Gingerbread Houses

I can't believe how fast this year is speeding by ... and I feel so blessed to have married the man of my dreams in October.  Thank you all for sharing in our magical day by either being there with us or sending your thoughts and love our way.

I love a great Christmas project, so am starting our December blog on decorating my first Gingerbread house.  Mom, if we did gingerbread houses growing up, I don't recall, so Tim & I made an evening of decorating houses last night with his nieces, Molly & Emma.

I decided to purchase the pre-made gingerbread house, to save time ... and maybe next year I'll actually "bake" the gingerbread, as I'm sure many of you have done before.  I found boxed sets at Target and Costco for $9.99.  These are the three sets I bought and found Costco's house to be larger with more candy included (far right), which I would recommend to all. Target also had a build-your- own (set on left)... maybe for when I have more time and patience :)

The set included a bag of white frosting and green frosting, but I made additional frosting for all the extra candy I bought. 

FROSTING RECIPE (Kate, I'm sure you have better, but this was quick and easy!)

1. Blend 1 Cup Powdered sugar to 1 Tbls milk, which you can increase depending on quantity desired.
2. For stiffer frosting needed (trees below), add 2 Tbls softened butter to above ratio

I didn't realize how much candy already came with the set, so I also scored additional treats at CVS (great prices on sale) and the 99 Cent Store if you make your own house.

I used this Sweetopia blog for her video tutorials in making, assembling & decorating gingerbread houses.  It was a great resource for a first timer or just for new ideas.

Here is the result of my first decorated Gingerbread House:

I used Kellogg's Frosted Mini-Wheat cereal for my thatched roof and Bit-of-Honey's for the chimney.  Icicles were easy to add with a small tip for the frosting.

This Ice cream cone frosted tree idea is from Sweetopia, as well.  All you need is pointed ice cream cones, green colored frosting and a cake decorating leafor star tip for texture. 

I used the least expensive generic cones, which kept breaking, so I recommend buying namebrand for sturdier quality base to hold the frosting.

Back side

Molly decorating

We had such a fun evening on the last night of November, to start our first married Christmas season in a very festive way... shared with my Husband's (that word sounds so cool) nieces.  Here are Molly and Emma's handiwork with Uncle Tim.

Emma decorating

Emma and Molly's houses

 Let me know if you make a Gingerbread house this year or whether your family has a good Gingerbread house story.