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Ho Ho Ho, Christmas is right around the corner and you still haven't made a Christmas treat!!! Don't panic, Santas elf is here to help you make a delicious Christmas treat.The treat that we will be making this Christmas is a classic gingerbread house. We are going to challenge ourselves by not just going to the grocery store to go buy a gingerbread house kit but instead make it ourselves from scratch. That's right, we are going to make homemade delicious gingerbread for our house. We will start by baking the gingerbread, making the royal frosting and then assembling the gingerbread house.
This is the list of things you'll need to bake your gingerbread and make your royal frosting
2-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 large egg
2/3 cup molasses
1/2 cup canola oil
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
For the royal icing
3-3/4 cups confectioners’ sugar
4 to 5 tablespoons warm water
3 tablespoons meringue powder
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
Special Equipment
Stand mixer or whisker
Piping bag
Bowls
Measuring cups
Tracing patterns
Cardboard
Knife
Measuring spoons
17x21x1-inch pan
Pastry tip
Cardboard
Ruler
Okay now that you’ve collected all the ingredients that you'll need you can put on that Christmas theme apron and muffin gloves and get ready to bake!
Step 1
To make our gingerbread we will have to grab two bowls. In one of the bowls pour yourflour, salt, baking powder, ginger, cinnamon, and cloves thenmix them together.In the other bowl mix together your egg, molasses, oil,and brown sugar. Slowly add the second bowl into the first bow and mix it with either a whisker or pour it into a stand mixer.
Step 2
Now that you have done that you can preheat your oven to 300*. Grease the 17x21x1-inch pan so that your batter wont stick to the pan and easily be able to take out after being baked. Pour your batter into the pan and spread evenly. Keep it in the oven for about 25-30 minutes.
Step 3
While you are waiting for the batter to bake, let's make the icing.You'll start off by grabbing your confectioners sugar, water, meringue powder and cream of tartar and mix all of them with awhisker but, if available, it is highly recommended to use a stand mixer instead to make it easier.If a stand mixer is at your disposal put it at low speed for 4-5 minutes.Once done add the icing in a pastry bag with a pasty tip .
Step 4
Cut out walls and a roof shaped cardboard pieces and leave it there for later until we will have to use it to cut out the gingerbread shapes.To make things simpler ill provide images of how you should have these cut out shapes.When cutting these shapes make sure to get the same measurements so the house can have a stable foundation. In total you should have about 6 pieces cut out .
Step 5
Once the timer is done make sure to use gloves and take the baked batter out of the oven and place it somewhere safe. Now that you have removed the gingerbread from the oven, place the cardboard shapes that you have cut out and place it on the gingerbread. Cut out the gingerbread into those shapes with a knife,make sure to not screw up when cutting the shapes out your house or it will be uneven.If your dough is still not hardened do not panic it will harden as it cools down.
Congratulations you have completed that hardest part of making a homemade gingerbread house now let's test your patient.Grab your cut out pieces of gingerbread and place them on top of a flat surface, lay them down as shown in the image,this will allow you to stay organized and to make the building experience easier.Grab your gingerbread and royal icing to connect all four walls together to make the foundation gingerbread house as show in the images below. Give the icing at most 30 minutes to harden so that the walls connect together.When that's done attach the other two pieces of gingerbread on the roof with icing and wait another 30 minutes.
Congratulations you have finished building your gingerbread house! The way you choose to decorate your house is up to you now.If you have any leftover gingerbread you can use it to make a gingerbread man or to decorate your house.You could use various types of candys or use cardboard to decorate your gingerbread.
Any leftovers? and have no clue what to do with them. Well guess what, Santa's little elf is here to help you on what you can do with it. Rather than throwing it out and wasting good gingerbread you can make a gingerbread cookie or tree with it, all up to you, simply just cut out the image for it and boom done. You can choose to decorate it however you want with the leftover icing.
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