I guess i should ask if we can talk about gingerbread houses. i know its a cake website, but since we do cookies and i guess i would consider gingerbread houses cookies, i'm hoping it's ok.

With all this talk about gingerbread cookies, its got me thinking about this years gingerbread house . anyone interested in starting a thread devoted to everything gingerbread? We could post pics of previous gbread houses and talk about what we plan on doing this year.

i have so many ideas for this years house! i was thinking about making it like a dollhouse where there are 4 rooms and each one is a different scene at santas workshop. i'll probably have to start pretty soon to get all the stuff i want to do, done!

here's last years gingerbread house. i made several of the front fences to account for breakage but all my back-ups broke too . so only one side got fenced.

Well, if you read the other GB thread you know that I cannot make a good decorating GB. I am still trying. I would love to read about GB houses -- it is my dream to make one someday. (For now I decorate graham crackers. Weak, I know) GB house are most definitely cookies, so I say post away!

Here's a link I found with lots of recipes and how-to's:
http://www.gingerbread-house-heaven.com/index.html

edited to add:
Beautiful house, BTW! I love the fence and gate!

honeydukes, thanks for the link!! i loved, loved the franky's attic website, but it looks as though its gone .

anyone else have a good website?

. . . jewelsb78, last year's house is lovely . . . how did you make the pillars for your fence . . .

i used rice crispy treats for the bushes and the pillars. i just molded them into the rectangles and used royal icing for the stones. when they were almost dry i pushed them down with my fingers to make them look like stones.

. . . nicely done . . . looks very realistic . . .

Very nice stonework!! I love it!!
And I love this thread! I was planning to make a replica of my in-laws house as a early gift for them and I can't wait!! I'm a gingerbread junkie!!

I LOVE gingerbread!! I had entered the gingerbread competition at Grove Park Inn in Asheville, NC several years ago. I didnt win but I had a great time. I would love to do it agian but I just dont have the time. So, bring on the gingerbread. I love looking at the different designs people come up with. And also finding out how they achieved a certain look.

Love your house jewels. BTW

I am so going to watch this topic. My daughters and I are planning on entering the gingerbread contest this year that the Rotary sponsors in our town. It is a fund raiser for several charities and we just love all the talented work they do. We have not come up with our plan yet so the more info the better.

Jewelsb78, your house is beautiful.

I think they might have redone that site.

Could this be it? I remember some of these recipes on another site I used to frequent.

http://www.ultimategingerbread.com/

Or how about this one.

http://www.gingerbreadland.com/

Great topic! My 6 yr old daughter and I have made a gingerbread house every year for the past 3 years. I'll admit it, we use the box kit but this year I was hoping to make my own so I'll be watching this closely!

cookiemookie you ROCK!!! that is the website! thank you soooo much! the house i did last year was one of their patterns.

Where is Franky's Attic webpage now? She is my gingerbread guru.


http://acmecakes.com/images/gingerbreadhouse2.jpg

^^^first gingerbread house ^^^
Here's the story behind that house...

The Story of Magnolia Manor Orphanage

In a Gingerbread House...
Once upon a time,
An Angel of Light
in response to the prayer of the
little boy in the window, blessed
the magnolia tree, and an elf
appeared in place of every blossom
on the tree. They repaired the
orphanage, made a
Merry Christmas Merrier
and lived happily ever after.

Here's my sleigh and reindeer and chocolate snowflakes

http://acmecakes.com/images/2007-05-02_17-57-23_0055.JPG

http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?act=module&module=gallery&cmd=si&img=37802

I assisted in making this millhouse gingerbread building

I wonder if Franky's attic became Ultimategingerbreadhouse.com?

Wow--Ultimate's has Loreta's favorite gingerbread recipe--I KNOW my first gingerbread house was made with a recipe called Loreta's fFavorite Gingerbread but it was printed in an old GoodHousekeeping magazine--and it had cream in it too--then I see my millhouse pattern in her Ultimate patterns--anyhow gingerbread folks are wonderful generous and I appreciate their sharing.

So I am planning on doing my church in gingerbread this year--in fact I am already starting with the basic planning. I need to take a boat load of photos.

I'm gonna try & do similar stained glass--it's more abstract so hopefully I can create the illusion. Lots of brick...

I'll post pictures as I go along.

Glad to help.

When I read your post it got me to thinking. I just sent that site to a friend of mine. I remembered it was loaded with so much wonderful information, but it looked somewhat familiar, but different. Then I saw the cartoon, and I knew that had to be it! It cracks me up every time I see it!

Can't wait to see what everyone comes up with this Holiday season!

Jewelsbee, Your house is awesome. I love the porch and fence. At first the photos would not come up but I can see them now. Way cool!

I was born in Northwest Indiana and raised in the bustling metropolis (not!) of Dyer IN. Whereabouts are you at?

k8memphis, i love the reindeer and sled! was it a cutter or did you just have a pattern? i made stained glass last year too, you just can't see it very well. I cut a circle in the back before i baked the back piece and put a christmas village light in and it looked so neat lit up at night.

oh and i live about 10 miles north of fort wayne in the "bustling metropolis" of auburn, hehe.

Yes they are silly cookie cutters too expensive to own. But I love them. Stainless steel But then I made some gingerbread pumpkins also with 2-piece jack o'lantern cutters that also stand up--now those were plastic cutters--much easier on the ole pocket book.

But I love those sleds--they have such potential. Like fill with tiny packages. I was gonna fill 'em with snowflakes but I never made any small enough oh well--they smell so good it's intoxicating!

Y'know what I do though? I use my lemon zester to 'file' those suckers to fit. Oh I can't wait!

How did you do your stained glass??

ooh the pumpkin ones sound cool, do you remember where you got them?

i cut out the windows shape before i baked them and just crushed up hard candy and put it into where i wanted the window.

here's a picture of them minus the decorations.

Got them at Sur la Table? or Penney's-- it was a catalog--think it was Sur la. It was a set with a witch & a ghost and a scarecrow, a haunted house. All of those cost less than the ONE set of stainless steel. heh heh heh

signed,
cake toy addict

Franky's attic stopped in 2005. You can find it here, through the wayback machine....
http://web.archive.org/web/20050126064911/http://frankysattic.com/
Most of the interior links still work.

Thank you so much SevenYYrt. It's the same cartoon on Ultimate as it is on Franky's so there must be a sweet connection somehow. It's just a stunner great website--I'm sure Ultimate is holding the light up high too.

Thanks again!

I love this idea I make a gingerbread house every year in fact I start buying my candy around Halloween
This year I plan to make a train to go with my house
Thanks for starting this

Molly2

molly2- that is a really really good idea! i never thought of getting candy during the halloween season, especially when it goes 50% off

7yyrt- thank you soo much! looks like the new site they have, you have to pay for the patterns not that i blame them for charging, the prices just seem a bit high.

looks like i might be making my own pattern this year. has anyone ever made their own pattern? how did you do it?

I drove through Mississippi and got photos of cool old houses.
Then I just did the math. I literally take a ruler and measure the photo and multiply to get the correct proportion. That's how I do any sculpture. Magnolia Manor was made from a photo maybe 15 years ago.

The millhouse was a project I worked on as an employee and so it was quite different than what I would produce.

This is a great thread idea. I would love to do one this year as I think they are so beautiful.

Honeydukes, I signed up for the template tester on the gingerbread house heaven website. I am so excited. The pattern they sent me was for a castle. I cant wait to get started on it. Thanks for the link.

Your GB house looks great! I too enjoy making these every Xmas and look forward to sharing mine with everyone this year.