Making Gingerbread Houses is one of our "annual" activities. We haven't made ours for this year yet, so we missed our local contest. Oh well, we'll make one soon & donate to a nursing home or something.
I wish I could be of more help for a gingerbread recipe. Since I don't like gingerbread, I usually just try to find the recipe that's the easiest to make. I think I look for a new one every year. I'll have to look at the website Nancy references.
But, here's some helpful hints:
Cut the Gingerbread AFTER you bake it (while it's still hot & use a serrated knife if necessary). If you cut before you bake it, you'll have rounded corners and some sides will not bake the same size even though you used the same pattern (you know how cookies bake into "rounded" shapes). Let your gingerbread pieces dry out for at least a day or so (sometimes I wait a week) before you start decorating...they won't be so soft then.
I laminated a pattern so I could use it every year.
When using Royal Icing, make sure you mix it in a glass or metal bowl. Apparently plastic (including spatulas) absorb grease or something (from other uses) which will break down the royal icing so it won't get hard....or something like that. That's also why you're suppose to make your angel food cake in a non-plastic bowl.
If you want to create the "just snowed" look, dust powdered sugar on top of your house AFTER all the Royal icing has dried, otherwise your candies will not stick.
If you turn sugar (ice cream) cones upside down & frost them with green frosting, they'll look like trees. You can make snowmen out of marshmellows (2 stacked on top of each other) and maybe put a Hershey Kiss on top for a hat (or some other candy).
Mini wheats, smarties, tootsie rolls, etc. all make great roofs.
Also, when making "windows" in your gingerbread, smash some hard candy and bake it in that space and it'll bake into a "stained glass" window.
Mini pretzel twists make cute little fences. Use "Combos" to make it look like you have a stack of firewood by your house.
I usually try to buy some of my "decorating" candy after christmas when it's really marked down & pack it with my Fall decorations...that way I have cheap decorations!!
By the way, I worked in a bakery for a couple years as a cake decorator (when I was a teenager) and it continues to be one of my hobbies.
Enjoy!
Judy
