Seeing as I’m soon to be a Mum, I thought it was time I brushed up on my baking skills. I’ve always loved baking (and eating), at my Mum’s house there were always tins of homemade cakes and biscuits we could dive into when we got home from school. It’s a very homely, Mummy thing to do, but can seem a bit pointless when there are only two of you and you know you’ll end up eating it all (although maybe that’s the point….!)

I decided to attempt to make a gingerbread house for my sister for Christmas. It turned out to be so easy, I made two more, one for my friends little boy and another, grown up version for my brother. His was a gingerbread pub, complete with jelly babies getting up to all kinds of mischief. In the chaos of Christmas I didn’t get any photos of it which was a silly mistake. Oh well, I’ll just have to make another!

I used the recipe from Peggy Porschen‘s book (I have Romantic Cakes and Pretty Party Cakes and the recipes are the same). It’s a great gingerbread recipe and it doesn’t spread much so the shapes stay the same when baking. It really helps if you make the mixture the day before and leave it in the fridge overnight (or longer, I’ve left it for several days before and it’s fine).

I cut out the windows and put boiled sweets (foxes glacier fruits) in the holes whist baking, they melt and then set to make yummy edible windows.

For the first house I made my own template, then I discovered the template on delicious.com which was even better. You can get the template here.

The key to making the house stay together is to use proper royal icing made with egg white, it’s much stiffer and sets quickly.

Lots of sweets and glitter, I’m a child at heart!

Please excuse the quality of this iphone photo. This house was made with the delicious magazine template which has a cute chimney and door – they are getting more sophisticated!

Next year I’ll be making one for my daughter!