I've been busy making cakes!
At this point, I made the carriage to bring in to school. Every year, my third graders get excited that I'm the "gingerbread teacher" who brings in treats around Halloween and Christmas. I'll be on maternity leave for both of those holidays, so I thought I'd do this instead!
If you haven't guessed, we're having a girl.
I got the idea from:
I made some modifications, since I'm making it for 8-9 year-olds. I did not make the marzipan baby, and instead, added more icing and candy decorations. I'm also going to pour more candy inside the carriage for my kids to devour.
I respect that, to my students, the fun is all the sugar, not the tasty gingerbread pieces underneath.
I will say, however, that I had extra gingerbread pieces (extra supports etc. I baked off) and they taste AMAZING. Especially good dipped in coffee! (or decaf. whatever)
As aforementioned, (oooh fancy word!) I gladly spent my summer fulfilling cake and cupcake orders. An unexpected side-effect to this was that I got rusty making gingerbread! I'm sure it didn't help that I did not have my other two Gingerbuilders with me to help...or the traditional wine to encourage creative thinking...but I definitely hit a few hiccups making this carriage, and I thought I'd share them with you, so you could learn from my mistakes.
1. When rolling cutting and baking your pieces, remember
roll out your pieces and bake them on parchment paper! I forgot this the first time I rolled the dough, warped pieces pulling them from the counter with a spatula, and had to try again. Duh!
2. What To Do if you Break a Piece
I know I know. Megan wasn't there. But it still happened. Twice actually. On 2 different pieces. Like I said, I was out of practice!
Don't panic. Just remember, most mistakes can be covered or fixed with icing. :-)
I iced my pieces back together and used a support just to make sure it would hold.
All that mess is on the inside. No way you can tell when I put it all together.
3. Storing Royal Icing
I found this lovely site FULL of great info on royal icing. Check it out: Sweetopia
This project took me several days to complete. I did it alone, and pieces needed to dry before I could continue the project. For these reasons, I stored my royal icing in the fridge in piping bags.
The icing loosened/separated after 1-2 days. I didn't want to re whip it because it was already in the bags. This made for fun challenged. I had to decorate everything flat so the icing wouldn't run everywhere.
Then let it dry, and flip the carriage to work on another part.
In the end, I made a new batch and whipped it fresh. Being lazy doesn't pay off. I was worried about matching color, but I think I did okay.
I went back over some of the sloppier parts with the newer icing.
Meh. This wasn't a competition piece. It's for third-graders! Who are going to love it.
The first of many Labors of Love for our Little Girl.
