The last time I made a gingerbread house, I made the house from scratch. Gingerbread isn't that difficult to make, but it takes so much time to do all the mixing, baking, shaping, and cutting, I'm pretty much over it by the time it's ready for decorating. Patience is not a virtue of mine.
Enter gingerbread house kit a la Walmart. Don't judge me. I did make some alterations.
First, I cut out all the little windows that are already outlined on the walls and front. I didn't even mess with the back, for the same reason I hoard things under beds. No one sees that business. Anyway, I had to be a bit careful, since too much stabbing/sawing action causes the walls to crack.
Once the windows were removed, I crushed up red and green Jolly Ranchers with a hammer. Like so...
I separated each color into 2 mugs, then nuked them in the microwave for about a minute. With the gingerbread pieces laid out on a nonstick baking mat, I poured the bubbly sugar-goodness into the windows. After 10 minutes, the "stained-glass windows" were set and I could put the house together.
The rest was a lot of cutting up Air Heads for shutters (we are in New Orleans, after all), sample some candy, "glueing" on Fiber One cereal shingles with the royal icing provided in the kit, sample more candy, then decorating with additional Twizzlers, Dots, and shredded coconut. All in all I'm pretty happy with the gingerbread house turn-out and pretty unhappy about that extra 1000 calories I consumed. Such is life.
What's even better is how it looks with a little light inside! I found this light at JoAnn Fabrics on sale for $3.99.
What kinds of goodies have you been creating this season? Any other gingerbread house freaks out there?!
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