“The forgiving art of gingerbread.”

Okay, so here is one thing I love about making a gingerbread house (and landscape).  You will make mistakes. Experts make mistakes. Novices make mistakes. Sometimes I even make a mistake on purpose (not a big one). Gingerbread mistakes are delicious! One of the funniest moments with our last Halloween house happened after we dyed our royal icing dark brown.

 We were putting our bridge together.  When icing goes somewhere it shouldn’t, the best “tool” for removal is usually a finger. The problem with this icing is that it looked like delicious dark chocolate. The whole rest of the day, every time we got icing on our hand, we’d say, “Damn it, it’s not chocolate!” or “It’s still not chocolate.”

I can’t even tell you have many times this happened. This may be why we go back to using more chocolate in our pieces. Royal icing doesn’t taste bad. I actually really like the recipe we use, but it’s not chocolate. The reason we used cocoa crispy cereal for most of the Halloween landscape was because I wanted cocoa crispy treats. Something Erin taught us early on in this venture, was always consider your flavor profiles. You want to make sure everything tastes good together.

Some parts of making a gingerbread house can be pretty stressful. Especially if you are a perfectionist or you have people relying on you to get it right. You need to know that it is ok to mess up. Royal icing or a well placed candy can cover or patch almost anything. I should know; I’m the breaker of the group. I’m the “Crap! Sorry!” girl.(Notice the crack in the roof of the bridge? I did that. Also, meet our fourth team member, the soup can. It makes a great temporary support)

Then Erin or Stephanie says, “We can fix it,” or “That’s why we make spares,” and I don’t feel so bad. This is also why I love working with these ladies. We support each other and complement each other; verbally and physically. You never know when you are going to get a slap on the butt with a flour covered hand. It comes with the territory, and the wine. We often joke that “Modesty is our best quality.” I think our teamwork is actually our best quality.

 By Megan Rosencrans