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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

  1. I would love to have that red KitchenAide Mixer for Christmas. I love KitchenAide products.I already owned a 5-quart KitchenAide but I think having the 7-quart is AWESOME!!!!!

  2. Love the candy red one.

    BTW the pink house, so adorable. Can’t wait to have a little girl to make it with.

  3. I would love love love love love a kitchen aid mixer… Thank you so much for this amazing giveaway!!

  4. Thanks for the info on the icing! I’m making my house this weekend so the recipe and a kitchenaid will come in handy.

  5. ohhh my! I am in love with your gingerbread houses! Great work. 😉 I definitely would love to have one of the KitchenAid mixers, I also tried the last time you had a giveaway and hopefully I am lucky this time!;) seasonal greetings! Momo

  15. We love your blog, my wife and I that is:-) It would be amazing to win this mixer! I simply cannot afford one for my wife right now, but she is so deserving of it. Not only is she the best mom and wife, she’s also a great baker, and she has always wanted one of these! We’ve lost a lot through these economic times, but she has stuck in there with me. Even if I don’t win it, I will get her one just like it! Thanks for all of your awesome tutorials and thanks for opening this competition to all us, and good luck to the winner!

  16. I would swim across the ocean from Germany to pick up the black KitchenAid mixer <3 <3 <3 Frohes Fest!!

  17. Your Gingerbread houses are wonderful! They really make me smile & have so much Christmas Spirit. I almost expect to see one of Santa’s Elves come walking out of them :)) I Really, really, really need a bigger mixer & the Red one especially brings a sparkle to my eye, however any of the colors are magnificent machines & I would be thrilled beyond words to have one <3

  19. Oh my. What an amazing giveaway. My mom and I got
    together to bake holiday cookies this weekend and her 35 year old kitchenaid is finally showing its age. I would LOVE to replace her kitchenaid with a beautiful new one!!

  20. I would LOVE to win that KitchenAid mixer!! I frequently find I need more than one at Christmas. I’m in Guam which is technically the US, but I’d still be happy to pay shipping if I won! 😀

  21. I love Sweetopia! Oh what I would do for a beautiful Kitchenaid!! My kitchen is so small so using a hand mixer and different bowls makes such a mess and it’s difficult to mix large quantities. I have old as heck Oster mixers from both grandmothers but they just don’t have the oomph I need! I love to bake but using my equipment just isn’t cutting it! Purple or pink would do perfectly 🙂

  22. You are so dedicated to your work! I am absolutely stunned by the beauty of these gingerbread houses. The mixer is also a thing of beauty and I would love to have a red one.

  23. I would love to win this to replace my working 30 year old KitchenAid mixer! This one I would definitely leave it on the counter 🙂

  27. I would like to win the red one, because my Kenwood is broken down 🙁 I have to buy a new one and I think I’m going to buy a Kitchenaid, but he’s more expensive, so I doubt. It would be fantastic if I could win this Kitchenaid!

  33. I would absolutely love to win one of these amazing Kitchen Aid Mixers!!! Especially since my mixer is starting to slow down and apparently stay on unless I unplug it! LOL! Good luck everyone!!!

  34. I wish i could make gingerbread houses like you! Mine just lean all over. I am in live with the red mixer. My kitchen aid mixer needs an upgrade to something more powerful!

  35. thank you very much for sharing all your knowledge!!!
    And fot this wonderful giveaway!!!
    Merry Xmas

  36. OMG I would love it. Maybe with that size I would probably stop making a mess – probably not.

  42. I would so LOVE to win such a beautiful and magnificent kitchen item such as the KitchenAid Mixer!

  43. Love the gingerbread house. I would love to win that oh so awesome mixer and have my almost 4 yr old help me make a gingerbread house.

  44. I will be pleased if my house turns out half as cute as one of yours!!! I would be so overly pleased if I were to win any color mixer!!!

  45. Love the gingerbread house!! I’m excited about the giveaway….using an old mixer now…hoping it’s going to make it through the holiday baking 🙂 thanks for a chance to win a new one

  47. I would love this in the candy apple red! Plus my current mixer can just about hold 2 batches of mix so to win one that can mix so much more would be a dream come true!! By the way I love your gingerbread houses, I have never made one and now I’m feeling all inspired, you are so talented and I love reading your blog x x

  50. Love your site and all of the tutorials are super helpful! Hope Santa can help me win the mixer!

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