Education in Patience

by Jyothi Reddy
(Atlanta, GA)

JR-GB-house

This is the first gingerbread house I have made, and I am happy with the final outcome.
I spent some time thinking through and planning the project. This helped a lot as I had a list to work through - adding and discarding as the project progressed.
The snow-people and interior trim added movement to the house that I wanted.
I learnt many lessons along the way - you can never have enough royal icing; once it's done - leave it alone; gumpaste and royal icing need time to set/dry - let it, after baking the gingerbread pieces and trimming them, place a sheetpan over it with some weights on top - helps keep the pieces flat; roof pieces need to be much wider than the cardboard model -need to cater for the thickness of the walls; add some form of lighting inside if you have interior trim; the chimney was a pain but royal icing hides ...everything well.