Gingerbread house

 Every year we love to do traditional Christmas activities, the gingerbread house is one fun make the girls love to do, especially when presented with lots of lovely and naughty treats to munch on.  This year Ella is able to join in and Sophie took the lead teaching her little sister how to resist stuffing loads of chocolate sticks in ones chops and using them as decoration for the gingerbread house.

Here is our favourite recipe for gingerbread

400g plain flour
1tsp baking powder
100g dark brown sugar
100g treacle
200g butter
1 1/2tsp ground ginger
1 1/2tsp cinnamon
1tsp mixed spice

add all the dry ingredients to your mixer sift the flour first
add the butter in chunks and mix till the mix turns to crumb
add the treacle and mix again till combined

pour the crumbed mix into your house mold and then chill for 30 mins before cooking in the oven 18 mins at 170c

Get that house to stick together and stay together
Loads of people have asked me how we manage to make our house stick together and stay stuck and i know a number of you use melted sugar and burn your poor fingers or you make water icing and your house collapses so here is our preferred icing recipe that will guarantee a good firm stick when bringing your house together.  

45ml water
250g icing sugar
1 x 8 egg white powder (some egg white powders are packed as 7g this is fine too)

Sift the icing sugar and egg white add the water and mix together.  The egg white really help make a firm set in the icing.

use a large glass or bottle to help hold the sides together while the set happens.

while the house is setting together we cover the remaining bowl of icing with cling film so the icing doesn't form a crust as the kids will need this to use as glue to stick all sweeties on the house.