Building The Ultimate Gingerbread House

Earlier this week I was invited to a Gingerbread class with a friend at the Crescent Hotel. Neither of us really knew what to expect, so when we arrived we were excited to find not only pre-constructed gingerbread houses but also a well stocked bar! We grabbed some wine and settled in to get the scoop on the evening’s activities from Erica and Juan, the Crescent’s executive and pastry chefs.

They showed off a towering rolling cart with candy, gave some piping tips, and then let us alone to decorate as we saw fit. We started with a plan to tile the roof in grey M&Ms, but after a few rows we scrapped that idea and opted to start over.

Our second stab at the roof was much more successful. We coated the entire roof in red icing then smooshed candy cane crumbles on top. (Is smooshed a word? Maybe not, but I’m going with it.) We outlined the roof with alternating red and green M&Ms to look like Christmas lights.

Next, we decided to put a wreath over the front door. My friend had insane piping skills so she was tasked with creating the wreath. (Not until after I had her practice on the table cloth, that is. I’m such my mother’s daughter.) While he took care of the wreath, I used a half strand of red candy tape to create a lovely little bow. I LOVE how this part of the house turned out, and I am proud that we did it all by ourselves!

For the back of the house we didn’t have enough faith in ourselves to pipe the snowflake what we desired, so we recruited Erica – a piping pro – to work her magic. While she worked on the back, we added a marshmallow lined pathway, red twizzlers to the door, and brown swirly “flower beds.”

A few short minutes later Erica revealed her amazing creation! Not only did she make an incredible snowflake, but she also added super cute icicles.

It’s hard to see in this picture, but we made little flower boxes to sit in each window with green icing and red flowers out of M&Ms. We lined the outside of the house with white Christmas Tree shaped pretzels. We also went back and made our pathway red to make it pop a bit more.

For the finishing touch, we spread white icing over the entire base, covering it with granulated sugar to make it appear glittery. A huge fan of things that sparkle, this was by far my favorite part! Using powdered sugar, we coated the Christmas tree in front with snow and used more white icing to create realistic looking snow drifts. We also lined the entire thing with red berry candies, which was a great accent.

Here is a snapshot of our completed gingerbread house! Although it’s hard to be unbiased, I thought ours turned out the cutest of any house there.

 

The evening was so fun and I would recommend this class to anyone! In fact, I think it might need to become a holiday tradition!