First Ever Gingerbread House

by Twyla Sandberg
(Port Lavaca, TX)

This was the first gingerbread house I had ever made (had not even made one from the kits). I used the free basic gingerbread house template and scaled it down a bit to fit on my cake board. I made the Santa, sleigh, reindeer, and tree from gingerbread as well. The snowman is made out of fondant. I used royal icing, of course, for all of the decorating. I found some great licorice "shingle" candy that was used for the roof. I also used spice drops, melty mints, and peppermint sticks to decorate the house. The front path is made from these great chocolate rocks that I found at Walmart and lined with chocolate pomegranate candies. I covered the cake board (which was originally silver) with royal icing and sprinkled it lightly with clear sugar crystals to mimic snow and ice. I had such a great time putting together this display and look forward to next year!