Ingredients
Gingerbread:
- 250g butter
- 1 cup sugar, brown
- 1 cup golden syrup
- 2 eggs
- 4 1/2 cups flour
- 2 tbsp cocoa powder
- 1 tbsp ginger, ground
- 1 tbsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp cloves, ground
- 1 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
Royal icing:
- 4 cups icing sugar
- 3 tsp lemon juice
- 2 egg whites
Extras, decor:
- 1 ice-cream sugar cone
- 150g fondant, white
- 300g coconut (for snow)
- 150g 100’s & 1000’s sprinkles
- 1 jar edible pearls, coloured
- 1 gel food colouring, green
- 1 gel food colouring, black
- 1 gel food colouring, orange
- 1 gel food colouring, pink
- 1 cup icing sugar (for dusting)
- 200g chocolates, button-shaped
- 200g sweets, bean-shaped
- 200g wine gums
- 200g sugar sweets, green
Preparation method
Gingerbread:
- Preheat oven 180 C
- Line 3 oven trays with grease proof paper
- Beat butter, sugar and syrup, add yolks and beat until combined
- Beat in all the dry Ingredients and use your hands to bring the dough together
- Cover with cling wrap and chill
- Roll out dough and using template cut out all the shapes required
- Using a silicon 'brick' mat to imprint the side walls of the house
- Place on a baking trays and bake for 15-20 minutes
- Halfway through baking, alternate the trays, to insure an even bake
- Cool completely on a wire rack before handling
Royal icing:
- Whisk lemon juice and egg whites, add sifted icing sugar, mix well (no lumps)
Extras, decor:
- Colour 50g of fondant green, 10g black, 10g orange and leave the rest white
- Roll out fondant on a clean surface dusted with icing sugar
- Roll green fondant to a long 5mm thick strip
- Coil it around the ice-cream cone to resemble a Christmas tree
- Using water, attach the edible pearls to the tree, to resemble ornaments
- Make a snowman with the white fondant: roll 2 medium balls and 1 small ball
- Use black fondant for eyes and fashion a carrot nose, using the orange fondant
- Fashion buttons using black fondant and attach to body of snowman
- Assemble the snow man
Assembly:
- Decorate the walls as desired with royal icing (windows, etc.), before assembling
- Colour 100g royal icing pink to decorate the roof
- Before the roof dries, add the 100's & 1000's
- Assemble the walls first then the roof, using the royal icing as cement
- Support the walls for a few minutes while the royal icing is drying
- Place the tree and snowman and then sprinkle with coconut, to resemble snow
- Stick the jelly beans along the side edges of the house, to hide the cement
- Stick the wine gums along the side of the roof, where the 2 roof panels meet
- Cut up the green sugar coated sweets and sprinkle them around the outside
- Use the button-shaped chocolate as rocks to create a pathway to the doorway