up, up in the air … Gingerbread Decorating with the Kids

One Christmas when my godson was 4, I had the brilliant idea that I would make a gingerbread house to decorate together on Christmas Eve.  Oh what fun we’d have sticking on brightly colored candy bits with white icing!  How clever I was to come up with a unique crafty type of gift rather than a regular old toy!  What wonderful memories we would create together!  I would be the best godmother ever!  Yeah, it didn’t quite turn out that way.

I walked into their house, arms full of presents and balancing a beautiful homemade gingerbread cottage among bags of candy and a large bag of icing.  The little crapper looked up at me earnestly with big blue eyes and said “Oh!  A gingerbread house!  Mommy and me made one of those!”  Aw man.  Really?  I missed it?  His mother, one of my best friends, saw my house and burst out laughing.  I also greatly overestimated the attention span of a pre-schooler.  I think the kid’s contribution was two candy canes and a few gumdrops before he toddled off to do something more exciting.  She and I ended up drinking a few bottles of wine and decorating it ourselves.  It was quite spectacular when we were through.

you have to have a big candy selection

That one little house many years ago has turned into our annual holiday tradition.  The kids – there are three now – and I have discussions throughout the year about what kind of gingerbread structure we’ll make.  Sure, we started with houses but have moved well beyond anything standard.  Last year it was Pyramids.  The year before, Windmills.  And I believe it was Teepees and Igloos before that.  The way I see it, pretty much anything can be made in gingerbread.  It just takes some time to figure it out.  Some years I’m better at it than others.

we had to start upside-down

Various ideas had been tossed about for this year but my mind kept coming back to one in particular.  It was going to be challenging.  I had an idea of how it would come together but you never really know until you try so I decided to give it a shot.  Yes, yes indeed, hold your horses.  This was the year I attempted to make a Hot Air Balloon out of gingerbread.  Yeah, gingerbread hot air balloons.  Have I ever mentioned that I’m insane?  (And pretty awesome too?)

in the midst of decorating

My thought was I’d bake some gingerbread on a round bowl and then glue the two spheres together.  Presto!  The balloon!  Not so simple – it took me a few tries to get right.  I made a round mold out of nearly a full roll of aluminum foil.  Result:  a gingerbread covered ball of foil.  FAIL.  I laid a sheet of gingerbread directly on a round bowl and baked it.  Result:  a broken bowl covered in gingerbread.  FAIL.  Then it dawned on me – doh! – cover the outside of an ovenproof bowl with foil then bake.  Ugh (insert forehead slap here.) Bake until firm, let cool then ease off the bowl/foil.  The third attempt always works.

snowman with a “sword” and “rocket launcher”

I baked off the “basket” base pieces and started the structural part with the thought that thick pretzel rods would be the supports.  In theory, great idea.  In reality, not so much. Royal icing dries like cement but that’s the rub … it takes forever to set.  When you want it to support a rather heavy spherical giant gingerbread ball, it’s unbelievably slow and frustrating.  Around midnight the evening before Decoration Day, I broke out the glue gun in frustration.  Tadah!  Worked like a charm.  A pastry friend gave me flack for this, for not being 100% edible, but I don’t care.  I was ready to shot put those spheres out the window.  My blistered fingers and I went to bed happy around 2am.  It’s not like we eat the things anyway.  Besides, I’m pretty sure she used a Wilton pre-assembled kit.  Her opinion on authenticity goes down a few points with that.

extreme close-up

On decorating day, I gingerly lugged my gingerbread balloons, an 8x batch of royal icing and an enormous and extremely heavy tub of candy to their house and turned those kids loose.  It’s always great fun to sit back and watch what they come up with.  They never cease to amaze me and I have to say, they were awesome this year.  Pretty stinkin’ fantastic.

I’m stumped for next year but then again, I have a whole 12 months to come up with something.  We talked about monuments – Arc de Triomphe, Washington Monument, etc.  I like that idea.  My friend throws out Asian pagodas every year.  As if.  Rockets, boats, birdcages.  The kid came up with a Mayan temple, which could be cool though I’d have to figure out how to do all those steps.  Of course, if the whole thing collapsed in a heap of white icing and tumbled gingerbread I could always pass it off as a shanty town and make it a lesson about how others, less fortunate than they are, live in the world.  Always thinking ahead.

Last year, I posted my recipe for house gingerbread and royal icing here if you’d like to give it a whirl.  I highly recommend that you do.  Make sure you buy a TON of candy.  A literal ton.  You need options.

a happy passenger

STRESS BAKING THERAPY FACTOR:  IT’S THE GOLD STAR ON TOP.  While I make myself crazy putting these things together, I love every minute of it.  The look of surprise and delight on those kid’s faces (and their Mom’s) when I walk in with something completely ridiculous is so stupidly satisfying it’s hard to explain.  We crack ourselves up throughout the year thinking of crazy ideas.  There are endless discussions of which type of candy is better for various tasks.  We create stories about who lives in these things and how things – like anti-aircraft missiles made out of pretzel sticks – work.  We dig endlessly for the jawbreakers in the right color.  We laugh at how bad the old stale candy is are but continue to eat it anyway.  We sing Christmas carols and drop bright pink Nerds on the floor to be swept up later.  This is one of those projects that is all inclusive.  It creates it’s own stress and it’s own stress relief.  I don’t recommend doing more than one or two of these types per year.  I’m not sure the heart can take it.

can you believe an 8-yr old made this??