Gingerbread House
INGREDEINTS:
375g/13oz unsalted butter
300g/10½oz dark muscovado sugar
150g/5½oz golden syrup
900g/2lb plain flour
1 tbsp bicarbonate of soda
2 tbsp ground ginger
For the icing
3 free-range egg whites
675g/1½lb icing sugar, sifted
3 tsp lemon juice
To decorate
15 yellow or orange boiled sweets
1 x 30cm/12in square cake board
200g/7oz giant milk chocolate buttons
2 night-light candles
6 cocktail sticks
Method
1. Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas 6 (fan 180C).
2. Melt the butter, sugar and syrup together in a large pan. Sieve the flour,
bicarbonate of soda and ground ginger together into a large bowl and make a
well in the centre. Pour in the melted butter mixture, stir it in and, when cool
enough to handle, knead to a stiff dough.
3. Divide the mixture into five equally-sized pieces, cut one of these pieces in
half (so you have six pieces in total). Roll each piece out on a sheet of
greaseproof paper to ¾cm/⅓in thick. Using the templates, cut out the sections
for the roof, sides, front and back of the house. Slide onto three baking trays
lined with baking parchment.
4. Using the template as a guide, a ruler and the rim of a cup, cut out the arched
windows on the front and sides of the house. Using a star cutter, cut out a star
in the front and back of the house. Using a knife, cut out the door on the front
and back of the house and place the doors separately on the baking trays.
5. Re-roll the trimmings and use to cut out the chimney pieces, three Christmas
trees and three triangles to use as supports to help the trees stand upright.
Bake the gingerbread for 7-8 minutes.
6. Meanwhile place the boiled sweets in a pestle and mortar and crush to a
rough sand texture.
7. Remove the gingerbread from the oven. Trim the windows if the mixture has
spread and sprinkle the crushed sweets into the windows. Return all the
gingerbread to the oven and continue to cook for 3-4 minutes, or until the
sweets have melted and the gingerbread is firm. Remove from the oven and
leave to cool for a few minutes, then trim around the templates again to give
clean, sharp edges. Leave to cool completely.
8. For the icing, whisk the egg whites in a large bowl until frothy. Using a
wooden spoon or a hand-held electric mixer on slow speed, add the icing
sugar a tablespoonful at a time. Stir in the lemon juice and beat the icing until
it is very stiff and white and stands up in peaks. Cover the surface with a
damp cloth if not using immediately.
9. Spoon a little of the icing into a piping bag fitted with a medium plain nozzle.
Pipe blobs of icing on the back of each chocolate button and stick,
overlapping onto the two roof sections, to create a tile effect. Transfer some
icing to another piping bag fitted with a small plain nozzle and pipe frames
around the windows, doors and stars to decorate. Spoon six tablespoons of
the icing over the cake board and, using a palette knife, spread the icing to
cover the board in a thick snow effect which will create a base to stick the
house on to.
10. Pipe some icing along the wall edges and join the house together on the iced
cake board. Leave the icing to dry and harden for a minimum of 4 hours, but
preferably overnight.
11. Once dry, place two night-lights inside the house before attaching the roof.
12. Cut the pointed ends of the cocktail sticks into 1cm/½in pieces (you should
have 12 small pointed pieces). Push the blunt end of the cocktail stick pieces
into the sloping edges of the front and back of the house, leaving the pointed
ends sticking out to act as peg supports to attach the roof. (Remember to
remove the sharp cocktail sticks from your gingerbread house before eating it,
to avoid a choking hazard.) Pipe icing between the cocktail sticks and fix the
two roof panels onto the house. Pipe icing around the base and edges of the
chimney and attach to the roof.
13. To decorate, pipe icing along the apex and edges of the roof to look like snow
and icicles. Stick the front door in place with icing. Cut the back door into
three pieces to use as props to keep the trees upright. Decorate the
Christmas trees with piped icing and fix them onto the cake board with icing
and gingerbread props. Dust the roof with icing sugar and light the night lights
using a candle lighter through the open back door. Do not leave the candles lit
unattended, and it is best not to burn the candles inside the house for longer
than 15 minutes or they may singe the inside of the roof and start to melt the
chocolate buttons.
