Gingerbread Houses 2007
We love our friends, Chris and Carrie Randall..
We love our friends more when they invite us over for this:
Family Night with the Randalls, decorating Ginger Bread Houses! Check my 2008 Halloween gingerbread house HERE and my 2008 Gingerbread Church HERE!
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar
1-1/3 cups molasses
4 eggs
8 cups all-purpose flour, divided
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground allspice
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
Directions
2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and brown sugar until smooth. Stir in the molasses and eggs. Combine 1 1/2 cups of the flour, baking soda, salt, allspice, cloves, cinnamon, and ginger; beat into the molasses mixture. Gradually stir in the remaining flour by hand to form a stiff dough. Divide dough into 2 pieces.
3. On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough to 1/8 inch thickness. Cut into desired shapes. Place pieces 1 inch apart onto parchment-lined cookie sheets. Refrigerate for 15 minutes. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven. Cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.
ROYAL ICING
(a.k.a super glue for ginger bread houses)
3 egg whites
4-5 cups powdered confectioner’s sugar
Directions: beat until nice foamy stiff peaks form.
This recipe decorated 2 houses, generously. Truly, this stuff is amazing! It could double as nail hole filler. I learned that a little ziploc bag is handy for piping the icing if you don’t have the fancy cake decoration bags, couplers and metal tips.
I want to make these!
But they won’t turn out as fabulous as yours. Boo hoo. ;(
Did you make the gingerbread yourself? Recipe, please!
Can’t wait to see you!
WOW!! I’m so impressed with the house. So, looks like RICK is already a surgeon. He’s looking pretty intense there. :>
Isn’t gingerbread house-making fun with a capital F!! Paul and I did this same activity with his family on Sunday evening everyone else was done within what seemed like minutes and it took Paul and i three hours…. i think it’s cause we shingled the roof with cinnamon toast crunch
it’s was so fun to just sit and talk and enjoy great company and do something festive. (Megan, Granny B’s makes the gingerbread house pieces($3) but you have to put it together and Vanessa’s concoction will work perfectly for the glueing.
Chris: PURE STROKES OF GENIUS!!! I love the cinnamon toast crunch roof idea. Activities like this are what memories are made of…HUZZAH!
Thanks for the tip, Christina!
I went to Granny’s and bought a gingerbread kit from Paul.
It wasn’t $3, though. 
The cookie smelled deliciious – we had so much fun putting this together! thanks for the inspiring idea, vanessa!
that´s very pretty
congrats!!!
Hello. I made your gingerbread recipe. It turned out to be a great stable dough.
I’m getting ready to have my neices over to decorate and put houses together.
Thank you so much for sharing it. The Lord bless your family this Christmas. Barbara
Vanessa,
My name is Shari Hiller. My business partner, Matt Fox and I have hosted the room by room show on HGTV for years. we have a website now that replaced the show. I’m writing because I want to write an article aobut how to make gingerbread houses and my kids and I have only made them from a kit. I came across your beautiful house and was wondering if I could credit you for the house and recipe within an article showing the amateur houses my kid’s have created. Thanks for your consideration!
Shari