How to Build a House!

Image copyright Karli Duckett 2014

I’ve had a few goes at gingerbread houses over the years…..making one per year is definitely enough practice!  They are a labour of love and definitely not something that you can just ‘whip up’ one afternoon.  So…..to try and save you some of my own blunders in pursuit of a truly great Christmas Day centrepiece – here are my tips so far:

• I have made up my own template each year using shapes drawn onto pieces of paper and then cut around them with a knife into the dough, but this year…I decided to “cheat”.  I found a reasonably priced gingerbread house cookie cutter set at ALDI and they worked a treat.  The pieces still didn’t fit together absolutely perfectly, but enough to hold together and make my job a lot quicker and easier this time round.  If you have the space in your fridge to cool the cut out dough shapes for 30 minutes before baking…your pieces will ‘fit’ together with more ease.
• When making your royal icing ‘glue’ to hold the foundations of your house together (walls, roof, etc)…..make it thicker than you would for simply decorating.  Thick enough that it won’t drip too much when you pipe it on, but thin enough to pipe from a piping bag.  Just add your pure icing sugar bit by bit until you get the right consistency.
• Don’t plan to finish your house in one day.  Set the foundations and attach the walls to the cake board first and leave to set overnight, supporting on each side with tins from your pantry.  The next day, attach your roof sections and if necessary, use toothpicks to help secure the roof to the wall while you ‘fill in’ the gaps in your piping.
• Again….allow lots of time for decorating.  Some lollies will be able to be stuck on and left straight away…..others will need to be held in place for a minute or so until the icing starts to set.
• Keep an eye out for cute decorating supplies in your local $2 store and gourmet delis.  You will find all sorts of great things……this year…I found some fantastic sugar snowflakes that I used on the roof.
• Use pure icing sugar in your royal icing rather than the icing ‘mixture’ to help set your icing rock solid.  Don’t forget that you can also dust your house with icing sugar if you want to make a Winter house!
• Also…don’t forget to fill the centre of your house with surprises – edible or not!
• A very dear friend of mine is also very clever and decorated her house with a variety of dried and freeze dried fruit and it looked spectacular.  Not to mention….a lot healthier!
• If you’ve never made a gingerbread house before…..try making a few smaller ones instead of one large house.  You will get better with practice and have more to go around.
• If you have leftover scraps of dough…..get out your biscuit cutters and make some biscuits for gifts or the kids to decorate too.  Keep little hands busy while you are making your masterpiece.

Most importantly……try not to give in to the urge to ‘crack’ the house and eat it before you get to show it off!  Most years Papa Duck and I fail miserably at this!!

Flat Stanley Comes to Stay

I have been given the very responsible task of taking on guardianship of Flat Stanley for a short while as he makes his way across Australia.  I’m not sure I’m doing a particularly good job of it so far as I keep forgetting to add him to the nappy bag, but then again….I’m not sure Stanley is that excited about sitting in the pram with John.  It reminds me of those Pixar movies that have an ‘evil’ child character that delights in tormenting their toys.  So….who the hell is ‘Flat Stanley’ you may ask?  Apparently it all began with a children’s book written in the ’60s – Stanley Lambchop suffers a flattening during the night as a bulletin board falls on him during his sleep and he wakes up flat.  He can then go on adventures via the post as he can now fit inside an envelope, and heregoes his adventure.  Simple narrative, but great activity for kids to explore!  Basically, our Stanley has made his way here from a child in the United States and has a return “ticket” dated in April 2014.  So until then….he can literally go anywhere in the world and report back from each stay via a letter sent back from each ‘host’ family.  It’s a bit like having an exchange student in a way and it’s a good excuse for us to come up with some fun ‘activities’ for Stanley – I’m thinking art gallery, Christmas parties, first birthday parties, walks along the beach, in the park, etc, etc.

I really like this idea and it reminded me of some other ‘homemade’ fun we had growing up.  I remember as a child, Mum having a bowl sitting in the sink for days that had a deliciously yeasty aroma each time she stirred its contents and added more ingredients.  So….I consulted Wikipedia and found different versions of the same sort of thing – Amish Friendship Cake, Herman the German, 30 day friendship cake, etc.  Basically, a sourdough ‘starter’ mix is created and shared with a few friends that “feed” and stir the starter according to the accompanying instructions and at the end – one portion of starter is used to make a cake, and the remaining portions are passed on to keep the cake going.  I’m guessing that way-back-when, it was a way of spreading yeasty love to those that couldn’t just pop into the supermarket for some Tandaco sachets, but now – I reckon it’s a fun (albeit, daggy) excuse to catch up with some buddies to deliver their Herman and report back on the results!

I think that after we put the laptop to sleep, place the smartphone on charge and tell the kids to get off Facebook, YouTube and Twitter – we look for a way to slow the pace, nuture the senses and teach each other.  There are more and more local Farmer’s markets, co-ops, handmade fairs and local interest groups each month as we try to keep grasp of old traditions and pass on pearls of wisdom from generation to generation.  This year is the first that I will be making homemade presents of the edible variety to pass around during the Christmas countdown – jam, tomato sauce, lemon curd, spice mixes, bath mixes and playdough.  I am buying fruit in season and on ‘special’ and freezing it in anticipation of the things I might create with it at some point.  Uncle Trav has kindly started a veggie patch for us for the first time ever and we are looking forward to harvesting beetroot, beans and tomatoes.  Who knows?  Even Flat Stanley may pull up the first bunch of beetroot for us (and they may well be just big enough to feed someone Stanley’s size!)  I’m really, really liking this return to homemade, regifting and ‘paying it forward’……who is with me?  Who wants first generation Herman?!?