools. Hold the back section of the house in one hand and one side in the other. Dip the edges that will be joined into the hot sugar so that these two edges are completely coated. Hold together while placing them upright on the cardboard. 11. Join front and opposite side pieces in the same way. 12. To join these two "L" shapes, dip a knife into the hot sugar and spread it over the edges. Stick the house together and hold for a second or two while cooling. 13. Spread the sugar on all exposed edges and attach the roof pieces carefully. Do not press down too hard. Something may crumble. 14. Join the four sides of the chimney in the same way. Then spread the sugar over the bottom edge of the chimney and attach to the roof peak where it will look best. Fill in where necessary with sugar and keep in mind that anything can be covered up with frosting and decorations. 15. Make icing with confectioner's sugar, water and egg white, or use pre-made icing. 16. Squirt frosting along all seam lines and around windows and the doorway for a ruffled effect. This will cover up the dark sugar lines where pieces connect. 17. Empty packages of candy into different bowls and let the kids decorate as they see fit. Tiny marshmallows make the best bushes around the house and for lining a path. Gumdrops can be useful for this as well. Sprinkle coconut over the roof and around the cardboard. 
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