Baking More than Gingerbread

I've seriously wanted to make this post since...like...May.  Here we are, 4 weeks away from my due date, and I'm just now getting around to making the "baby announcement" in gingerbread.

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.

Gingerbread Destruction!

You spend hours days designing and creating your gingerbread masterpieces.

Now what?

Erin already told you how we feel about the edibility.  So, do you do it?  Do you eat it?  Do you give it away and let somebody else decide?

This Gingerbuilder (Stephanie) has 20-30 hungry third graders that delight in destroying and devouring our pieces every year.

Faces were blurred to protect the innocent, so please pardon the creepy children photos to follow.

So what do YOU do with your gingerbread creations?

Better yet, what can WE do?  If you have fun ideas on how we should lay our art to rest, let us know!  We want to make a video montage of gingerbread houses being destroyed.  That's the best way for holiday fun!

Share your ideas via comment or email!  and don't forget to subscribe for more gingerbread antics and general baking tutorials to come!

Our First Halloween House

2 holiday houses and a February house (why not?!)  within a year, and we decided to make a Halloween house the following fall.  (Halloween is a pretty fabulous holiday after all.)

I spent early 2011 scouring the internet for gingerbread inspiration, patterns, etc.  Pinterest was still in Beta at this time, so I didn't have that luxury.  I printed what I could.

Oh yeah, and I got married.  So that kept me pretty busy.  We wanted to build a gingerbread church, but time and stress got away from us and that didn't happen.

Until September-ish.  Plans began for a Halloween house.

I purchased a pattern from Ultimate Gingerbread and that's what we used for our first Halloween house.

This house was for fun, creativity, and to try out any new techniques we could think of.

We learned how to make icing black, and paint cute faces on pumpkins.  (Again, this is Megan's awesome talent and attention to little details.)

 We learned how to stain gingerbread and make it look like wood.

and we learned that broken pieces can be patched with icing and covered up in the decoration process!


 

and we practiced with royal icing to pipe webs on wax paper and transfer them to the house when dry.

Ground up animals crackers make good dirt.

 We gave Old Yeller a bone and Charlotte a little spider, as per the story.

 Turns out, Megan is awesome at molding.

 and we discovered that one picture just doesn't do it justice. :-)