My place smelled like gingerbread in October this year. I decided to enter a gingerbread house in Sweet Creations at the Eastman Museum. In September, I was accepted as a participant. My gingerbread had to be delivered by November 1. The exhibit runs from November 3 until December 13.
Note: See the end of this post to get all of the details of what I used to make this.
I am not sure how I came up with the idea to do row houses. It was important for me to do something different from what I have done in the past. Somewhat recently I made an A-Frame and Tutor Bakery and I have built a Victorian with a turret in the past. I made my own templates and assembled simple paper models so I could get a feel for how it would look. I worked in a larger scale this year since the museum had a maximum size of 20 inches by 16 inches. My Dad cut a board sized 20 inches by 16 inches for me.
In the photo above you can see a glimpse of my current craft room. My companion calls it the “Forbidden Room” because it is often not as clutter-free as the rest of my place and when the room is not very organized, I keep the door closed.
I wanted my row houses to be 3 different colors – green, white and red for Christmas colors. I had considered flooding the pieces in each color with Royal Icing but decided that I wanted the aesthetic of the gingerbread look with only a little color. I thought it would be fun to use green, white, and red Tic-Tacs but it was very difficult to find red Tic-Tacs. I had to call around and found them at Walgreens.
Poinsettias: I rolled out red fondant and cut out two mini star shapes with a mini cutter. I then lined them up askew and pushed together. I pressed mini decorating balls into the centers. I rolled spearmint leaf candy and cut with a mini leaf cutter. I put the poinsettias on the green house windows (14).
Holly: I rolled spearmint leaf candy and cut with a mini holly leaf cutter. I rolled small balls of red fondant. I put the holly on the green house windows (14).
Candles: I found this tutorial. Mine are not as beautiful as in the tutorial but in context you get the idea. Since I put candles on the white house (in the middle), I only had to make 10 candles.
This was my first time decorating the roof and sides before assembling. I would use this method again, it is much easier to decorate a horizontal wall. As usual it is best to leave a lot of time for drying when making gingerbread.
I thought that these pieces looked beautiful on my coffee table. My living room and dining room was full of gingerbread making supplies. It was an organized, sweet smelling mess for awhile.
This was the assembled houses before roofs and landscaping. My companion helped me assemble the houses. It was much easier having two extra hands while attaching the walls to the base and to each other.
I had trouble with one of my reindeer. It got soft and fell into the snow (Royal Icing). When I picked it up, it’s head fell off and it’s feet remained in the snow. I had to re-bake a reindeer and replace before bringing my gingerbread to the museum. I also worried about some of my house pieces getting soft (maybe because I made them during rainy days in October?) but they seemed to recover.
Each time I make gingerbread houses, I get better but I am still not great about hiding where I attach the walls with the Royal Icing. I probably should just plan on attaching something afterwards to hide it since I get a little nervous and use too much Royal Icing.
My 19 year old niece helped me attach the roofs, and do the final decorating and landscaping. It was her wonderful idea to make house numbers. They are fondant with food coloring markers.
This is a layout of Santa’s sleigh and the park before assembling. I had wanted to make a fountain using a waffle cone bowl. My niece and I played with a few ideas but could not figure out a fast way to make it. The following week, my 13 year old nephew figured it out and put it near his gingerbread house.
Here are my row houses at the Eastman Museum!
Gingerbread Recipe: I used this recipe.
Royal Icing Recipe: I did not want to deal with cracking and separating eggs so I used this recipe which uses Meringue Powder. It hardens fast and in works very well.
Green House
- Wintergreen Tic-Tac’s
- Windows – black fondant, shutters – RIPS rainbow licorice
- Poinsettia’s – red fondant cut 2 with mini star cutter, silver dragees, spearmint leaves gumdrops rolled with rolling pin and cut with a mini leaf cutter
- Door – Pepperidge Farm Milano cookie – frame – mini M&M’s, knob – Celebration pearls candy, door step – Reese’s Peanut Butter Bars
- House Number – white fondant with food coloring marker
- Roof – pumpkin seeds
White House
- Freshmints Tic-Tac’s
- Windows – black fondant, shutters – white fondant rolled in sanding sugar
- Candles – white and red fondant, RIPS rainbow licorice
- Door – Pepperidge Farm Milano cookie – frame – Celebration pearls candy, knob – Celebration pearls candy, doorstep – Reese’s Peanut Butter Bars
- House Number – white fondant with food coloring marker
- Roof – sliced almonds
Red House
- Mixers Cherry & Cola Tic-Tac’s
- Windows – black fondant, shutters – RIPS rainbow licorice
- Holly – spearmint leaves gumdrops rolled with rolling pin and cut with a mini holly leaf cutter, berries red fondant, Door – Pepperidge Farm Milano cookie – frame – mini M&M’s, knob – Celebration pearls candy, doorstep – Reese’s Peanut Butter Bars
- House Number – white fondant with food coloring marker
- Roof – crushed candy canes
Santa’s Sleigh
- Sleigh – Gold sanding sugar pressed into royal icing
- Presents – mini white chocolate Kit-Kats covered with royal icing
- Santa’s seat – chocolate bar
- Reindeer – mini M&M’s, Sugar Pearls
Park
- Trees – sugar ice cream cones with royal icing
- Benches – chocolate bar with royal icing
- Path – crushed Oreo cookies
Eclectic Lamb 
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