So, you’ve decided to tackle the most challenging construction project of your career: a gingerbread house. Skyscrapers and apartments are complex builds, but they pale in comparison to crafting a house made entirely out of cookie material. We understand the enormity of this undertaking and are here to help with these five tips every gingerbread construction crew should know.
1. Store Your Decorating Materials in a Cupcake Pan
Keeping track of all the different materials used on a jobsite can be tricky, especially when they are incredibly tiny. Organize your chosen decorative candies using a cupcake pan for an easy overview of the options you have. Using a half-dozen cupcake pan, put a different type of candy in each cup and never worry about candy rolling off the table again. If you want to get really decorative with it, break out your dozen cupcake pan and have options galore.
2. Decorate Before You Build
Everyone knows the most important part of a gingerbread house is its aesthetic. Unless you have tiny mice looking for a home, no one will ever see the inside of your masterpiece, so it’s critical to put all your artistic effort on the outside. Placing icing and decorative candies on the side of a vertical wall of gingerbread is asking for disaster. Your painstakingly placed peppermints will most likely slide down the front door before the icing has had a chance to dry. That’s why it’s imperative to decorate the walls and roof of your gingerbread house before putting the pieces all together. The candy will stay put while the icing dries, and you can get as intricate as your heart desires without worrying about your design sliding away.
3. Assemble the House with Hot Glue
Is this technically cheating? Possibly, but we prefer to call it building a strong foundation. Unless you’re making icing from scratch and are assured of its holding power, you will struggle to keep the pieces of your gingerbread house together with icing alone. A simple solution is to bring out the hot glue gun, line the sides of your walls, stick them together, and put icing over the glue when it has dried. No one will ever know, and you’ll have a house with a roof that will hold up under Santa and all his reindeer.
4. Add a Little Pizzaz with Gelatin Sheet Windows
Make your gingerbread house a gingerbread home with some windowpanes. No one will see this addition coming, and you’ll be the talk of the holiday dinner table after everyone catches sight of those glassy masterpieces. For something that adds such value to a gingerbread house, it’s relatively easy to do. Buy gelatin sheets at your local grocery store, cut them to size, and attach them to the windows using icing. The imaginary inhabitants of your gingerbread home will thank you for putting an end to breezy nights and no privacy. The inhabitants of your real home will consider you an architectural genius.
5. Up Curb Appeal with Ice Cream Cone Trees
If you’ve ever watched a home remodeling show, you know it’s all about curb appeal. Your gingerbread house could be as cute as a button, but if it’s got no ambiance around it, it might as well be on the Island of Misfit Toys. Keep your house from looking cookie-cutter (pun intended) by surrounding it with a few trees. Grab some ice cream cones, cover them in green frosting, add a few candies on top as lights if you so choose, and place them pointy-side-up around your gingerbread house. Voila, a house with enough curb appeals to get over asking price.
There you have it, folks, five simple tips to up your gingerbread-building game. And all you need is a cupcake pan, a hot glue gun, gelatin sheets, ice cream cones, and a whole lot of patience. Now get to constructing, and don’t forget to enter your finished build into our Gingerbread House Building Challenge for a chance to win awesome prizes!
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