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Gingerbread House Royal Icing {Video} & KitchenAid 7-Quart Mixer {Giveaway!}

pink-gingerbread-house

6 batches of my gingerbread recipe…

4 batches or 4 kg of royal icing…

and goodness knows how much candy later…

is what it took to make the 7 simple and whimsical gingerbread houses & gingerbread dollhouse facade I had planned to make this year.

I’m so happy I just managed to get them all done!

They’re why I haven’t posted in a while, but I wouldn’t have managed to even make them as fast as I did without my new, 7-quart bowl-lift KitchenAid mixer.

Sigh. It is a thing of beauty.

Not only is it pretty to look at, it’s pretty powerful too. It had no problem mixing the 6 batches of gingerbread I mentioned earlier. Amount-wise, with this mixer, I only had to make the dough twice! (3 batches at a time). For the royal icing, I only had to make 2 double-batches and still have leftover icing which I’ll use for decorated cookies.

To show you how I made the icing in my new mixer, I finally made another video – here’s a how-to on making royal icing for your gingerbread houses:

{Video} How to Make Royal Icing for Gingerbread Houses

Click here if you can’t see the video.

If you’d like to make royal icing for your gingerbread house(s), and would like printable recipes, I’ve included a single and double batch recipe here for you, as well as a classic royal icing recipe made with egg-whites especially for those of you who can’t find meringue powder. The first two recipes listed here are adapted from cakecentral.com’s user Antonia74. The recipe made with egg whites is adapted from the author of Gingerbread for All Seasons, Teresa Layman.

You can find a template for a gingerbread house and a video on how I put the house together, HERE.

I bought most of my candy at Old Thyme Confections HERE.

Royal Icing Recipe for Gingerbread Houses (One or Two Batches)

Click here for the Printable Recipe

Royal Icing Recipe Made with Egg-Whites

Click here for the Printable Recipe  THE PRINTABLE RECIPE HAS A TYPO! IT SHOULD SAY 1 KILOGRAM (KG) ICING SUGAR, NOT 1 pound (lb).

Classic Royal Icing Made with Egg Whites Sweetopia

A quick note about royal icing – if you’d like more information on how to store it, how long it lasts etc., please click here and for a video on find royal icing consistency for decorating cookies, please click here.

It was completely worth the one hour’s drive to Toronto to buy the mixer (I had to drive there to get one as it’s a new model and the residential model is exclusively available to Williams-Sonoma right now. The NSF commercial mixer is more readily available. You can find it on Amazon here), as the amount of icing I went through for the houses and the facade was really something!

You might be wondering by now what a ” gingerbread dollhouse facade” is. In fact, I didn’t know what to call it, so I just kind of made the name up. I know you’re not supposed to play with your food, but I couldn’t resist making a little gingerbread “house” that our H-banana could play with this Christmas. Truth be told I had wanted to make an all edible interior too, but time-wise, that was just not going to happen. I can’t wait to see how she reacts.

And another confession, I’m not sure who’s going to enjoy her gift more, her or I. Lol. I think I’ve fallen in love with miniatures.

I mean, really. Those little cookies are barely 1 cm long.

And oh my goodness, a little sieve and whisk! I want to try sifting flour with it! (No, haven’t done it yet… stress the yet).

By the way, there’s a tiny version of something in the ‘gingerbread dollhouse facade’ that I’ll possibly be giving you for Christmas – except it will be adult size.  Can you guess what it is? Chances are, if you’ve read the title of this post, you already know 😉 .

You got it!

Ultimate 7-Quart KitchenAid Mixer Giveaway!

To celebrate the Holiday season and help you with your Christmas baking, I am hosting a giveaway for TWO 7-quart Ultimate KitchenAid Mixers!

You’ll be able to chose from the following available colours:

I am so excited and thankful that KitchenAid is sponsoring this giveaway for you! Good luck!

Here’s how to enter:

You have at least five chances of winning – each option below gives you one chance, and you’re about to see how there are even more possibilities.

Either use Facebook or your name and email to enter the contest below.


a Rafflecopter giveaway

The contest is not running on Facebook and although I appreciate your comments on my Facebook page, those comments will not be entered into the draw. Again, you must leave your comments here.

*

Announcing the Winner of the *TWO* 7-Quart KitchenAid Mixers!

First of all, thank you to all of you who entered; I was delighted and touched by your sweet, funny and passionate responses.

I really WISH I could give away as many mixers as there were entries; you dedicated bakers and sweet-tooths deserve it!

There is one winning comment number though, and it is:

Congratulations!!

The winner is Nicole Irwin Cross, entry #16,754!

Please contact me with the best way to reach you so that you can claim your prizes.

Thank you to ALL of you how entered! Blessings to you this holiday season!

xo,

Marian

Don’t miss out!

Reader Interactions

Comments

  2. I would adore this mixer. They’re the price of 1 months rent here in South Africa, so its well on my Wishful Thinking list but oh how amazing it would be to win! I’m sure the shipping would be cheaper than buying it here in SA 😀

  4. I will love to have one, right now it will help me a lot, since all I have is a hand mixer.

  5. I would be happy with whatever color I got, I just need a good mixer, I go through enough hand mixers in a years time I have probably paid for a Kitchen aid in the last 2 years. A friend and I are starting a home baking business, this would ease our start up. Thank you for offering such a great giveaway.

  8. These are amazing!! Awesome job!! You’ve inspired my 8 yr old baking fanatic to attempt something beyond her imagination thus far. Thank you for that:) I’ve entered the contest because we do not have a stand mixer (which is kind of insane now that I put it in writing) everything we make, we use our hand mixer, and we bake ALOT.. fingers crossed. The red KitchenAid is gorgeous!!

  12. Me encantaría poder tener una KA, sería un fantástico regalo de navidad!!
    Preciosos blog y preciosas casas de gengibre…
    Muchas gracias.

  13. The Gingerbread houses are gorgeous!!

    Let’s be honest – I wouldn’t say no to any colour that is available ;o) lol.

    But I will choose Black Storm for the sake of choosing a colour! I am in Australia, but will definitely pay for shipping when I win! wink wink lol

  14. I have two things to say:

    OMG 1! The Gingerbread houses are gorgeous! I love the green and red one.

    OMG 2: This give away is soooo great. I really really want to win!
    And if I win I would like a black one!

  17. I would love to win the mixer. I have a home based cupcake business and one of my mixers just bit the dust…

  18. I have loved Kitchen Aide mixers since usng my Mother-in-Law’s while being her caregiver. I would love one of my own to use with my daughters and grandaughters. Bless you this Christmas and thanks for all your cooking and crafting ideas.

  23. I’ve been so inspired by this site and other creative sweets sites. I am working on getting my own little corner of the world set up, and a good mixer would certainly help! Thanks to you and KitchenAid for the giveaway – good luck to everyone!

  24. Can there be a better Christmas gift than a Kitchen Aid!!! When my friend Paula told me about this giveaway I knew I had to enter!!!!
    Keeping my fingers crossed….
    Merry Christmas!

  25. I would love to win one of these mixers!! I just got a job that requires me to move and I know I’m going to end up doing a lot of baking for it, so this would be perfect!! Thanks so much!!

  26. Hi thank you so much for offering this giveaway. I have never been able to afford one of these and would absolutely love a candy apple red one.

  30. I would LOVE to win this mixer! I make no less than 4 cakes every week so I just know this would help with all the icing that I make.

  33. I love these gingerbread houses, I’ve been dying to try some! Great post. And I would LOOOOOVE to win this mixer for Christmas! It is beautiful!

  34. I love the kitchen aid mixer and would love to win this one. Would’nt be cute in pink to go with the cute pink gingerbread houses.

  37. I would love to win the mixers in Medallion Silver – one for me and one for my mom. Thanks to you and to KitchenAid for sponsoring this amazing giveaway!

  38. I would love to win the mixer, I have burnt through many hand mixers over the years. It is really hard when you are making a cake for someone (I make cakes from home) and all of a sudden your mixing away and the puff, poof,spurt, and you mixer is dead, to late to drive the 40 minutes to town to get one. So I then start calling relatives looking for a mixer to borrow. This has happened 5 times so far in the past 3 years. So I need it desperately, i hope my name gets drawn. What a wonderful contest.

  39. OHH MY, OHH MY..
    ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS IS YOU; CANDY APPLE RED Ultimate 7-Quart KitchenAid Mixer. ;D I’VE BEEN WAITING FOR SOO LONG…
    CRAZY/MAD ABOUT SWEETOPIA POSTS…

  41. Fantastic giveaway! It would be an absolute dream to win! Good luck to all, and happy holidays! Cheers!

  42. I would LOVE to have one of these mixers. I have recently started a cupcake business and it would really help me make double batches more easily! Thank you for doing this give-a-way! ♥

  43. I was lucky enough to own a Kitchenaid at one time but had it stolen on a home break in! Not cool, but this is. I love the houses that you have created and have had fun with a group of friends on occasion, decorating as many as 50 gingerbread houses that were given to friends and neighbors. The job would be so much easier with a free replacement to one I lost!

  48. Cheryl wrote:

    I would love to own the candy red Kitchen Aide!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    Forgot to mention I will pay the shipping and handling!!

  50. The 30 year old Kitchenaid Mixer that my mom gave me is on it’s last leg. I would love a new one!

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