Our First Gingerbread House

We were in Bed Bath & Beyond earlier today, trying to get some Christmas shopping done when we saw this!

I have always wanted to try and make a gingerbread house and Kevin said he has never done it before. So, we decided to get it and try to make our first gingerbread house. I know, this is kinda like cheating because it comes with pre-baked gingerbread and pre-made icing. Hey, its our first time..so give us a break! :P

This is the contents of the gingerbread house kit. Pre-baked gingerbread, icing, pucker ups, jelly hearts, mini beads, pinwheels and spearmint leaves. It sure came with a lot of candy! Let us show you how we made our gingerbread house!

The first thing you need to do is knead the icing bag for at least 60 seconds. It is to soften the icing and also to make sure that the icing is mixed up evenly and has a smooth consistency. Once that is done, cut the bag at the corner. Make sure it is not too large or it might get messy.

Pipe icing along the edges on the back of the gingerbread walls.

Construct the base of the house and hold on to it until the icing sets. This should take a few minutes.

Next, pipe the icing along the roof edges.

Once that is done, attach the roof to the base of the house. Allow the icing to set for at least 15 minutes before you begin decorating the house.

We started off decorating the house by piping icing along the doors, windows and 'stain glass' of the house.

We then added candy on the doors, windows, 'stain glass' as well as made candy hollies on the front and side of the house.

Next, we piped icing along the edges of the house, to give it a snow effect.

Then we applied icing on the roof, to make it look like snow. More candy is placed on the roof. We also made a candy walkway and a candy fence around the house. After almost an hour of decorating (and really sticky fingers from the icing and candy), we were done at last!

Here is the front and side view of our gingerbread house!! What do you think? :D We sure had loads of fun making this and we still have lots of unused leftover candy from this little project. Woohoo!!