Ingredients
Biscuit dough:
- 210g butter, softened
- 240g sugar, muscovado
- 6 tbsp molasses
- 3 egg yolks
- 750g flour
- 1 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 8 tsp ginger, ground
- 6 tsp cinnamon, ground
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 tsp nutmeg, ground
- 2 tsp cloves, ground
- 50g ginger crystals
- 2 boiled sweets, red
- 2 boiled sweets, green
- 2 boiled sweets, yellow
Cinnamon royal icing:
- 1kg icing sugar
- 5 egg whites, large
- 2 tsp vanilla essence
- 6 tbsp cinnamon, ground
- 1/4 tsp cream of tartar
Assembly:
- 1 cake base, square, 30cmx30cm
Trees:
- 6 ice-cream sugar cones, small
- 200g fondant, white
- food colouring, green
Green grass:
- 300g coconut, desiccated
- 1 tsp water
- 2 tsp food colouring, green
Preparation method
Biscuit dough:
- Preheat oven to 180 C
- Cream the butter, sugar and molasses until light and fluffy
- Beat in the egg yolks
- Combine the flour, bicarb, ginger crystals, cinnamon, salt, nutmeg and cloves
- Gradually add to creamed mixture and mix well to form a ball
- Trace the patterns onto waxed paper and cut out (see template for pattern)
- On a lightly floured surface, roll dough in batches to 1/2cm thickness
- Place the templates on the dough and cut out
- Draw lines into the dough to form shingles on roof pieces
- For the side walls, use the edge of a ruler into the remaining pieces
- Keep pieces covered to prevent drying out
- Bake on lined baking sheets for 12-15 minutes or until browned
- Cool gingerbread for 2 minutes before removing to wire racks to cool completely
- Return the front and side pieces to baking trays lined with grease-proof paper
- Increase the oven temperature to 200 C
- Crush sweets finely, keeping colours separate
- Spoon crushed sweets into window cut-outs
- Bake on the middle shelf for 3-4 minutes or until the sweets have melted
- Cool completely on cooling racks
Cinnamon royal icing:
- Beat the egg whites with the vanilla essence and cream of tartar until frothy
- Add the sifted sugar and cinnamon and beat until combined, smooth and shiny
- Beat for 5 minutes or until stiff and glossy
- Keep the icing covered with cling wrap touching the top layer
Assembly:
- Church:
- Place some icing into a small piping bag with a small round nozzle
- Pipe icing along the cake base and one side of front of church and join the side wall
- Position at right angles and pipe along the inside edge for added stability
- Secure the structure to allow the Icing to dry
- Repeat with second side of wall and back of church and let dry completely
- Church steeple:
- Pipe icing along one side of front of steeple base and one adjoining side wall
- Position at right angles and pipe along the inside edge for added stability
- Hold in place until set
- Repeat with remaining side and back of steeple base
- Repeat for steeple and let dry completely
- Roof:
- Pipe icing along top edges of church walls and position roof pieces on top
- Pipe icing along the joining edges
- Hold up the roof pieces until completely dry
- Pipe icing onto edges of steeple and attach to the roof
- Windows and dormers:
- Assemble window and door roofs
- Position small roof pieces at angles to each other, forming seven dormers
- Pipe cinnamon along the joining edges and let it dry completely
- Pipe icing onto the edges of roofs and attach over windows
- Hold in place and secure (about 1 minute)
Trees:
- Place 100g of fondant in a bowl and colour with a drop of green food colouring
- Colour the remaining fondant a darker shade of green
- Roll out each of the fondants to 1/2cm thickness on a icing sugar dusted surface
- Using a small round 2cm cutter, cut out enough circles to cover ice-cream cones
- Cut out strips about 1cm wide to place on the bottom each ice-cream cone
- Moisten the ends of the strips and attach to the cones
- Moisten the under side a circle and stick the circle to the strip of fondant on the cone
- Repeat to the top of the cone, alternating with the dark and light green fondant
Green grass:
- Mix together the water and green food colouring
- Place the coconut in a zip lock bag
- Pour the green liquid into the bag and shake until all coconut is covered
Decorate:
- Sprinkle the coloured coconut around and place the trees, as desired