Everyone needs a night out without kids. Sowhy not set up a night, ask a few friends to join the challenge and each make their houses. Offer a special signature drink (see signature drinks on the site). I will be putting up a few ideas for nibblies and such. Anyone game? The proof must be you putting your pictures on the site so one and all can enjoy them. Any questions? I will be adding things as we go along for the evening to share with friends.
It takes: 1 cup soft butter and 1 cup granulated sugar. Cream these together until very light and fluffy and add
2 eggs and 1 1/4 cup blackstrap molasses, mixing until well blended.
By hand, using a wooden spoon, gradually add 6 cups of flour, 2 tsp. ground ginger,
1 tsp each of baking soda, salt, ground cloves and ground cinnamon. You will also have to mix this together with your hands.
Cut dough into 4 discs, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2 1/2 hours (must be firm).
Prepare your cut outs for the house, label each section. It can be ANY design. Whatever you choose.
Between sheets of parchment paper, roll out each disc to 1/4 inch thickness. Re move top paper and lay out your house pattern. Using a sharp knife, trace the shapes and cut out. Freeze on a cookie sheet (still on the paper) for about 30-35 minutes.
Line your cookie sheets with parchment paper and bake in a 325 degree oven for about 13-15 minutes until golden and firm to the touch. Place on cooling rack and cool completely.
Royal Icing (glue for house)
1 pound of icing sugar
1/4 tsp of cream of tartar
3 egg whites
1 tsp. glygerin to prevent icing from becoming too hard.
Beat slowly until icing is smooth and stands in firm peaks, Put icing in a pastry bag to put the house together.
Candies and licorice bit, strings, chocolate wafers, smarties, popcorn (snow), whatever you want to put on the cake. Get it all in the bulk section. You will need lots and lots.
Thank you so much for this post. I can’t wait to try it. I’ll have to wait until early in December but I will definitely post pics. Important things first….. I will need to throroughly research potential signature drinks for that night.
Looking so forward to this and will keep tuned for any other suggestions and/or tips.
Jen 🙂
Just an update, hosting the challenge this weekend, but I have precooked the gingerbread pieces and the house smelled amazing. I also had to taste of some of the cutoffs, which I saved for misc building pieces, and I was pretty darm impressed with myself, thought I owe it more to your recipe than anything else. So excited to get building and decorating………………..
I do have some pictures that I will send through to post on this site. It was a “friendly” contest becuase some couples had young children, but it was a fabulous time and everyone said how much fun it was. (You can easily differentiate between who had kids and who did not based on the decorated houses!) I premade the gingerbread and stored it in ziplock bags/kits and defrosted them the night before. I also premade the icing the night before and stored it in ziplock bags with all the air pushed out. Then we just cut one of the ends off of the bags to squeeze out the icing and it worked perfectly. I did white, green and red icing. Also I assigned decorating ingredients for each couple to bring to help cut down on costs. The only thing I will change for next year (it was so fun we are going to make it a yearly tradition) is to plan something like tobogganing or roasting marshmellows on the fire pit outside in the middle of the event to allow time for the walls to secure to the base and also to burn off the sugar high in the kids! I would add the roofs at the very end when everything else is hardened. 1.5-2 hours would be perfect. I am still getting emails from those who attended saying how much fun they had and how they can’t believe how good the gingerbread house tastes. I can’t thank Bonnie enough for her recipe and guidance on this one. I would encourage anyone looking for a fun afternoon or evening to give it a try.
I was curious about the competition. Do you have pictures? Was it successful? I have been waiting for more about this. Maybe I would try it next year. Thanks.