Last week, Roy and I made the pieces for our gingerbread house and this week, we put it all together! If you haven't made the pieces yet, visit last weeks Roy Creates post by clicking here.
Read through all the instructions before you begin so you know what to do.
First things first, make sure you are ready. You need to have:
- a clean, dry space to work
- an apron (this tends to get messy!)
- clean hands
- something firm and strong to make your house on. Roy and I used a cheap plastic cutting board, covered with foil, which we taped in place underneath the board with masking tape
- a few glasses to hold the walls up while the icing dries
- a damp tea towel to keep the icing from drying out
It's also a good idea to have someone who can help you hold the pieces together while the icing sets, so another thing to find before you start is a friend!
Ingredients:
To make your Royal Icing (the cement to build your house with) you will need:
- 540 grams Pure Icing Sugar, sifted. You will need to sift the icing sugar because pure icing sugar is often lumpy. If you don't have a sieve, break up as many of the lumps as you can. You might use a strainer too!
- 2 Egg Whites
- 1/2 teaspoon Lemon Juice (this hardens the icing)
Other:
- Lots of lollies, of your choice. Roy chose:
- Jellybeans
- Smarties
- Licorice allsorts
- Jubes
- Freckles
- 1 santa (for the chimney!)
- If you want a roof like Roy and I made, you will need Tina Wafers, split into three and with most of the icing scraped off. You could also use icecream wafers, cut into 3rds.
- Roy and I also used a star, a tree, 2 reindeer and a couple of gingerbread men we made from the left over dough last week.We used some of the icing and coloured sugars to make the tree and star sparkle!
Method:
To make the icing:
- Place the icing sugar and the egg whites in a bowl together and beat. The mixture should become very stiff, and you will need to add the lemon juice to finish beating in the icing sugar. The icing should be thick and glossy.
- Put the icing into a piping bag. You can buy these or use a strong plastic bag with the corner cut off. Only make a small hole in your bag to start - you can always make it bigger!
- When you are not using the icing, cover/wrap it in a damp tea towel to keep it from drying out. It dries very hard!
To assemble:
- If your pieces are slightly mis-shapen, trim them with a sharp knife to make the sides straight.
- If you made a chimney, assemble it and leave it to dry. The longer, rectangle piece is the front, and the long side of the pieces with a triangle missing attach to its sides. The small square is the back. When it is dry, attach it to the roof - it will fit on quite neatly near the top.
- Decorating your walls. It is easiest to do this while they are still in pieces. Use the icing to glue lollies on as flowers, bugs, windows and anything else which takes your fancy!
- Roy and I thought we might give you a few ideas to get you started:
- Use jelly beans, cut in half with the cut side down to make a fence
- Cut jubes up to make petals and leaves for flowers.
- Use smarties or freckles to make flowers
- Your imagination is the limit!
- Pipe a thick line of icing along the bottom of one of your wall pieces. Place that piece down onto the foil covered board (icing to the bottom) and place a glass on either side to hold it up. Pipe a line of icing down the side of this piece, and along the board at right angles, then sit one of the pointy, end pieces in the icing.
- Press the two pieces together so that the icing 'cements' them together. Place another glass against the end piece to hold it up. Repeat this process with the other two sides and leave to dry. Make sure to wrap your icing in a damp cloth.
- While you wait for the icing to dry you could cut up wafers for your roof (if you are making one like Roy and I made), or cut up jelly beans and jubes to make flowers and fences.
- Next, pipe icing along all the edges of the top of the house, and sit the roof on gently. Hold the roof pieces on until they no longer threaten to fall off! You can also very gently put toothpicks in, through the roof to the top of the walls, if the roof won't stay (but it shouldn't be a problem - it should set fine). Put another row of icing down between the two roof pieces to join them together and up under the sides to ensure all the holes or gaps are filled completely. Leave to dry a little, making sure to wrap your icing in a damp cloth.
- If you made a chimney, glue it on now.
- If you want a roof like Roy and I made, cut your wafers into roof tile sizes. Now, using the icing glue them on. Start at the bottom of the roof and work your way up so that the 'tiles' overlap.
- Decorate with lollies as you wish. You can cover the joins in the walls and roof with extra icing and then glue on lollies. Roy and I also decorated a couple of little gingerbread biscuits and used these in our garden!
- When you are finished, sprinkle your house with icing sugar to make it look like it has snowed and wrap the whole thing tightly in a piece of cellophane.
Enjoy!
If you would like to take a photo and send a picture of what you create, Roy would love to see it!