Snow Globe Gingerbread Houses

 

I'm loving all the diy mason jar snow globes around this year! The little kitschy deer ones really make me smile, the ones with the little sparkly trees too.

It was all that cuteness that inspired the idea for my gingerbread house this year, or rather gingerbread houses. Instead of one large gingerbread house, I made a few smaller ones, small enough to fit inside jars.

I love how pretty they look all grouped together, I think they'll make the perfect centre piece for this years Christmas day table.

This recipe makes enough dough for roughly 6 small- medium houses or you could make one big house. I only used half of it to make my 3 houses and extra tree cut-outs. I used the other half in an upcoming post. Extra dough can be frozen and thawed in the fridge overnight before using.

I haven't included a template for the ginger bread houses as it really depends on the size of the jars you use. Just be sure to make your templates smaller than the jar opening to leave room for expanding while baking.

For the Gingerbread-

100 grams butter (chopped)

1 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar

1 cup golden syrup

2 eggs (lightly beaten)

4 cups sifted plain flour (4 - 4 1/2 cups as needed)

1 cup sifted self raising flour

3 tablespoons ground ginger

1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

1 teaspoon bicarb (baking) soda

To make the gingerbread- add the butter, brown sugar and golden syrup into a small saucepan.

Stir over a low heat until all melted together and smooth. Once cool add sugar mixture and eggs into a large bowl.

Add the flours, ginger, cinnamon, cloves and baking soda to the wet ingredients.Mix all together until well combined. If mixture is too wet add up to another 1/2 cup of plain flour as needed.

Give the dough a light knead and divide it into quarters. Flatten each portion of dough into a disk and wrap in cling-wrap. Chill the disks of dough in the fridge for at least one hour before rolling out. (I made my dough the night before and used it the next morning)

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees c.

Roll the dough between 2 sheets of baking paper. Working with one dough portion at a time roll out to 5mm thick.

Lay the template onto the rolled out dough and cut out using a knife. Cut out two of each template, re-rolling the dough when needed.

Transfer the baking paper and gingerbread cutouts onto flat baking trays. Bake the gingerbread pieces for about 12 to 15 minutes, until they are golden.

Repeat with all the pieces and allow to cool completely on cooling racks.

For the Royal Icing

300 grams icing sugar

3 tablespoons meringue powder

4-5 tablespoons water (approximately)

To make the Royal Icing- Beat the icing sugar, meringue powder and water with an electric mixer. Using the paddle attachment, mix for about 7 minutes on low speed until the icing is smooth. If the icing is a bit too thick add a little more water one teaspoon at a time. If it is too thin add a bit more icing sugar one tablespoon at a time, beat again until smooth.

To pipe on the details onto the walls of the house I used a fine tipped squeezy bottle filled with royal icing. For the larger details on the roof I used a squeezy bottle but trimmed the end to give a larger opening.

To build the gingerbread house-Starting with the wall pieces, pipe a line of royal icing along either end. Press the front and back gingerbread pieces onto the sides. Allow to set before attaching the roof.

Pipe royal icing along the top edges of the walls, front and back of the gingerbread house.
Press on one half of the roof and hold until stable, it wont take too long. Repeat with the other side of the roof. Allow all of the royal icing to set.

Pipe a decorative line along each edge to hide the joins in the gingerbread.

To make gingerbread jars- Pipe a line of icing along the base of the ginger bread pieces. Stand the pieces in place and allow the icing to set. Place something behind the trees to hold them upright while the icing hardens.

Fill the base with coconut and top with the jar.

Last Years Christmas Favs

Feeling pretty pleased with myself for being so organised, my Christmas cards are all done! Check out some of my favourite Christmas recipes from last year while I wander down to the post office to mail the last of my cards.

Gingerbread Cottage

Woodland Christmas Cookies

White Choc Cranberry Pistachio Wreaths

Speculaa Snowflake Cookies

3D Sugar Cookie Gingerbread Houses

Gingerbread Ice Cream

Gingerbread Cottage 2012

I enjoyed making last years gingerbread house so much that I've decided to make it a yearly tradition, this time going a bit more cottage-y than my pretty in pink house from last Christmas.

 I just thought I'd share a few photos because I've run out of time for a tutorial. If you'd like to know more take a look at last years house, it has the recipe that I used for both this house and the other I've made and also a step by step building guide.

 I decorated my gingerbread cottage using royal icing and little sections of fondant, like the door and shutters. The roof is easily my favourite past of this house, the tiles are white chocolate drops/melts attached with royal icing. I went a little silly with the icing sugar snow, but love how it looks covering the roof tiles.

Gingerbread House Stand Up Sugar Cookies

Today has been filled with a whole bunch of christmasy activities, I spent a good deal of my morning enjoying wrapping gifts, finally got to finishing writing my Christmas cards this afternoon and I made these cookies.

Two years ago I made my first stand up cookies, pumpkins for Halloween, I was really pleased with how they turned out and I'm surprised at myself that its taken me this long to use the idea again. I realize gingerbread isn't for everyone, so made some cookies that have the cute gingerbread house look but with a yummy vanilla sugar cookie taste.

I think my favourite thing about these cookies is their size, they are a perfect single serving. Being little and not as time consuming as making a proper gingerbread house means I get to gift them to everyone this Christmas.

To make the Gingerbread House Sugar Cookies- prepare your favourite sugar cookie dough (Sugarbelle has a great recipe for sugar cookies and royal icing, plus great tips) and cut out an even number of houses and squares as well as half that amount of each gingerbread men and Christmas trees using mini cutters. 

Bake the cookies according to your recipe and allow to totally cool. While your cookies are cooling prepare and colour royal icing. You will need a thicker icing (for outlining)  and a thinner icing (for flooding) in each of the colours, brown, red,white and green.

Outline a square onto each of the base cookies and place aside to set.

Outline the snowy roof tops with white icing and allow to set. Once the outline is set fill with thinner white icing.

Follow the same steps again for the house and chimney, outline, set and fill with brown icing.

Set the cookies aside to dry.

While the houses are setting ice the gingerbread men and Christmas trees. For the little cookies I didn't use an outline first, instead just used thinner icing piped to make the shapes.

Once the green and brown icings are set, pipe on the little details. Using a fine tipped squeezy bottle pipe the white squiggles on the gingerbread men and the snow onto the pine trees.

Pipe some red dots onto the gingerbread men for buttons and more onto the trees as decorations.

Draw faces onto the gingerbread men with an edible pen.

Outline and fill the little doors on the houses and allow to set. 

Lastly add some details to the door in red and pipe on some little white heart windows.

To assemble the cookies position a wire rack over a container or something else that will hold it at a suitable height to lean the houses and gingerbread men or trees against.

Flood the square cookies with white icing and place under the wire rack. While the icing is still wet stand the cookie house and tree or gingerbread person into position, using the rack as support.

Finish off with a generous coat of white sprinkles. Allow the icing to set completely before carefully removing the support rack and gentle brushing off excess sprinkles.

Enjoy!

Gingerbread House (Part 2- Decorating and Building)

Ok so here it is part two of the gingerbread house post, a quick how-to on being a builder.

For the Royal Icing

1 kg icing sugar

5 tablespoons meringue powder

1/2 cup water (approximately)

To make the Royal Icing- Beat the icing sugar, meringue powder and water with an electric mixer. Using the paddle attachment, mix for about 7 minutes on low speed until the icing is smooth. If the icing is a bit too thick add a little more water one teaspoon at a time. If it is too thin add a bit more icing sugar one tablespoon at a time, beat again until smooth.

I spent weeks looking for different kinds of candy to decorate my gingerbread house, but ended up not using any of it. Instead of covering my house with candy like I intended I kept things simple and pretty in pink, using only royal icing, pink candy canes and some sprinkles.
To pipe on the details onto the walls of the house I used a fine tipped squeezy bottle filled with royal icing. For the larger details on the roof I used a squeezy bottle but trimmed the end to give a larger opening.I added a bit of extra sparkle to the snow details on the roof, chimney and above the windows, sprinkling on white sugar while the royal icing was still wet.
To build the gingerbread house- Firstly find something big enough to build it on, I used my big white cake stand and it only just fit.

Starting with one of the wall pieces, pipe a line of royal icing along one edge and along the bottom of the gingerbread. Position the wall on the base. Use something square like a cake tin to hold it up while you prepare the next piece.

Pipe a line of icing along the bottom of the back wall piece of the house and adhere to the pre-iced edge of the side wall. Allow to set.

Attach the second side wall with a line of icing along the bottom and on the connecting edge and leave set. Once set pipe royal icing along the front edges of both of the walls and a line along the base where the front of the house will sit.
Press on the front of the house and allow the royal icing to set hard before attaching the roof.
Pipe royal icing along the top edge of one of the walls and the edges of the roof.
Press on one half of the roof and hold until stable, it wont take too long.
Repeat with the icing and the other side of the roof. Allow all of the royal icing to set.
Pipe a decorative line along each edge to hide the joins in the gingerbread. Lastly glue the chimney to the roof with a little more royal icing.
There were trees and people to go with the house, but it turned out a whole lot bigger than I imagined and they wouldn't fit and got eating in the process.

All eaten! Um nom nom.

Gingerbread House (Part One- Making and Baking)

Guess what? My oven is back! Well actually it is a completely different one but it works so I'm super happy, just in time for some serious Christmas baking. I didn't waste any time testing it out with something I've been dying to make for ages, my very first gingerbread house. I love ginger bread and pretty gingerbread houses but have always been worried about building one myself. I was convinced it would fall down for sure. Turns out my house building skills aren't too bad, not only did it not collapse it looked pretty too.

Because this is a pretty large post I decided to divide it in two. This half for making the gingerbread and cutting and baking the pieces and the next post will have the decorating and the construction of the house.

The smell of the gingerbread while it was baking was so so amazing, pure Christmas!

Gingerbread House Walls Template

Gingerbread House Front and Back Template

Gingerbread House Roof Template

For the Gingerbread-

100 grams butter (chopped)

1 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar

1 cup golden syrup

2 eggs (lightly beaten)

4 cups sifted plain flour (4 - 4 1/2 cups as needed)

1 cup sifted self raising flour

3 tablespoons ground ginger

1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

1 teaspoon bicarb (baking) soda

To make the gingerbread- add the butter, brown sugar and golden syrup into a small saucepan.

Stir over a low heat until all melted together and smooth. Once cool add sugar mixture and eggs into a large bowl.

Add the flours, ginger, cinnamon, cloves and baking soda to the wet ingredients.
Mix all together until well combined. If mixture is too wet add up to another 1/2 cup of plain flour as needed.
Give the dough a light knead and divide it into quarters. Flatten each portion of dough into a disk and wrap in cling-wrap. Chill the disks of dough in the fridge for at least one hour before rolling out. (I made my dough the night before and used it the next morning)
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees c.

Roll the dough directly onto the baking paper you will bake the gingerbread pieces on. Working with one dough portion at a time roll out to 5mm thick.
Lay the template onto the rolled out dough and cut out using a large knife. Cut out two of each template, re-rolling the dough when needed.
Cut a door and a window out of the front gingerbread piece. I used a heart and rectangle cookie cutter.
Transfer the baking paper and gingerbread cutouts onto flat baking trays.
Bake the gingerbread pieces for about 12 minutes, until they are golden.
Repeat with all the pieces and allow to cool completely on cooling racks.
Come back tomorrow to see it all get put together.