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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

  4. Love the gingerbread houses! And, nice photography! I came here because I would LOVE a red 7-quart mixer. But, I’m glad I found this place–love it! You do some amaze work!!

  5. Cortney Abouelseoud told me about the give away. I don’t have a mixer but would LOVE to have one since I love to do so much baking for my husband and two soon to be three kiddos. This would help cut down on time by a lot too.

  6. I love your gingerbread houses!! 🙂 They are beautiful! And I’d love to win that mixer!! I’ve been wanting one of my own FOREVER and haven’t been able to afford one. Thanks!

  7. I think your minitures are amazing! I could never pull that off in my spare time! I would love to be able to win that mixer in Red or Silver. It would help out alot with all the batches of zucchini or banana bread I currently have to make seperatly!

  9. Mine is 30 yrs. old now and working just as good as day 1! It would be nice to have a new one though!

  11. I would LOVE a stand mixer! Black is so basic and would match my kitchen. I think I’d be able to create more in the kitchen with one of those…even pasta! Amazing!

  13. I have the 325-watt motor Artisan. But what I really NEED is this 1.3 HP Motor model! MORE POWER! ARRHH! AHH! ARHHHG! oghh! ohgh!

  16. Thank you and Oh how I would love to win this! I have a 5 1/2 qt and how amazing to be able to finally triple some tecipes without any falling out of the bowl.:-).

    I’m Susan’s Decorated Sweets or Susan Faia Eaton (both FB pages)

  21. I’d LOVE to win one of this soooo bad!!! Although either the red or white one would look good in my current kitchen, I’d probably choose the silver one 🙂

  22. I have wanted a Kitchenaid mixer for as long as I can remember! (I’m 54 now…so that’s a LONG time!!)

  24. I SOOOOOOOOOO want a mixer. I am redoing my kitchen and a new mixer would just complete it perfectly…especially the silver one.

  28. Is it wrong I just want to make icing to eat it?!

    These Gingerbread Houses are amazing. I wish I had the crafting gene to create something so magical. This post has inspired me to meet up with someone who is crafty and see if I can watch them make one.

    Also, this giveaway is truly fantastic.

    Good Luck to all who enter.

  30. I LOVE making Gingerbread Houses! Great craft with the kids and oh so sweet! Yours are adorable!

  33. Oh my! I heart candy apple red and the miniature mixer is just the coolest thing. The houses are adorable 🙂

  34. I love my old kitchenaid mixer but a new/larger one would be awesome, mine is making some strange noises.

  36. I would so love the Candy Apple Red one! We just remodeled our kitchen and it would look so great on my new granite!

  42. I would love to get baking again and this would push me to get in that kitchen and bake some great breads and cookies! Amy Rouse sent me here 🙂 Thanks Amy hope we can get some baking going on!!

  44. I’m looking forward to winning and baking : )
    LOVE this post! I made Royal Icing for gingerbread cookies, but the recipe was different. Will def. try your version next!
    Thanks!

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