Gingerbread and Candyland Real Estate--THIS POST UNDER CONSTRUCTION/REVISION

The 2013 Gingerbread House Season has begun.

2012

This is a revision to add photos to a post originally written in November of 2012. So far, what I see in my draft does not appear the same way in the preview. For my next attempt, I may consider reading some instructions.

This flurry of added photos, representative of many more taken after 1993, comes as a result of my wishing for a photo of the first house, made about 1974, and others that followed while Todd and Jenn were kids. Those early examples would make a more complete story of this tradition spanning 40 years.

Some documentation began when my grandkids were
introduced to gingerbread houses.

Jessi

Zach

The dough--using "Grandma's" brand molasses--is mixed, chilled, then rolled out right on a cookie sheet.
Patterns for house pieces are hand-cut.

Once baked, each piece is re-cut. Windows and doors are marked or cut out while the dough is hot. 

Pieces are cooled, stacked flat and set aside overnight or for a few days.

Gage

To frame a house, Royal icing is the way to go. Small sweets and cookies of all kinds are put in place. The roof is added and decorated last. Sounds easy enough to do, right? 

That wasn't always so.

Oops!

Max

Gage

Why did I decide to build a gingerbread house, years ago? I wasn't a cook or a baker. I didn't particularly like the taste of gingerbread but a former patron of mine--from hair salon days--had given me a gingersnap cookie recipe that baked up crispy, melt-in-your-mouth rich, with just the right amount of spice. 

Gramma's Hands at Work

There was no computer, no Internet, no "Martha" or Food Network in my life, yet. All I had was Julia Child and a good tasting cookie recipe. 

Ginger Snaps
3/4 cup shortening
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup molasses
2 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoon soda
1 teaspoon cloves, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1 teaspoon ginger
1/2 cup sugar    *reserve 
CREAM shortening with sugar. ADD unbeaten egg and molasses and stir until smooth. ADD flour, soda, and spices to creamed mixture. MIX thoroughly.
FORM dough into 1-inch balls. ROLL balls in the reserved sugar. BAKE on an ungreased cookie sheet, 350 degrees for 15 minutes.

Instead of making cookies, I drafted a pattern on a brown paper grocery bag for a gingerbread house.
When the cut out paper pieces were taped together to form a house, I soon realized that I had little notion of what house dimensions should be. Fortunately, I had more than one brown paper bag. Those first attempts at pattern drafting produced houses that were either too BIG, too small, or the corners didn't meet. Once I had a pattern and pieces were cut from the cookie dough and baked, the question became, "How will I stick this together?" Scotch tape had worked just fine for my pattern pieces. I didn't have much of a repertoire for edible glue. Buttercream frosting was too unstable. My sister-in-law's delicious, cooked frosting was sticky enough but much too soft for mortar. Warm caramel, maybe? Truthfully, I don't remember what I used to stick that first house together. By my next attempt, I had discovered Royal Icing but it didn't taste all that great and set up like cement. Many builders I read about had no intention of actually eating their structures. That made no sense to me. I wanted every bit of the gingerbread construction to be edible.  With more trial and error, I found that just a tich of peppermint flavoring added to the Royal glue was my answer, making it less cement-like and better tasting.

We woke up to strong winds the day I got the idea to take that first gingerbread house to Todd's class Christmas party. Without a car to get us and the gingerbread there, I tipped an empty box upside down over it, and walked the eight blocks to the elementary school. Todd lead the way at a speedy clip. My 3-year old tried to keep up by hanging on to me, as we struggled against the wind. The house made the trip intact. But when I took the box off, all four walls fell in on each other. I was able to stick it back together enough to last through the "Oohs" and "Awes". Todd then crashed through the roof with one chop of his hand so everyone could have a piece. His classmates LOVED that part!

Breaking the house open in that way became a big part of the tradition. Todd and Jenn often chose a classmate to do the demolition. The grand-kids followed that pattern, too.

Sixth grade was the end of the classroom gingerbread for my kids. Other forms for dough caught my attention. One year, gingerbread became a train. Small--half-a-3x5-index-card--sized gingerbread houses were a real hit at a cookie exchange. Another year, it was sugar cookie dough fashioned as a Santa sleigh, and filled with homemade cookies. English cottages, made entirely of a chocolate candy assortment were adorable but expensive to do. When my first grandchild arrived, my thoughts turned again to gingerbread.

L to R: Zach, Topher, Jessi, Morgan - 1993 or '94

Walking into Little Rascals Day Care with a giant-sized gingerbread house and four grandchildren in tow had everyone wide-eyed! The tradition of taking a gingerbread house to a school class a week before Christmas vacation began again. Most teachers have been patient and agreeable to have one in their classroom with time to breathe in the wonderful fragrance. One teacher made the gingerbread house in his classroom a part of his lesson plan. He asked his students to design a wrecking ball, and figure out what velocity would be needed for the planned crash on party day. The classroom was rearranged to accommodate the demolition and keep the blast within sanitary boundaries so pieces could still be eaten.

Lots of kids have scoped out their favorite pieces of candy and cookies over the years of this tradition. Whether it was someone new to this experience or a classmate from a previous year, anticipation built until party day, when the roof got whacked and the walls came tumbling down. A question often asked by teachers and students as a new school year began was, "Will there be gingerbread?"

L to R: Max,
Zach, Gage, Topher

Everyone tries to be available sometime during a "Hot Scrap" event to eat the pieces of fresh-from-the-oven gingerbread cut away during the re-cutting of the pattern pieces. This has become as much a part of the tradition as making a finished house!

Gage and Gramma

All six grand-kids learned to use a frosting-filled pastry bag quite young. Each one has been encouraged to create their own house. 

Gage

Max

scheduled  building evening, I had just finished making a double batch of Royal icing. Just as I turned off my beaters, the power went out. Winds were high. Snow flurries had quickly become a major winter storm. I had one working flashlight and a couple of candles. We huddled together around the kitchen table, someone holding the flashlight while another placed candies and trims until all the kids had completed their houses. Todd braved the storm to find Chicklets, something we needed to give the appearance of tiny lights around the house roofs. He found them at 7-Eleven. It was such a find that he bought every pack they had left!

It was the morning of a Christmas Eve. One decorated house remained. I had wracked my brain trying to think of who I'd forgotten or why there was an extra. Finally, I called my Relief Society President. "Is there anyone in the ward or a neighbor or someone you know who needs this house?" I asked. "I can't think of one," she answered. I suggested that her own kids might enjoy this treat and she agreed but she wasn't available to pick it up. Bless the husbands of Relief Society Presidents! Brother Bollingbroke appeared on my doorstep in no time. He had not only come to pick up the house but knew of a family who really needed it, and delivered it to them!

Toph

Topher

2001

Another delivery tale is the time Topher was asked by an elderly customer at his workplace how she could get a house.  She had seen his most recent creation on display as a holiday decoration. He arranged to deliver one to her and had almost made it to his destination with house in hand when he slipped on the ice and ... well you can imagine! Fortunately, there was an extra one, unspoken for as yet, waiting to be placed.

Every house has its place. Our challenge has been to get each one to where it is meant to be.

My daughter was not a fan of baking or decorating gingerbread, as a kid or as an adult, though she loved tasting the elements, seeing each one completed, and distributing them. But she took over and completed the mixing and baking process a couple or three years ago while I was ill, then decorated or helped the grand-kids where help was needed, and delivered each one to individual school classes and a few to regular customers.  Jenn did a fantastic job! Every one should have an "Auntie Jenn" or "Mom" or "Daughter" who'll step in when it comes to having gingerbread...or not!  Two years ago, another first!  Jenn's boys, Gage and Max, joined their cousins, Topher and Zach, to mix multiple batches of the cookie dough. Their dedication and stamina was amazing.  They kept two mixers going and made enough dough for Jenn to cut and bake enough pieces to make 26 completed houses of three different sizes. 

Between Jenn and I and each of the kids designing and decorating their own, on their own, the tradition lived on for yet another season.  Every house found its home.

My gingerbread hobby is not cheap. I could make them more frugally, perhaps, but then they would look and taste more like the kits sold everywhere.  Ugh!  Sorry, to any of you who love getting those kits, but I've yet to hear that anyone eats those. We use good candy and cookies for trims--a LOT of it! A person can buy a finished house online, for a price. How do they pack those? I enjoy watching the gingerbread contests on TV. The designs are remarkable.

Topher's Toosie Dog House

I'm more interested in the smell of baking, the taste testers who can go through a plate of cutting scraps in the blink of an eye and watching creativity at work around our table as Topher sculpts a puppy from a Tootsie Roll, makes a mail box, a child's wagon, or decorates the inside of his house, too. 

Zach's Rock Climbing "UP" House

Or Zach, the boy who always wanted a house to take to school but would bribe his sister to decorate his for him, as he comes up with an intricate design and executes it all on his own, perfectly. Then he made a second one, different pattern, different execution, all completed beautifully. 

Morgan spends a long time cutting out fruit stripe gum to meet her needs and lining up pretzels for a wrap around fence. 

One of Morgan's Creations

Jessica 2012

She tries stained glass windows using fruit leather. Her natural eye for art shows up in her house decor.

Jessi

 Jess leans towards color schemes, adding trees and snowmen, lights around the roof or a lettered greeting and don't forget the frosting ice cycles. 

Gage's Elementary School Design

Gage has his work cut out for him, with a house twice as big as the big kids, in order to share with his large classroom of mates. He comes to the table each year, with an idea usually sketched out on paper and at 10, can do an entire house by himself.

Gage

Sample

2012

Max has moved on from safe-for-a-small-child candy like marshmallows and soft stuff. He loves to sample first, anything that will go on his house. This is his second year to take a house to his school class.

Yes, it is gingerbread season once more. I'm hoping for help with the initial baking and cutting out the patterns but I'm anxious to see if I can, despite arthritically re-shaped hands, hold and squeeze frosting from a pastry bag, pick up tiny candy-coated sunflower seeds and Chicklets to make Christmas lights in windows and around roofs, place window boxes made from KitKats, stand up soft peppermint sticks and place wafer cookies to create a front porch, and make lacy, dropped frosting ice cycles. Gingerbread is a part of who I am.