Wednesday 12th December 2012

Lunch
Chicken Enchilada with Chips
This afternoon the neighbour's kids came over and, just as we made gingerbread cookies last year and decorated them, I made gingerbread houses this year and I let them decorate them. They decorated one for themselves to take home and one for me to keep for my Boxing Day BBQ. I actually wanted to make lots of little houses but the cutter kit I bought from Kmart made large houses and I really could not be bothered to cut my own templates out of baking paper.

I had baked all the pieces last night and they had all night and day to cool completely. I made a batch of royal icing and after failed attempts to try to squeeze it through piping bags, I used a spatula and spread it over the edges of the gingerbread pieces to build the houses. I was worried that the icing wouldn't hold since the pieces were pretty large, but the icing set pretty fast. I used some mugs to keep the walls upright until the icing set.

The kids were also very careful not to push too hard onto the houses when decorating them. No breakages!

I gave the kids free reign over how they wanted to decorate the houses. I suggested prior to today that they google some examples so that they would have some ideas and they quickly set to work.

The house they are taking home.

It comes complete with a little car!
It's nice to start little traditions in my own home. Wonder what we can do next year!