Our Gingerbread Houses
We’ve been creating gingerbread houses for over 25 years. Some have been simple, some have been more elaborate, but they have all been FUN!
Recipes
I’m happy to share our recipes with you!
Tutorials
Here are a few tips and tricks we’ve learned over the years that have helped us.
A True Obsession
Our gingerbread houses have been built from scratch – we don’t use a kit. We’ve been collecting a lot of gingerbread books over the years and our favorite patterns and ideas have come from Theresa Layman’s gingerbread books.
We’ve only competed in two local competitions and we won first prize in both of them. We mostly create the gingerbread houses for fun – and for our family to enjoy.
For the last ten years or so we’ve made our houses completely edible – and YES, our family eats them! At the end of our family celebration on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, we have the ceremonial dividing up of the pieces and the candy so they can take it home to enjoy. I have some great photos of the destruction!
When we first start baking the gingerbread pieces, we play a guessing game where I text photo clues of the pieces to my nephews. For example, the first day, I only send a few of the baked pieces. The second day, I add a few more pieces, and so on. The first person to guess what the creation will be gets to make the first selection of items on demolition day. It’s a fun tradition!
In 2015, when we created The Bakery, that’s when I realized it was an obsession because that was the first year I created a scene inside the gingerbread house. Every year since then, I’ve continued to develop an edible scene inside, just like a doll house. Please view the photos on this website to see more!
And….
Thank you for sharing in our Gingerbread Obsession! My goal is to inspire you to create your own gingerbread houses and start an annual tradition with your family and friends. Please visit our Facebook Page.