The rise and fall of the gingerbread house

This year we decide to make our gingerbread house from scratch. I found a recipe with directions here. It was a three day process, we did a few things wrong, had trouble getting the roof to stay on...finally it stayed, a bit of a shanty-shack, but still, it resembled a house.

Then it came time to decorate. Let me just say, decorating a gingerbread house with a 4yo and an 18mo is quite a challenge. I often get frustrated because I'm so focused on the finished product, and have to remind myself (over and over) 'it's the journey, not the destination' !!!

Finally we were done, frosting everywhere, craziness, then the roof fell of and the side cracked.


The boys thought it was great and started chanting 'eat it, eat it', so we ate some:) Today, it met it's fate in the bottom of our trash can.... the candy was awful, the frosting yummy, but soooo sweet and the boys wanted to live off of it! Bye, bye Gingerbread house! We will try again next year. If you care to make one, here are a few things I learned-

-cut the front and back wall with the triangle attached, not as separate pieces
-roll it out thinner (especially the roof) and cook longer

-whip the frosting for a very, very long time so it is very stiff

-get a real 'piping bag' and not a ziplock bag (they would not stay sealed)

-decorate with candy you like (assuming you are going to eat it) not cheap drugstore candy

-have fun and don't worry if it doesn't look like all those beautiful gingerbread houses in the Martha Stewart magazine:)