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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

  3. Oh my… Santa will have given me the most AMAZING Christmas Present if I win one of these mixers. I’d love the medallion silver one!!! 🙂

  6. wowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww……..posso partecipare dall’Italia???
    mi piacerebbe poterlo vincere rosso, argento, nero, bianco….non avendolo per me è uguale, è bellissimo in ogni colore!!!!!!!
    Il mio indirizzo mail è:
    [email protected]
    a presto,
    ciaooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

  11. I’ve been trying to start a cake business out of my home for the past year. I know that a tool like this could really help me handle bigger orders! I’d loveee to win.

  13. Reading your blog and facebook posts has re-lit a fire in me to want to bake and decorate again. Winning a Candy Apple Red Kitchen-Aid Mixer would help enable me to continue to share my love and pasion!! Thanks for having the giveaway and thanks for all of your inspiration!!

  14. my brother, joey cosentino was right, you are truly amazing! your work is unbelievably beautiful and gloriously ornate! as an aspiring chef i can truly appreciate your talent. my brother and i are hoping to open shop one day. he as the baker and i as the chef. im very glad that he led me to your website.

    -jp

  16. I’ve never made gingerbread before and still fairly new to baking and decorating (8 months and counting). Wow definitely love to win this mixer, red or black would be just lovely 🙂 xx

  23. Thank you for such generous giveaway!!! I would love to have a red Kitchen aid Mixer Yay!!! Good luck to all of us!!!

  25. I’ll be happy to cheat on my Kenwood (also goes by Kenny as petname) with a Kitchen aid.
    I’ll would pet him (a mixer is always a HIM :D) talk sweet talk to him and love him to dead. (and pay the overseas shippingcoast 😉 )

  26. I believe in Santa, I would love this 7 quart kitchenaid in Christmas Red, Medallion Silver, Black Storm or White.

  27. How exciting giveaway! I have one classic kitcheneid, but it is small and need more power!
    I love so much lil tiny gingerbread doll house ! And pink gingerbread house is too cute<3

  35. So beautiful houses. And these doll houses too… I would love the red Kitchen aid.
    Have a nice Christmas time!
    🙂

  39. Love the colors… and the pink gingerbread house is adorable. I wish I could make this . Looking forward to trying the royal icing recipie.

  40. I would LOVE to win this, as my mixer is getting a bit past it and I regularly require it to make multiple batches of gingerbread, icings, cookies and wedding cake batter!

  42. Your gingerbread houses have to be the best I have ever seen! They look superb! Thanks for the inspiration and the amazing giveaway! I would live to win!!

  43. Your site is very very fantastic. I’m from Italy and I watch ever this!! I would love to win this red Kitchen Aid! It’s super!

  45. wow, gonna share those houses with my baby sis, who prob will make more then just one LOL
    I’d love to win this, I need a break. Three yrs ago my stove (the oven) quit , right around this time for Christmas….I ended up getting my moms old stove and guess what? THAT ONE JUST BROKE…sigh, figures. I did say we’d prob have to get one with income tax money and I’m not quite sure what we’re gonna do in the mean time

  46. Wow thi is an awesome give away. Love The red and blck one. Great give away… and the gingerbread houses are so cute I’m picturing one in purple my favorite color.

  48. I would love a chance to win these! I just started to blog and I was thinking of making a cooking and baking section and this would be the perfect mixer to use!! I would talk about it every time is used it haha.

  50. I can’t wait till my daughter is old enough to make gingerbread houses with. Thanks so much for the inspiration. I’d love to win this contest!!!!

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