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Gingerbread Houses - Pictures


maggie

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Whoa! Those are some fantastic photos! And Artistic Sugarworks, excuse me, but "not much to look at???" Surely you jest! That is one amazing house! Beautiful stuff! Everyone's marzipan work is gorgeous, too.

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Wendy, per your request, this is a link to a larger version of the other artist's gingerbread pictures that I took.

I tell yah though, I just watched the gingerbread competition on FoodTV --Oh my total gosh--if you want an avalanche of imagination--you need to see (record) that. There's a spinning merry-go-round out of gingerbread, and all edible, plus a ceiling fan, some of my cake buddies on tv, and I was crying by the end of it--way too cool. :biggrin:

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Wonder what that brown blob is in the bottom of this picture??? A brown fish??

A dead elf?? :rolleyes: An elf 'deposit'?? :laugh:

I can't remember--looks like I should a brushed it away before I took the picture--geez, good cake decorator/artist, sh*tty photographer!!! I mean I could have at least cropped it with scissors before I had it scanned, duh.

Patrick, where were yah when I needed yah?????? :laugh:

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I'm sorry I didn't get to this sooner, like I said I would.

These are really bad photos, sorry. They are digital shots of actual printed photos (when we didn't have digital cameras).

The first two photos are the first time in my life that I made a gingerbread house/town, back in 1990. I was asked to do a copy of the town in which my job was located in, Woodstock, IL. Some of you might think that name is familar...........they filmed Dick Tracy, Ground Hogs Day and a couple other movies in this town.....it's a really charming town. My version isn't exact by any means.

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Here's looking at it from the opposite angle. I never got a straight on shot.

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I did the next two houses for a different club and haven't done any since then....

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...but I have done non-xmas gingerbread houses...

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Wendy, what fantastic work! I love the little nutcracker soldiers, and the village is perfect, absolutely perfect.

You've all inspired me to create a gingerbread scene for next year - this year all I can manage is a thousand gingerbread men dipped in chocolate! My son loves to watch the food network and he watched the show where they talk about Disney and how they get ready for the holidays, and they made this 18' gingerbread house for display in one of the hotels (The Grand Floridian?) that was incredible. I don't know the name of the show, but maybe if it repeats through the month, you can catch a glimpse of them putting on the gingerbread clapboards, roof tiles, etc.

Thanks, everyone, for sharing and for the inspiration!

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We-ell, my house isn't nearly as good as the rest of these, but I had a good time doing it. I went in with a whole scheme, and ended up throwing caution to the wind and embracing randomness. I built the house out at my oldest friend's apartment in Queens, and her mom came in from Connecticut to help us, just like she did when we were little - we used to make these every single year. I'm a bit out of practice, but hopefully it will be better next year!

Some of the candy we used...

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Making the icing...

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The mess we made...

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My finished house, safely back in Manhattan:

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A view of the "pond":

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And the "vegetable patch!"

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I really had such a good time...next year I'll have to plan better and do something more coherent!

"We had dry martinis; great wing-shaped glasses of perfumed fire, tangy as the early morning air." - Elaine Dundy, The Dud Avocado

Queenie Takes Manhattan

eG Foodblogs: 2006 - 2007

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Hi Megan,

I love that long table splashed with colorful, sugary fun! Your house looks like it stepped off the board game of Candyland. A nostalgic favorite of mine. :wub:

Shelley: Would you like some pie?

Gordon: MASSIVE, MASSIVE QUANTITIES AND A GLASS OF WATER, SWEETHEART. MY SOCKS ARE ON FIRE.

Twin Peaks

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  • 11 months later...

A weekend of fun was inspired by an old Martha Stewart holiday craft book I borrowed from the local library. The craft was making gumdrop trees & toparies. I took that brief bit of inspiration (plus some sugar) and had a weekend of fun with the kids.

Enjoy the photo tour.

Necco wafer shingles on the roof, carefully installed one row at a time.

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Walls, roof & door are all decorated and ready for assembly. M&M's and licorice on the walls.

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Closeup of the candycane fence, assembled with my new glue gun (I really LOVE this thing!!). The gingerbread houses were assembled with royal icing and seem to be holding up pretty well.

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Candycane heart. Gumdrop "wreath" over the front door of the house.

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Candyland Village. Gumdrop trees and topiaries. Mixed into the scene are some plastic toys from my daughter's collection. Notice the reindeer eating the nose off the marshmallow snowman. She has some clever food styling ideas I'll have to admit.

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...Enjoy the photo tour. 

...Notice the reindeer eating the nose off the marshmallow snowman.  She has some clever food styling ideas I'll have to admit.

She certainly does! And it could go as a little chat or a Merry Christmas Eskimo type kiss too.

What a wonderful village. Oh y'all had a great time I'll bet

ho ho ho :raz:

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I am glad this thread was started, I was going to start this, but they beat me to it!

I did this a few years ago when I was at the Inn at Buckeystown, a little B&B about 15 minutes North of the Hacienda.

It's a pretty faithful representation of the Inn, but in miniature, right down to the front porch and all.

I really enjoyed working for the owner Janet Wells, she was a real sweetheart.

The house took about 3 days to put together, with most of the time going into the design phase.

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Happy Holidays everyone!

Michael :smile:

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  • 2 weeks later...

i ran out of steam and haven't bothered to finish my house (or doors!), or make a nice base :sad: ...

it was my first gingerbread house and to me, the fun was in baking the pieces and gluing them together. i was amazed that it all, for the most part, fit together. and besides, i love the gingerbread dough and ate way too much of the stuff to bother with finishing :raz:

i got the template from this website.

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I made my first one yesterday too... it was for a client, and I was a little anxious about it holding together especially since I got started on it later than I thought. I ended up using white chocolate as the glue to assemble the sides - it set pretty quickly and held enough so that I could overpipe with royal icing and add embelishments to the sides (I used candy canes along the roof line to hide the white chocolate). It was a great learning experience - now I'm hooked!! I would say that you don't want a royal icing that is too stiff, but you don't want it soft enough to run. What I used yesterday was like the consistency of creamy peanut butter or maybe marshmallow fluff - made great snow drifts!

The Franky's attic site had a lot of good tips.

Good luck and have fun!

Edited by JeanneCake (log)
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Is it easier to decorate the pieces first and then assemble?  Also, is there a trick to the Royal Icing--is it supposed to be like a paste?  I am making my first gingerbread house with my daughter today and am a little nervous.  The last time I made one as a child, the roof caved in!

it is much easier to decorate when the pieces are flat. let the icing set and then glue it all together. having said that, it depends on the house pattern you're using. just always keep in mind where your seams are and how you are going to glue it together once the candy is in place.

you'll have fun! don't worry too much, half the fun is being with your daughter eating the candy!

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Fabulous! And, the gingerbread house website you provided the link for is great, too. I just did

my first gbh for a charity event here in NYC. I chose to do a very scaled down version of

Marie Antoinette's private refuge, Le Petit Trianon. And, because there was a menagerie at Versailles during MA's and her husband Louis XVI tenure, I did some animal cookies, too.

And, just for good measure, I included my own dog, Mitzi, in this crazy thing.

I'd add a photo of mine, but I can't figure out how to insert a photo. Any suggestions?

www.onetoughcookienyc.com

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