Hour rule (at least when I composed it), belated Christmas Edition

[Chariotoflove]

Over the past 6 years, my daughter and I have attended the Baylor Medical Center gingerbread house decorating shindig they put on for families every year. This year they didn't have one, so my girl and I decided to make our own. What follows is a visual history of the construction. Bear in mind that neither the AOR nor the structural engineer on site have any certification in gingerbread construction or any other kind whatsoever. Also, no light fixtures in these pics, so the space crab won't be interested.

In the first two pics, you see the basic structure. I baked the panels according to a design my daughter adapted from a website and for which she gave me the specifications. She made all the icings you see. There is a main house and a heated shop that is only slightly smaller than the house.

Here you see the protected runway I made for Santa's sleigh. You can see that it's well lit for the gummy reindeer to land on either the 35 or the 53. The sleigh is graham crackers with candy cane runners.

We got all the candies at Dollar Tree and used coconut for the snow

The window box is filled with coffee grounds "potting soil"

We did a couple of different batches of panels, with one having less molasses than the other. Both baked up well and tasted good. They stayed soft enough to nibble on for the week after and were pretty good for coffee dunking.

[beefchips]

@chariotoflove your daughter's window planter is too freakin' cute, I love it!

[Chariotoflove]

@beefchips We sweat the details.

[CaptDale - is secretly British]

@chariotoflove How fun! I can't remember the last time I made a gingerbread house.

[trivet]

@chariotoflove
This is awesome! My family did something very similar this year as well.

We did a Gingerbread house decorating "contest". 3 couples (me & wife, daughter & son in law, son & girlfriend).

We used a store bought "kit" and bought tons of extra candies and such for decoration.

Rules: All material used must edible and anything in the house/kitchen can be used, not just the supplied candies and decorations.

It was a pretty intense contest, all 6 of us voted for the best (no voting for your own) and my son and his girlfriend came out the clear winner. They really took advantage of the "use anything in the kitchen" and topped off their GB house with powdered sugar "snow" that put theirs over the top. I'm pissed I didn't think of it first.

But it was a lot of fun (and a huge mess) and I'm hoping we start a super competitive Christmas tradition. Someday with grandkids too.

[Chariotoflove]

@captdale-is-secretly-british said in Hour rule (at least when I composed it), belated Christmas Edition:

@chariotoflove How fun! I can't remember the last time I made a gingerbread house.

Time to make a new one then!

[Chariotoflove]

@trivet That's great! One of the best things is procuring the materials and seeing how many different sorts of decorations you can use. Some folks tend toward minimalist and tasteful. We are more the type that wants to cover every surface possible. We also like to make sure we use as many candies we'd like to eat as possible, so that nibbling on it Hansel and Gretel style is more fun.