Attention budding architects: Design your dream house, guaranteed ready for immediate enjoyment! Gingerbread may not be the most permanent building material, but it is certainly the most delicious. For many families, baking and decorating such a structure is a treasured holiday tradition. It all begins with a basic foundation of gingerbread sheets. Walls and roof are cut out around a paper pattern, then "glued" together with white royal icing that forms a very tight bond after it dries. Decorations, shutters, trees, and a chimney are created freehand. And you can actually eat it.
Gingerbread contruction has two schools of thought: a simple building, elaborately embellished, or an elaborate structure, simply finished. To get you started, we have designed a charming cottage that is neither fussy nor overly plain. It requires a minimum of pieces and is ready to customize with icing, embossing, and candy of every color. Enlarge the pattern pieces to cut out parts of the cottage, then follow the recipe and steps.
To make the gingerbread cottage, you will need the following ingredients and materials:
One recipe Gingerbread Dough & Icing, peppermint candies, candy canes, sugar cubes, citrus-slice candies, gumdrops, and nonpareils, powdered sugar, food coloring, sugar ice cream cones, plastic or wooden board for a base, parchment paper or brown kraft paper, cardboard, pencil, baking sheet, mixing bowls, mixer, and small bowls, chef’s knife, icing spatula, pastry bag and tips, hors d’oeuvre cutters
Pattern For Long Walls
Cut two for the sides.
Pattern For Roof
Cut two for the roof.
Pattern For Short Walls
Cut two for the end walls.
Cutting Cottage Shapes
Enlarge the patterns shown in the previous steps to full size on parchment paper or brown craft paper. Place 1 portion of dough at a time on the back of a 15x10x1-inch baking sheet or a large cookie sheet. Roll the dough slightly larger than the pattern piece and cut around the pattern with a knife. Slide excess dough away from main section; remove and wrap in plastic. Bake and repeat with each remaining portion of dough.