Gingerbread Houses

As yet undecorated

Holls decorating

Harry being creative

Dons getting in on the act too

Reubs 'jacuzzi'

Reubs finished creation

Holls with her finished creation

Harry with his....looking 'surprised'

Harrys

Our joint effort (mine and Dons)

Holls one

Harry's

After a mad mad mad weekend celebrating our baby's 8th birthday and after a sleepover with 10...yes 10!!! children over, I thought I hadn't had enough to do so spent the whole day baking these houses for the kids (and us) to decorate. Lots of butter and flour later and we had 4 houses ready to go. The gingerbread recipe I used was from a new book I was sent for Xmas called 'The Great British Bake Off' and didn't use eggs at all. The gingerbread itself was delicious and it held together nicely although I didn't find it the easiest dough to work with as it was quite hard to lift without breaking the shape. In the end I rolled onto a piece of baking paper roughly the same size as the shape and lifted that onto the tray before cooking This year I tried doing 'stained glass windows' using boiled lollies crushed up and put into the windows before baking. I thought they looked really effective. 

To decorate them I had about 7 bowls full of different lollies for us to use so the kids could really go to town and do whatever they liked. They each had their own little bag of royal icing and they all managed to pipe nicely...although I helped a little with the roof. We all really enjoyed this activity and while it literally took all day to prepare, it was well worth it. Dons and I joined forces to decorate ours and then took it over to the woman across the road who has 3 kids to enjoy as a Xmas treat. There are loads of templates you can use on the internet but even though I thought this one would be small enough, the finished houses were quite big. Although this is a time-consuming project it certainly spells out Xmas and heralds in the festivities and is well worth it to see the enjoyment the kids (and us too) get from decorating the houses.

Gingerbread Houses (I made 4 times this recipe)

350g flour
1 Tbsp grd ginger
1 tsp grd cinnamon
1/2 tsp mixed spice
good pinch salt
1 tsp baking soda
175g unsalted butter
150g brown sugar
4 Tbsp golden syrup

Sift flour, spices and soda into a bowl.

Put the butter, sugar and golden syrup into a large pot and stir over a low heat until it is all completely melted and smooth. Take the pot off the heat and tip in the flour mixture. Mix well with a wooden spoon to make a firm dough.Tip the dough onto a lightly floured surface and leave until cool enough to handle, then knead gently to make a neat ball. Leave until cold before rolling out.

Bake at 180 C for about 10 mins.