This is a great idea for a thread! I try to do gingerbread every year, but it can be very time consuming.. I look forward to seeing what everyone else does this year. I have done some really fun stuff.. here is one I especially loved..
http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-photo_18187.html

Laura--that's awesome! Great carosel!!

Thanks K8.... unfortunately that carousel only lasted a few weeks. We had some unusually humid weather and the top got soft and.... well, it was fun while it lasted I started using construction grade gingerbread for building after that..

cakesbylj i LOVE the carousel! how did you do the mirror?

i signed up for the pattern testing too! i'm hoping it will be a good one !!

Ohhh I love this thread already. My daughter and I do gb houses every year. Last year we couldn't because I was recovering from surgery so this year's has to be great!

I have to tell you all a quick story. A few years back my dd wanted to completely do a house of her own, just a small one. I bought her one of those small kits and let her loose in the kitchen. Boy was that a mistake! Her x-mas gb house turned into the "House of Horrors" as she called it. Any stranger would've thought she was mental! Poor snowman marshmallow was dead with a candycane stuck in him! Plus many other 'weird' things. I asked her what was she thinking!! Her response...I wanted to do something different. That indeed she did!

If I can find the picture I'll share it.

I'm another who signed up for the template testing.

Has anyone done any of the haunted gingerbread houses for Halloween? I think they look really cool too. I'd like to do one for halloween and for Christmas. What recipes do you ladies like best?

Honeydukes--I got the castle template also. I got it 10 minutes after I signed up.

Tellis12--I wish that's what my dd was thinking when she terrorized her gb house!

I've been looking and can't find a picture of Martha Stewart's Haunted GB Mansion. Does anyone have it? I LOVE the Halloween houses!

You know that's probably a good idea for me to start with a Halloween house. That way if it's all warped and crooked, I can say it's supposed to be that way! At least it would be good practice.

Is this the one your looking for??

I hope this link works.

http://blogs.fashionweekdaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/12/isaacmarthahouseok.jpg

hehe honeydukes your too funny i don't think this is the one she did, but i think its like what you wanted.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/27206804@N04/2766285183/

here's the link laura. its under templates.

http://www.gingerbread-house-heaven.com/index.html

This link has the haunted mansion and the gb mansion at the top, just small images. I can't get them to enlarge though.

http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=martha+stewart+gingerbread+mansion+pictures&fr=yfp-t-501&toggle=1&cop=mss&ei=UTF-8

Is this marthas house?

I ordered mine, and also received the castle pattern. The best part of this is that we don't have to follow the pattern to the exact design.

This should be fun, I sat last night and read over the instructions and looked over the patterns there is a lot of different things you can do to make this castle wonderful.

CASTLE!!!!

I did get a nice note. She said she doesn't have templates for really simple plain ol' houses. But she thought this might be good because I don't have to worry about a roof. She suggested I print it out and see what I think. I hadn't really given much thought to the roof issues.

Hey, I know... how about a Halloween castle!!! (One that's warped and crooked!)

I just wrote her a note and told her we're all wanting to test templates. Maybe she'll start mixin' em up for us. If not, every other person has to do a a different castle -- I call Halloween!

Here is a cool link for a haunted house
http://www.haunteddimensions.raykeim.com/index506.html

Here is the ebay link
http://cgi.ebay.com/MARTHA-STEWART-HALLOWEEN-GINGERBREAD-HOUSE-NEW-MANSION_W0QQitemZ170260790825QQcmdZViewItem?_trksid=p3286.m20.l1116

I am a huge Gingerbread Fan. Four years ago, I started making GB houses for a party. I have my son and daughter invite some friends, and I invite some family and friends too. I spend about 2 weeks making the dough, rolling it out, and using templates that I have made to make about 17 complete houses. (always making extra pieces in case of breakage.) I only ask the kids to bring the candy to decorate it with and we all share. I bring out the card tables and re-arrange the living space to accommodate everyone, and we have a ball! The kids have ranged in age from 5-16 and they all like it - girls and boys alike. I use royal icing so they are able to carry their house home with them when they leave. I always have the child pose with their house and take a snapshot of everyone. It makes them feel special and they love it. I also have a photo album I bring out so they can see the photos from prior years. Their creativity is wonderful. It is alot of work, but it thrills me to death to have this party every year. Next year I will do the Halloween gb houses.

If I showed my dd the picture of the haunted mansion she'd freak! I know she'd want to make another "House of Horrors". She's been reading the Twilight books so who knows what she'd come up with!

As for the castle pattern..at least we can make it our own. I'm anxious to see what everyone comes up with.

Hi everyone! I'm the owner/author of http://www.gingerbread-house-heaven.com and boy are you all keeping me busy today! It's really fun to see such a burst of template tester activity! I usually get a few sign-ups per day and I've had 20 so far today.

So... sorry about everyone getting the castle template. I have LOTS of templates in the works, but my "real" job has kept me too busy to get many of them onto the computer.

You've given me new inspiration though! Since there's a motivated group ready to build some gingerbread houses, I'll get right to work on finishing some more. If you haven't already, feel free to request a particular style in a reply to my e-mail (the one I sent you when you signed up to be a Template Tester - this page if you haven't already signed up: http://www.gingerbread-house-heaven.com/gingerbread-house-templates.html) I likely won't send everyone the new patterns unless you've requested a similar style. Photos of a house in your desired style help a lot!

Besides the castle, I've also finished a simple circus tent (at a tester's request.) I actually forgot all about that one when a few of you requested a simple design today. So if you'd like to see that one, just reply to my e-mail and request it.

I'm glad to have found this enthusiastic community!

Kelly

Welcome to CC. You website is really cool. Very helpful!!!!

Look at pekaboo's haunted gingerbread house, she did a great job!

http://cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=1269654&done=2

Welcome Kelly! Thank you so much for doing those for us!

I got the Castle one as well, but then wrote and asked if maybe I could get another type of house. She said she's working on it. I dl a mansion style house and I think I'm going to start one that one for my Halloween house. I'm going to start baking tonight!

Welcome Kelly. Thanks ladies for starting this thread. My son is looking forward to making gingerbread houses.

This will be my third year donating a gingerbread house for a charity auction. To get the houses, they make it a "competition" and the winners get certificates and it's a lot of fun - for a good cause. It's so hard to give away something you've put so much time in though... last year, I did 3 buildings from Christmas Town (Nightmare Before Christmas) as well as several characters - though I didn't even come close to finishing it up as I had wanted to (several characters short, no sleigh, etc. *sigh*)

Anyway, I've learned a lot through trial and error in such a short time. I found a great recipe that doesn't fall apart but still tastes good. I learned to use candy melts to glue walls together so you don't have to wait for RI to dry. And most importantly, I've learned that gingerbread houses are definitely a labor of love! My kids and I ate, drank and breathed nothing but gingerbread for a very long time (they all did a house too).

I took tons of photos throughout the process and am always happy to share if someone is interested (just send me a PM with your e-mail address, and I can send you a zipped file).

It's almost that time again and I am trying to decide what I'm going to do this year. I'm leaning towards doing a pirate ship. That ought to be fun (and stressful! And frustrating!) I have no idea where to begin when it comes to a boat - but I love challenging myself.

Thanks for all the links to these sites - I can't wait to check them all out.

Welcome to CC Kelly. I love your website.