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12.23.2009

Daring Bakers Make Gingerbread Houses... Home For The Holidays



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.


For someone who's into cake decorating , I can say Ive never made a Gingerbread house. It was always on my list. I'm amazed I even got it done with the craziness of December, I can think of no challenge more apropos than this.Linda of Make Life Sweeter, who I meet in Vienna last week insisted I do it as we dined over Wiener Schnitzel in the Nachtsmarket.

Certain Someone is finally home and the holidays will be as they should, warm and comfy in the confines of our home. I don't want much for Christmas , really....



I remember last Christmas in Germany and hearing the news the late great Eartha Kitt had died. They don't make stars like that anymore.
Back to the Gingerbread. I had the same issues as everyone else with a very dry dough. I used Ana's Good Housekeeping recipe and added more cream. After chilling overnight, the moisture expanded and the dough became manageable. Still a dry one compared to to other recipes, but it worked. I m glad I used cheap Flour for this as 9 1/2 cups of flour were used. I still have plenty to make another house if I wish! Here is the template I used.
I had wanted to shingle the roof with some sliced black licorice fudge I had from Denmark. Unfortunately when I was satisfied and turned my back to wash my hands, the roof caved in. I had to scrape the roof and rebuild. Thankfully I had enough powdered sugar to make more royal icing to salvage a messy situation.
My decorations are just piped and painted royal icing (food color gels), pecan pralines I made, some coconut flakes for snow, and edible glitter. I broke some cinnamon sticks to make a wood pile. Certain Someone was impressed and we are bringing this to his bosses house for Christmas later. Although next year he challenged me to make a house like the White House's Gingerbread House.




Please Check out my fellow bakers. You can find the hostesses recipes and instructions on their sites which I have linked at the beginning.

Certain Someone and I wish you Happy Holidays, Peace, Health and Prosperity.

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28 comments:

~~louise~~ said...

I've always wanted to make a Gingerbread House, Courtney. Perhaps, next year you can take on CS's challenge (if there's anyone who can build a beautiful White House Gingerbread House it's you:) And I, well, I'll try to make my very first gingerbread house ever!!! We'll see:)

A very Merry Christmas to you and yours Courtney. Hug each other for me, will ya?

Di said...

Great job on the house! And very cool that you got to meet Linda. Happy holidays!

Rosa's Yummy Yums said...

Your house is very pretty! Very well done.

Happy Holidays and all the best for 2010!

Cheers,

Rosa

Barbara Bakes said...

I think the White House is the most spectacular gingerbread house I've ever seen! I'm glad you were able to save the roof! Great job!

Memória said...

Your gingerbread house looks fantastic!! I love the dramatic photos as well. I wasn't able to find enough time, creativity, or gumption to do the challenge this month :(. I'll just enjoy looking at yours and the rest of the DBers!

Deeba PAB said...

PRETTY! Love it Coco, & love it that you got to meet Linda! Also happy for you that CS is home...have a wonderful Christmas & fab 2010.

TeachMom said...

A beautiful gingerbread house, Courtney. Well done! Merry Christmas to you both from me & M.

Valerie Harrison (bellini) said...

The White House is beautiful but remember they probably had a team of at least a dozen to put it all together, and that was their job for at least a week:D I think the DB's did a beautiful job and each gingerbread "home" is a unique as it's creator. Have a wonderful holidays season Courtney!!

Lori Lynn said...

Wow! Thoroughly enjoyed both your videos!
Wishing you and CS a very merry Christmas Courtney!
LL

Luca and Sabrina said...

Merry Christmas and a Happy New yeAr!
Sabrina&Luca

The Duo Dishes said...

Well done! This is not easy to do, which is why we can leave it to the pros. Happy holidays!

Cynthia said...

Happy Holidays to you and CS!

Aparna Balasubramanian said...

Its so pretty all lit up.
Happy Holidays and Best Wishes for a very Happy New Year!

Dharm said...

Your house looks stunning! Well Done! Happy Christmas and a blessed new year

Y said...

Great job! And yes, I hope you take up the challenge, because I'd love to see your version of the White House GB house :) Merry Christmas to you!! xx

Julius said...

Beautiful work!

Have a wonderful new year ahead!

Julius
from Occasional Baker

Maggie said...

Great house! Happy Holidays to you too!

Anonymous said...

Happy Holidays!

Paz xoxo

Meeta K. Wolff said...

that would be quite interesting to see - the white house! your gingerbread house looks great - it's colorful! well done!

The Caked Crusader said...

Happy Christmas Courtney and a wonderful 2010!

Kitchen Butterfly said...

I love the Naschmarkt.....Last November I wandered its aisles on a fantastic saturday evening! Lovely gingerbread house too

Nithya Praveen said...

Your Ginger bread house looks great....liked it alot.You hv a great blog here:)

Anonymous said...

Your blog is absolutely tasteful, Coco! I will come back again. Have a great Christmas, CookingMama
http://cookingmama.myblog.it
(FROM Italy)

Tia said...

your house is so cute!

Mary said...

I hope you and CS had a wonderful holiday! Your house is really really cute!

Esi said...

Your house came out great. So festive!

linda said...

Yay, you made the gingerbread house! Me too :) (only finished it after Christmas though)

Jeanne said...

That's quite a challenge - you have a lot more patience than me :) Looks fantastic and it's always nice when something you cook impresses the other half! Sounds like yor holidays were fab :)