[Sca-cooks] RE: Gingerbread Challenge

[Joanne Clyde]

My family just finished our 15th annual Gingerbread House Competition.  
Granted, our houses don't end up looking as fantastic as the ones on that 
program, but everyone who wants to make a house gets to, 3 year olds 
included.  And since it's a "homegrown" event, we have some basic ground 
rules that the program probably doesn't.

My mother and I spend the Friday after Thanksgiving baking gingerbread house 
kits.  Everyone is required to use the kit that my mom and I make.  It is a 
basic 6 piece kit (4 walls, 2 roof pieces) that stands about 6 inches tall 
fully assembled.  Everyone who comes has the option of having made their own 
"Special" pieces since they all get offered the recipe.  My mom and I don't 
take special orders, however since I was making kits I was able to make some 
special pieces for myself.

Then, on Saturday, everyone comes over and we have a huge night.  My father 
even made "table extendors" for gingerbread, so everyone can be in the same 
room.  This year, my mother (who mans the frosting machine) made over 12 
pounds of construction grade royal icing.

The next rule that everyone has to follow is that everything on the house 
must technically be "edible."  Granted, the gingerbread itself is so nasty 
to eat it'll break a tooth, but it's still edible.  We do make exceptions 
for Foil wrapped candies like santas and such. Those are ok.

Finally, everyone is expected to bring candy.  If you bring something 
"specialized" for your design, then you need to bring extra so if someone 
else wants to use them, they can.  We routinely end up with over 20 pounds 
of candy.

This year, unfortunately, we had a division in the family, so my mom ended 
up hosting 2 different gingerbread nights.  So last weekend, my mom used 
about 12 pounds of frosting and only 6 houses were made.  This coming 
weekend, she'll probably use up the other 6 house kits.

The whole thing is a lot of fun, and it's turning into one of those 
traditions that everyone looks forward to.  It's the first "Christmas" event 
of the year for our famliy, and it's the first day that Christmas music is 
"legally" alllowed to be played in our house!


Geertruyt.
(who is just now coming off the major sugar high that the gingerbread house 
night causes)