December Daring Kitchen: Gingerbread House

The December 2009 Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to you by Anna of Very Small Anna and Y of Lemonpi. They chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ everywhere to bake and assemble a gingerbread house from scratch. They chose recipes from Good Housekeeping and from The Great Scandinavian Baking Book as the challenge recipes.

Take 1


Originally I had the recipe placed here, but it is not good. So I'm not going to share it. It tasted bad, shrunk horribly, and was hard to work with. You'll notice how thick the walls are, which while makes it sturdy makes it hard to fit things together.

I made my own template, if you want to use it it is below. Just click on the image for full sized version. Each page is 8.5 * 11 inches. Oh, and the bay window does not work... it is too small.



Take 2

For the second go around I used a completely different recipe. Chocolate Sugar Cookies were my foundation for the house. I know I know, it's not even gingerbread.... so sue me. Let me tell you, these taste wonderful and the finished house makes your house smell like chocolate. I'm assuming everyone here loves chocolate. Anyhow it is mostly decorated with royal icing and fondant. Captain had a blast mixing the colors and Harvey helped by eating the first two snowmen produced. I made my own template based on this house, but I did it by hand so I don't have a template for you to print off.

Work in Progress

Harvey exiled from the kitchen after the snowman fiasco.

Finished House, I'm much happier with the way this one turned out.

Roof has fondant shingles
Chimney is rice crispy treat covered with fondant.
Royal icing was piped on to hide mistakes :P
Simple syrup holds the walls together and is in the windows.


Other angles.


Notes for making your own gingerbread house (or other type of cookie).

• Put it together with melted sugar. It sets almost instantly
• Roll the dough as thin as possible
• Over bake
• Keep snowmen out of reach of toddlers.
  

Not me Monday: Footprints

This week I did NOT let Harvey's diaper rash get so bad he needed an 'air-out.' And even if this may have happened there is no way He would have preferred being naked to being fully clothed midwinter. Nope, Not Harvey, he always like being clothed. And there is no way I would loose track of time while his neked bum was running around the house, and look up to find these.

And no, that is definitely not what you think it is.

Go see what others haven't done this week at mcMama's

All Tuckered Out

Harvey, after a recent shopping, trip fell asleep on the way home. Please note the orange-stash. 3 people tried cleaning that thing off his face, none succeeded. Harvey was pleased.

I ♥ Faces Photo Challenge "Pets only"

This is my first time submitting a Photo to I ♥ Faces . I've been browsing their site for some time now, and I couldn't pass up the opportunity to submit when I saw that this week's challenge was "Pets only." Hopefully I will be able to participate regularly from now on.

This picture was taken many years ago on an old fashioned camera that used film. It has been scanned and re-scanned, but I just love how guilty "Flash" looks when we discovered his new hiding place.

Sticky Strikes Again

I left his with his dad for 1 hour... during church... and this is what I found when I came back.

*please note the dog was on loan.

Christmas Decorating

We decorated our house this weekend! Harvey LOVES the Christmas tree. First he played with the giant sticker that came off the tree stand. Then he made a game of trying to pull ornaments off without being poked in the face by the needles.

On Saturday I went to a Super Saturday and made the stacking blocks. It says

Shepards Saw
Angles Sang
Wisemen came

I know, it doesn't rhyme but still.... It officially doubled our Christmas decorations.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

September Photo Shoot

Back in September, Harvey and I had our pics taken by J. Baer, a friend starting our with a photography business. I'm a little behind in my blogging, so sorry these are a bit out of season.

Harvey needed some encouragement before he was willing to have his picture taken.

He still wasn't sure about it at this point.

The giant leaves changed his mind though!


See this leaf mom? It's pretty.

This was my favorite picture from the group.

This was Captain's favorite shot.

Anyways, Aren't they adorable?! J. gave us a print of Harvey for his birthday, now we just need to find a frame.