Gingerbread House-Round Two

Its that time of year again and it just hit me that I have not done a thing in the way of devising a master plan to conquer the construction of a gingerbread house. If you remember anything about the absolute disaster that was our graham cracker house last Christmas, I knew I had my work cut out for me. Here's a little refresher of the graham cracker house (pre collapse) in case you forgot. 

So it was lingering in my mind, how I was going to make this year a success, when I stumbled across a gingerbread house making kit at the local mega store. I grabbed it, thinking it would come with pre cut gingerbread pieces which we could construct ourselves and decorate. But oh no. I opened the box and what to my wondering eyes should appear but a fully constructed gingerbread house, and eight tiny reindeer. 


And though I felt a bit guilty that I was cheating, yet again, it actually worked out because Ny got to jump right into the decorating if the house. Because she has little to no interest in the construction of the house. Her main objective is sneaking as much candy as possible. 

So overall, this years construction was very low stress with little frustration and though I will be tempted to make this boxed gingerbread house the tradition, I am determined to master the gingerbread house, from scratch, start to finish, top to bottom. 

Next year, gingerbread house, next year.

Graham Cracker House

Nyah and I decided to attempt a gingerbread house this year, actually a graham cracker house. I had a feeling building a gingerbread house would be a challenge so we decided for our first construction attempt would be in graham cracker. We added cream of tartar to a jar of store bought icing to make the icing dry hard. I know, I am such a cheater, I am just not into the raw egg thing in the royal icing because there was no doubt in my mind that Nyah would be sampling our creation. 


I am by no means an expert baker (if the looks of our graham cracker house doesn't make this blazingly obvious), in fact I am just a beginner but even I know the humidity here can make baking a challenge. Melting chocolate, nearly impossible. My first attempt making a pie crust was comical.  The dough was a gooey mess even after adding double the flour. Tasty. I wish high humidity instructions were included in recipes. By the way, I am open to suggestions to my baking problems if anyone has any ideas.


Back to the gingerbread house. We finally got the house standing after a little help from George and great frustration on my part. A little messy but standing, for now.

I felt like the graham cracker house was becoming a personal challenge. Me vs graham cracker house. The construction was not the most exciting part for Nyah, of course she just wanted to decorate. She stole samples of candy and icing during this stage. 

We then added the candy after the icing dried for a couple hours. 
Here is the finished product. Nyah was in charge of the path which of course looks awesome. 

As my finger lifted off the shutter to take the above picture, the house collapsed. The seams didn't break, the house actually caved in on itself because the graham crackers were soggy. Ugh, damn humidity. 

 Guess who was in charge of tree duty while we were working.

 Elsa can't get enough of the tree.

Nyah expertly handling the cleanup of the house post collapse, what would we do without her.

 Until next year graham cracker house. We will master you.