[Sca-cooks] RE: Gingerbread Challenge

[Elaine Koogler]

Joanne Clyde wrote:

> 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)
>
The folks who ran our local event a couple of weeks ago came up with 
something similar...they had a castle-building competition during the 
feast.  People were provided with sugar cubes, an edible something to 
hold things together, toothpicks, and other assorted candies, etc.  
Different things were given to different tables, so each table was 
allowed to "acquire" whatever they wanted/needed, whether by barter, 
theft or whatever.  It was loads of fun...and everyone had a great 
time.  Some of the results were lovely...and some were hilarious!  And 
the children were going around "filching" stuff from the castles/tables 
after the feast.

Kiri