A gingerbread house for Shelter
Christmas is coming and one thing we associate with christmas is a gingerbread house. I have only ever made a gingerbread house once before, to go on my son’s birthday cake. It was a challenge, but I really enjoyed getting creative with it, so when I was contacted by the charity Shelter and asked if I’d like to enter a competition they are running to raise awareness of the charity, by making a gingerbread house, I was very excited!
Shelter have the competition running up until 24th December, so there’s plenty of time to enter. All you have to do is make your gingerbread house and upload a photo to their site, then sell it to help raise funds. Shelter campaigns for housing rights and the fight against homelessness. Every 11 minutes, a family in Britain loses their home. Shelter provides advice and support which includes a free helpline that’s open 365 days a year! It is a great charity that offers help to so many people who need it. If you would like to offer your support, why not visit the donation page here to give whatever you can. Alternatively, you could make your own gingerbread house and enter the competition.
This is how we got creative and had a lot of family fun together making our gingerbread house……
Making the gingerbread
First up, we all got baking the gingerbread. This was very easy, as you basically just throw all the ingredients in together and mix. The children helped with the measuring and mixing. There are recipes to choose from on Shelters site.
Next came the fun part, rolling it and cutting out the shapes from the template we got from Shelter. BB chose the most difficult gingerbread house design (typical, I knew it was a mistake to ask BB to choose), but hey, I’m always up for a challenge, so daddy and BB set to work drawing the templates together.
We all rolled out some gingerbread on greaseproof paper and cut out the pieces of the house. The kids loved this part as it was just like playing with play dough. The pieces were then easily transferred to a baking sheet and baked in the oven. It took a while to bake all the pieces, but that didn’t matter.
Once all the pieces were cut, baked and cooled, we were ready for the tricky part…..building it!
We made the ‘glue’ from egg white and icing sugar, put it in an icing bag and got to work. BB did some gluing, but it was very stiff mixture, so I had to take over after a bit. We built the sides first, let that dry, then added the roof, followed by the porch. We had to be quite patient to let each part dry properly before moving onto the next part, especially as BB chose the design with walls at an angle, not straight down! We used tins to support the pieces whilst they were drying.
We let the house dry fully before attempting my children’s favourite part….the decorating! I bought a large variety of sweets and candy canes to use to decorate. We all had a chat together before we got started, discussing what sweets we could use for the door, windows, roof etc. I loved hearing how creative the children were, using their imaginations and creativity to work out what sweets looked like a door or window etc.
Once we had decided on our basic creation, we got to work. The children told me where they wanted the glue, I piped it on and the kids added their sweets. It really was the whole family’s team work!
I cannot tell you just how much fun my children had decorating this gingerbread house, they were absolutely in their element! It was paradise for them, surrounded by sweets, creating the best, most fun, edible house ever! And if I am honest daddy and I had a fantastic time helping too. It took us literally the whole day to complete, but it was well worth it, as we all had a wonderful day working on a creative project together, at the same time as raising awareness for a great charity Shelter!
Your gingerbread house looks so good! It must have been easier having a template to work with, and all for a good cause.
It is easy to make a gingerbread house, but the sloping wall on this one was very tricky!
wow the house looks amazing and brilliant that it is for charity. lovely pics too. im craving gingerbread now! #LetKidsBeKids
Ooh, go make a house, it’s so much fun
Wow that gingerbread house looks amazing and it looks like it was so much fun building it. What a great cause to be supporting too.
We all had a wonderful time working on it together and all for a good cause
Oh wow, I’m totally impressed. I seriously doubt I’d have the patience to make a house, but maybe I should try
Ah give it a go, try one of the easier ones, it’s not as difficult as you think
That looks amazing. I’ve only tried a ginger bread house once. It kinda looked like the big bag wolf had visited and done some huffing and puffing, but yours looks amazing!
Ooh, if the big bad wolf visited, you could turn it into a three little pigs theme!
Wow! great job everyone!
Having fun and for a good cause.
#LetkidsbeKids
Thank you x
Very impressive! The kids and I made a gingerbread house last year. Bit tricky but we made it eventually – not sure anyone would have bought it though!
I hope you had fun making it, give it another go again this year for Shelter
Fantastic team work! I’m impressed that you made your own gingerbread.x
Thanks, we all worked together making everything from scratch…..good fun x
Great job! A gingerbread house is top of our Christmas baking this year so i m off to Pin this for inspiration next month!
Fab, it is so much fun!
Great house. I struggled making gingerbread men for icing last year as I found the mix really dry having not made it before. Not sure I’d give a house a go!
I actually found this mixture a bit dry, but each piece just before rolling it out I dunked it in a little water and that helped. A house is easier than you think
wow – that look amazing!
#letkidsbekids
Thank you x
That is an amazing looking gingerbread house and for a good cause too, I was given a gingerbread cutter kit last year and we will be making a gingerbread house this year too. #letkidsbekids
Ooh, I hope you have as much fun as we did!