Tuesday, December 22, 2009

DB's Challenge - Gingerbread House

The December 2009 Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to you by Anna of Very Small Anna and Y of Lemonpi. They chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ everywhere to bake and assemble a gingerbread house from scratch. They chose recipes from Good Housekeeping and from The Great Scandinavian Baking Book as the challenge recipes....

Sooooo glad this challenge is over!
I had a lot of fun making it, but it was such a mess!
After 2 frosting explosions my kitchen is a disaster.
It smells nice though.
The gingerbread smells great, but I would never eat it, because it is super hard.
Remember how my sushi challenge ended?
Hee hee hee! (evil laughter)

The dough after chilling.

I made this twice.
I hated the first house, so I re-did it.
This is a picture of the first set of cut outs.







One of my apple trees.




This is the house after the first frosting explosion.
Now I know why the directions say to sift the powdered sugar.
There is only so much pressure you can put on a plastic pastry bag.



Ta da!
Finished chicken cottage, garden, trees and little pond.




I used jelly beans for the cucumbers, radishes and carrots in the first garden bed.




I used fondant to make corn, carrots and cauliflower.
Red hots for the apples and 'roses' on the cottage.



Starbursts for the stepping stones.



Pretzels for the fence.



Here are my fondant cauliflower, carrots and corn.
I'd never used fondant before.
It was fun!
Like play dough.




Oreo cookies for the dirt.
Jolly Ranchers melted for the windows.
~
Ok, now are you ready?
What did I do with this cute little gingerbread cottage?


Gave it to the Ladies!
Of course!


At first they were curious.
"Hmmm, is that a real carrot?"



"Let me try a little of that."



"Do these apples taste weird to you?"



"What a tiny garden! I'm a giant chicken!"





"Ho hum, not that tasty..."




Smashed.



The End.

18 comments:

  1. OMG, I loved your post!! The frosting explosion made me laugh! Your trees and vegetable patch are charming, and I loved the jolly rancher windows!! Amazing job, hope the chickens appreciated all the work that went into it!! :-)

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  2. tonic- Thanks! It was fun to make. But there is no way the chickens or anyone (!) could ever appreciate all the work that it took to make.

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  3. I love your gingerbread farm so much! And the real chickens added a certain something too!

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  4. Aw, your veggie garden was adorable! Fantastic idea!

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  5. Wows you are SO patient!! I love it :D

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  6. LOL your veggie garden is just too cute! Awesome job!

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  7. lol, but honestly I love the frosting explosion, it looks like it snowed a lot. Seems your chicken enjoyed it. ;-) Happy Holidays to you.

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  8. How cute... very creative, love the windows :)

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  9. absolutely crazy but I love it!!!

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  10. Oh so cute, I love the little vegetable patch with the fondant vegetables!

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  11. How cute and creative! I love your house =D.

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  12. LOVE THIS! The garden is adorable! And i like how you let the chickens peck it apart. Very cute.

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  13. Loved the little gingerbread garden--too cute!! :)
    Merry Christmas!!

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  14. Great vegetable garden! The icing may have given you grief, but you get major points for creativity!

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  15. Attack of the giant chickens!! Hahaha what a great post, and I love your epic, nay, *EPIC* gingerbread creation!

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  16. Oh, you are a daring baker, too. I just signed up with them a couple weeks ago. Your gingerbread house is GORGEOUS, BEAUTIFUL, ADMIRABLE - I'm speechless!

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