Gingerbread House Assembly

The house ready for construction, consisting of;

o The front wall

o The rear wall

o The two side walls (With heart cut outs)

o Two roof slabs

o The front door

o Circular cake board.

o Powdered egg whites

o Icing sugar

Make the Royal Icing

1 sachet of egg white powder (as per packet instructions)

225g Icing sugar

Reconstitute the egg whites using water and leave for 10 minutes.

Whisk the reconstituted egg whites and half of the icing sugar using an electric mixer, beat on high speed to a soft peak foam, or until smooth as you would a meringue.

Add the other half of the Icing sugar and whisk using an electric mixer, beat on high speed until the icing holds stiff peaks. If it doesn't form stiff peaks, add more icing sugar.

The icing should be placed in a bowl or airtight container, to prevent it from drying out. When the icing is not being used keep it covered in this way.

Assemble the house

Personally, I like to pipe basic decorations to the house exterior walls before assembly but it’s a personal choice.

1 Take the house front and apply royal icing to both inside edges to adhere the side walls.

2 Add the side walls. Note these are the smaller rectangles. Make sure that the longer side of the wall is attached to the house.

3 Take the rear wall of the house (the one with the heart shape cut into it). Apply the icing the same way as you applied the front wall and attach to the opposite end of the house. You now should have the house in front of you, without the roof.

4 Allow to dry. This should take about 30 minutes.

5 Make sure that the house is firm enough to apply icing to the angular roof ends of the house, then, attach the two roof pieces, lightly pressing onto the icing to make sure that they are in place, then leave to dry.

6 You should also now be able to attach the front door using the icing.

7 Once dry, liberally apply the icing to the board and place the house centrally to the board.

8 You can now start to decorate how you wish, using sweets, or piping the icing onto the house according to your piping skills. The most important thing is to have fun doing this.

GOOD LUCK

&

MERRY CHRISTMAS