Gingerbread

 Seems like every winter the kids want to make gingerbread houses. It is becoming a New Year’s tradition. Usually we make a little house for each of them with graham crackers stuck on a little milk carton, but this year I actually made Gingerbread.

I used a neat cookie cutter for gingerbread houses that my husband bought for me a couple years ago. (The brand is Ricardo.)

The icing I made turned out really great. It hardened really nicely and was the right consistency. I used the Royal Icing Recipe from Preppy Kitchen. I was pretty hesitant to colour the icing since I didn’t want to make the cookie decorating more complicated that it already would be with all the kids, but the kids were really eager so I ended up separating the triple batch of icing into bowls and adding the colouring for the kids to mix. It actually worked out really wonderfully with the disposable decorating bags. 

I placed each bag in a tall glass, added the coloured icing, and tied the tops closed with the rubberband. When we were all set to go, I just cut the tip and taught the kids how to use them without the icing coming out of the top. Hold the top of the bag with one hand, twist with the other hand where the rubberband is until the bag is tight around the icing and then squeeze out the icing onto the cookie. It actually worked really well so even my four year old was decorating the cookies without any help from me. I helped my three year old twist it and let her squeeze while I guided it.

We just bought Smarties and Reese’s Pieces to keep it simple this year. I would have been better to stick with Smarties since the peanut butter in the Reese’s doesn’t really go with Gingerbread. Although I do wish I’d gotten some mint candies as well.

All in all, it was very fun and I would definitely do it again this with the coloured icing in the disposable bags.