When we started baking our own gingerbread houses in 2016, we wished we could find all the tips we needed in one handy spot. On this page, we give answers to questions we've received about how to do various phases of a gingerbread project. We'll continue updating this page as more questions come in and we generate more answers.
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See our Equipment page for our recommentaions and some details. More Preparation FAQs coming...sometime!
See our Equipment page for our recommentaions and some details. More Baking FAQs coming...sometime!
Since we aim to do decorating over Thanksgiving weekend every year, we try to start baking during October. This gives the gingerbread plenty of time to dry out and harden up. It also gives us time to make sure we haven’t missed any pieces. When we’re making our inedible template, we make a list of each piece needed and check it twice, just like in the song.
We’ve heard reports of some people hot gluing gingerbread together, but we think royal icing is easy enough and keeps to our rule of being all-edible. We sometimes put houses together the day before they’ll be decorated, but royal icing dries relatively quickly, so same-day construction and decoration is possible. Just be sure to support the joint until the icing hardens.
During the construction phase, we use brown icing instead of white in order to blend in with our gingerbread. We have replaced some confectioner’s sugar with an equal measure of sifted cocoa powder in the past to get the desired color, but will likely switch to food coloring in the future. When coloring royal icing, it’s important to use food coloring gel instead of liquid colors, which change the consistency of the icing. Speaking of sifting, we used to have a squeeze-handle sifter and it was agonizingly slow and occasionally stabbed the user's hand. We now use a rotary sifter that is much faster and more pleasant to use.
We use reusable piping bags with couplers that allow the tips to be interchangeable so we’re never stuck with a full bag of icing and a tip we don’t want to use. We have a list of the bags, tips, gel colors, and meringue powder we like on our Equipment page.
We’ve moved to using a mix of wired string LED lights and wireless puck lights.
Don’t forget that wired lights will require some planning so you have enough space to get your wiring (and plug!) through. We cut a notch into this rear wall when we rolled out the gingerbread dough.
We taped the light strings to empty plastic bottles we attached to our display board with hot glue.
We also use color-changing puck lights for added illumination or accent colors. These are easy to fix in place with royal icing. The lights and display board are the only non-edible parts of this house.
Some people report the heat from incandescent lights has caused their sugar windows or other components to begin to flow. We use LED lighting, which is more efficient and generates little heat.
When it's time to put our work on display, we use smart plugs combined with smart speakers to allow for voice command and auotmation of gingerbread house lights.
Our lighting supplies are also linked on our Equipment page.
See our Equipment page for our recommentaions and some details. More Decorating FAQs coming...sometime!