Thanksgiving was great but enough about that. Let's talk about the highlight of the weekend. Gingerbread houses!
Our local bakery had small houses up by the counter and I inquired about buying some blank ones and they were happy to oblige. After a few stops for candy, my mother-in-law and I set up shop to build our dream houses.
Here's my tips and tricks so that I don't forget next time:
1. The houses came on a paper plate but I'm lucky to have these cake stands. Or there's always a foil-wrapped piece of cardboard for your base.
2. Royal icing is just egg whites and powdered sugar. The trick is to get the right consistency. It seemed a tad 'melty' but not bad. You'll want to drizzle some off your spoon to see if it's thin enough for the pastry bag, but thick enough to keep it's shape. I think perfection here comes with practice.
3. The sour tape gummy stuff is great. That's what I used for the red siding on mine. Looks like brick and it's versatile and lightweight.
4. For decorating we mainly used red hots, gum drops, shredded coconut, chocolate chips, grape nuts, shredded wheat. Should probably add: Twizzlers, pretzel rods/sticks.
I'm determined to start doing this every year. Maybe it'll be a new Thanksgiving-weekend tradition.
