If you’re looking for gingerbread house inspiration, I can’t tell you how awesome Teresa Layman’s books are.  I’ve only mentioned her a kazillion times already.

I copied her Gingerbread Toy Shop back in 2003 and ended up raffling it off at the school I work at.

Our principal won it.  Fair and square – really it wasn’t rigged!

This post has to be short and sweet - Off to finish some Christmas cookies!

Below is the back:

The fondant snowman is all edible except for the toothpick as his nose.

To make the icicles, use a #2 piping tip and use flood icing.  For the recipe see here.

Begin at the roofline and pipe a enough of a bead of icing so that it adheres, then squeeze and pull.  Let go of the pressure when you’re happy with the length of the icicle and gently pull down.

I made the back and interior of the the house a bit more whimsical with royal icing ‘run-outs’ or ‘flood-work’.  {Basically royal icing piped on parchment paper or acetate paper.  If you’d like to use acetate paper, make sure you lightly coat it with shortening/lard}.

As usual, I couldn’t resist using disco dust.  These are supposed to be jube-jubes.

The inside was pretty basic with a Christmas tree, candy gifts and some sticker-inspired flood work.

I seem to get a lot of questions regarding the trees every year.  They’re so simple to make!

Begin with ice cream cones of any size.  Various sizes look nice as well.  You can gently break your cones or stack them to make the ‘trees’ larger or smaller.

You’ll need to use a thick or stiff icing for the trees.  I used Teresa Layman’s recipe.

Holding the cone by the tip, pipe stiff green ’stars’ using a #18 tip.  Any star or leaf tip works really and you can pipe small, tight stars or larger, longer ones.  Whatever your preference.  Begin at the base, piping one row at a time, and work your way upwards until you almost reach the top.

Since you need a place to grip the cone, stop piping near the tip and let the icing dry.  Once it is firm, you can gently hold on to the bottom of the tree and finish the rest.  Voila!

This tree has a little bit of icing sugar dusted over it as well.

I did end up entering the house into my first competition.

Every year our local museum holds a Gingerbread House Competition to raise money for Christmas Cheer - a charity for local families in need.

I ended up with silver in the professional category, representing the school where I teach and Sweetopia.

First prize went to Cakes by Design with their adorable house and figurines.

Unfortunately I wasn’t able to attend the award ceremony as I was in class with Peggy Porschen, but I was able to get a few shots of the other houses when I delivered my house.  I loved Whoville and so many of the unique ideas!

Happy gingerbreading if you decide to make one this year!

xo,

Marian

How’s that for a tongue twister?

And how would you like 20 of them?

They have gin inside. 

Each house has the ingredients for a Bombay Sapphire Gin Apple Cheer cocktail inside it.

I don’t normally do orders, but I couldn’t resist the offer from Optimum PR, on behalf of their client, Bombay Sapphire Gin, last Christmas.

This shot from above is dark but my old camera picked up the disco dust better in this shot. The blue candy ‘gem’ in the walkway is meant to mirror the gen in the Bombay Sapphire logo.

Did you know that gin pairs well with desserts?  Well, apparently it does.  The Apple Cheer cocktail is evidently perfectly paired with butter tart squares.

Mmmmm – that’s definitely on my ‘to try’ list this season.  If you end up taste-testing before I do, I’d love to hear your feedback.

Enjoy!

BOMBAY APPLE CHEER

Directions

- To a saucepan, add 3 cups fresh apple juice, 8 whole cloves, 2 cinnamon sticks and 4 large lemon zests

- Heat gently until warmed through

- Add 1 cup BOMBAY SAPPHIRE gin and stir to mix, pour into heatproof cups

- Add 1 tsp maple syrup to each cup, garnish each with a cinnamon stick and a lemon wedge

* Bombay Sapphire Photo and recipe from www.canada.com

Have you heard of Teresa Layman?

None of my friends or family have, that’s for sure, but to the gingerbread enthusiast, the name is usually familiar.

Who exactly is she?

Only the best gingerbread house author out there!  (Kudos to other authors – there’s lots of other gingerbread talent, but Teresa is the queen in my books).  I have every gingerbread book out there I can get my hands on, and no one tops her yet.  Here’s a small sampling of my book collection:

Oh boy… it’s out… I’m a bit of a cake/cupcake/cookie/gingerbread house book JUNKIE!!!

Ahem.

Back to Teresa… I’ve even written to her and ended up chatting with her on the phone.  If you’re interested you can read about that post right here.

Like I said, a bit of a junkie.

This Halloween Gingerbread ‘House’ (actually really is a gingerbread ‘facade’), is the second project I made from her book, and as a newbie ’sugar crafter’ back in 2002 I was pretty satisfied with the results.   (Although it’s not as nice as Teresa’s).   I set it near the door for the trick-or-treaters to see when they came for their candy.  The kids seemed to love it!

Ms. Layman describes how to make every step of this Halloween gingerbread project in her book, Gingerbread for All Seasons.  From the perfect gingerbread recipe, to the ghost templates, to the sugar paste pumpkins; she makes it easy.  If I could do it, anyone can!

I made this gingerbread ‘woodcutter’s cabin’ this past winter.  (Hurray, I can actually refer to winter as a thing of the past now!)  The design is completely from Teresa Layman’s book, Gingerbread: Things to Make and Bake.

This isn’t the first gingerbread house I’ve made, but Teresa was definitely the main inspiration of my gingerbread house making obsession. About 7ish years I ago I decided to try my hand at my first one, and hers was the book I stumbled accross and bought. She describes steps in meticulous detail… She doesn’t leave a stone unturned in terms of explaining things! Not only that, her designs are so pretty and charming. I love her stuff so much I actually contacted her and chatted with her on the phone. She’s such a sweet person. In our conversation I asked if she would be doing any more books on gingerbreading, besides the two she already has published, and unfortunately her publisher told her that there were enough books on gingerbread in the stores. I contacted her publisher and put a request in. Alas, that was about 3 years ago now. (I know, I am crazy aren’t I!? When I like something I really go for it). In my opinion, hers are the best gingerbreading books out there. 

This gingerbread house has a few non-edible elements included with it.  The chimney has cotton balls for smoke, two dollhouse sugar bags in front of the cabin, and lace on the inside for curtains.  You can’t see it, but I also like to put a tealight inside each house.  If we don’t eat it, I can insert a long matchstick through the windows and light the candle at night.  (It just can’t be on too long… no ventilation).