My first ever attempt at decorating a GINGERBREAD HOUSE. It is not perfect. Not even close, but it did turn out pretty cute if I do say so myself!

Our final project for advanced baking was to create an MUW themed Gingerbread house using all edible ingredients (i.e. no hot glueing things together!) I was a bit intimidated by this challenge at first; however, I too realized that it was the perfect outlet for a little creativity.

The hardest part: narrowing down what I wanted to make. The W has soo many pretty buildings and features – a clock tower, gazebo, church with stained glass, garden, etc. But I finely narrowed it down to the front gates of the campus. I thought these SCREAMED MUW the most since those are the first things you see when coming onto campus!

Chef was nice enough to give us a little, pre built gingerbread house to start off with! Which meant I could focus a lot more on the details and other components of my display instead of completely focusing on how to even build a gingerbread house. I DID however make my own gingerbread for the Mississippi University for Women sign and the Old Maid’s Gate. I’ve never been a huge fan of gingerbread in general, and I certainly have never made it. So this was a unique and learning experience for me

Tip: If constructing a gingerbread house or decorations that need to be sturdy and stand up, OVER BAKE your gingerbread. Over baking will make your gingerbread firmer and sturdier. Of course, these may not be ideal to eat, but it will help with your construction. I would suggest making additional gingerbread cookies if you would like some for eating.

Once I had my gingerbread baked, I made some stiff royal icing.

The royal icing firms up really nicely, so it was a great glue replacement! I used it for practically everything that needed to be glued down or glued together! Or chocolate melts. Those make excellent glue as well; however, they are much more temperamental and require a quick and steady hand.

My snow is actually coconut shavings and clear, sparkly sprinkles that I purchased. I used green gummy candies for the hedges, and blue fondant with royal icing for the doors and windows. My gates are made of chocolate – these were the hardest to construct because they wanted to break and lean so much.

All in all, I am quite proud of my W themed gingerbread house! I put my best effort into it, and Chef, as well as her two assistant judges, declared my house the winner! Truly, I am just proud that it stayed together and actually looked pretty decent.

This was our last class of Advanced Baking I, and it has been a little bitter sweet. I am going to miss this class; however, I know that Advanced Baking II will be a new, fun adventure! I am already excited, and I’m sure that I will be blogging those adventure here as well!

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